When I thought about Cannes before arriving, I imagined the people on stage. The legendary speakers. The award winners. The people everyone had come to see.

Four days in, I realised my favourite people were everywhere else.

They were the ones who made the festival feel alive.

The morning bus ride

We stayed in Mandelieu, about a 40-minute bus ride from the Palais.

What I thought would be just another commute quickly became my favourite part of the day. Every bus was filled with Cannes badges, coffee cups and conversations. One creative was constantly refreshing the shortlist announcements, hoping to see their agency’s name. A student spoke about how attending Cannes was a dream and that one day he wanted to come back with work of his own. Others were trying to solve the impossible puzzle of fitting five amazing sessions into three available time slots.
By the time we reached the Palais, the festival had already begun.

Your first coffee of the day

If the Palais hosted the sessions, the cafés hosted the real conversations.

Every coffee shop felt like an unofficial extension of Cannes. Speakers grabbing a quick espresso before heading on stage. Agency teams debating which session to skip. Creatives discussing work they had just seen. Clients planning their day. AI, creativity, effectiveness and bold ideas were all discussed before 10 in the morning.

The coffee was good.

The conversations were even better.

That security guy

I almost missed one of my favourite sessions. Not because I was late, but because the queue for Oprah’s session seemed endless. By the time I reached the entrance, the room was full. I looked at the security guard with what was probably a very hopeful expression.

He smiled, paused for a second and said, “Okay… last one.”

He probably forgot that interaction five minutes later. I won’t.

That Malaysian boy

I met a young creative from Malaysia who had just been selected as part of the shortlist jury. You could see the excitement in his eyes. Not because it was another achievement to add to his résumé, but because this was something he had dreamt about for years.

Sometimes Cannes is about winning. 

Sometimes it’s simply about finally being here.

That client

There was a certain kind of attendee you could easily spot. The client taking notes.

The one nodding every time a speaker spoke about bravery, backing bold ideas or trusting creativity.I have a feeling that somewhere, a campaign will exist next year because someone attended Cannes this year and went back just a little braver.

The yacht invitation

One evening, someone saw the three of us smiling and simply walked over to say hello.

A few minutes later, we were invited to a yacht party. No introductions. No awkward networking. Just curiosity. For an industry that talks so much about building connections, this felt like the most genuine one.

Fifteen minutes of football

Step outside the Palais and you would expect conversations about Grand Prix winners and the evening’s awards. Instead, there was a crowd gathered around a screen watching France play.

For 15 minutes, nobody outside the Palais was talking about Cannes. Everyone was talking about football. I stood there with a margherita pizza in one hand, cheering with complete strangers.

One of my favourite memories from Cannes wasn’t inside the Palais at all.

When someone asks me what I’ll remember most about Cannes, I probably won’t mention a keynote.

I’ll remember a morning bus ride. A coffee conversation. A kind security guard. A young creative chasing a dream. A client who might go home a little bolder. A stranger who invited us onto a yacht. And fifteen minutes of football outside the Palais.

Cannes gave me plenty of ideas. But it was the people who gave me the stories.

The author is co-founder, Social Panga.