Participants in See It Be It Programme Confirmed

The initiative was launched in 2014 when Festival organisers identified a dramatic gender imbalance in its audience of middle and senior level creatives, reflecting the low numbers of women in upper levels of the industry globally. Fewer women involved in the creation process resulted in more gender biased work, which perpetuated a cycle of objectification and maintained the low levels of female Creative Directors, which at the time was around 3%.

“See It Be It was launched to highlight extremely talented creative women and accelerate their careers. This year’s group come from all over the world and bring a wide range of experiences and strong leadership potential. They will be exposed to the best inspiration Cannes Lions has to offer with exclusive mentoring sessions, workshops and a programme of events designed to extend and enhance their network”, said Louise Benson, Executive Festival Director, Lions Health, Lions Entertainment and eurobest and Executive Lead, See It Be It. “It’s fitting that so many of our alumni have gone on to achieve fantastic success and having them involved in creating a shortlist from all of the applications this year truly enhanced the intense selection process. This community of women have gone on to become powerful role models for the next generation and we look forward to meeting this year’s group, ” she continued.

The group will attend Cannes Lions as special guests of the Festival with travel, accommodation and a Complete Festival pass provided. The dedicated programme includes specially designed creative masterclasses and workshops, an insider tour of the jury room, one-to-one mentoring with some of the industry’s biggest names and exclusive networking events.

The 2017 See It Be It participants are:

  • Adebola Adegbulugbe, Copy Group Head, Insight Publicis, Nigeria
  • Atiya Zaidi, Executive Creative Director, Synergy Dentsu, Pakistan
  • Barbara Dzikanowice, Creative Content Director, Happiness (an FCB alliance), Belgium
  • Deborah Vasques Soares, Senior Copywriter, Lew’Lara\TBWA, Brazil
  • Hannah Johnson, Creative Concept / Copywriter, LA RED GmbH, Germany
  • Jaki Jo Hannan, Senior Art Producer, AMV BBDO, UK
  • Kara Coyle, Associate Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, USA
  • Lizi Hamer, Regional Creative Diretor, Octagon, Singapore
  • Maria Milusheva, Creative Director, Noble Graphics TBWA, Bulgaria
  • Marla Natoli, Director, Video and Mobile, AOL Canada
  • Sakshi Choudhary, Creative Supervisor, OgilvyOne Worldwide, Mumbai, India
  • Satoko Takada, Creative Director, McCann Tokyo, Japan
  • Shahnaz Ahmed, Senior Graphic Designer, Livity / Founder & Director, Knit Aid, UK
  • Shannon Crowe, Copywriter / Creative Freelance, Australia
  • Tahirah Edwards-Byfield , Senior Copywriter, AKQA, USA

“The talented and confident 15 women that were chosen for this year’s Cannes Lion See It Be It programme represent various creative positions inside and out of agencies, large and small. They are also leaders who are actively effecting change in their communities. One of our goals this year will be to creatively strategise a format for past and present See It, Be It participants to become a trusted support system for creative women globally. I am so honoured and excited to get to know all of these remarkable women,” said Madonna Badger, the 2017 See It Be It Ambassador.
Gender diversity remains a key priority for Cannes Lions with 43% women represented across all of this year’s juries and new criteria to encourage these jurors to reconsider work that reflects gender bias or objectification. Onsite at the Festival the Cannes Lions Night School will host an open evening on Monday, 19 June 2017 in the Cannes Lions School Campus for all female delegates to meet female leaders from across the industry and offers a chance to network and engage in mentoring.

The World Branding Forum is an official media partner of Cannes Lions.

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