June 14, 2007, 12:16 pm : Cannes Cyber Jury – Day 2

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Thurs 14 June – Cannes – Tom Eslinger

Today is the first day of judging, beginning with a briefing for the judges and a some guidance from me on what to look for and where I feel we need to go: find the big, game-changing ideas and aim for a high, Cannes-worthy standard for Cyber and the rest of the Festival, too. I’m keen to get everyone working as fast as possible, so we move into the judging room, got behind our computers and got clicking. This is when reality sets in – with a record high number of entries, we have a huge amount of work ahead, each of us judging over 500 entries in four days. The first day has a slow start – some of the jury have been on planes up to 20 hours and the empty coffee pots prove this point. It’s a little hard to get to know people when you spend the whole day with headphones on looking at the screen, but the feeling in the room is warm, and not just from the lack of air conditioning. I looked around at lunch at this really interesting group of people and I feel like I’m in a cool, smart graduate school exchange programme in the south of France. Well, I guess I am. And the final exam is just around the corner.

June 13, 2007, 11:53 am : Cannes Cyber Jury – Day 1

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Weds 13 June – Cannes – Tom Eslinger

I arrived in Nice early this morning after a surprisingly non-grueling flight from across the planet. Folks on the plane were quiet, no noisy babies and I finally got to see ‘Ghost Rider’ – all was right with the world. My seat-mate was a nice enough guy, worked in the ‘medical imaging field’ (didn’t ask, just nodded). He asked what I did and I told him I was a creative director, on my way to the Cannes Advertising Festival – this is where the confusion began. I had to explain that no, I didn’t make movies, had never met Bruce Willis and that I actually worked on all of the interactive and mobile advertising for our company. Blank. Stare. From. Him. I gave him a couple of examples of work I’d done, but gave up when I caught a glimpse of Nicolas Cages’ flaming skull on the screen. This made me think about the Festival and being part of the Cyber Jury again this year. When I was first on the Cyber Jury in 2002, I was having the same conversation with folks, but it was with people that were actually attending the Festival, working in advertising. I’ve just returned from our first dinner as the full Cyber jury and the buzz is good, people are excited and interactive has matured – quickly – into a highly anticipated, well subscribed (entries are up again this year) part of the Festival – how things change. And the judging starts in 8 hours….