These 12 Women Will Go to Cannes In An Effort to Change the Imbalance of Women Working in Creative

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is launching a new initiative that invites 12 women to Cannes Lions for a special program and filmmaking project.

See It Be It is a program that aims to further women's careers in the creative industry, encouraging them to stay in the industry. Across three days, 12 women will be part of an inspirational and educational program which will take place during Cannes Lions. The agenda will include guided access to the jury rooms, meet and greets with VIP speakers, dedicated sessions by industry leaders and by the Berlin School of Creative Leadership, and a mentorship event supported by SheSays.

Post-Cannes, participants are provided with a toolkit that allows them to pass on their learnings to other women in their networks. The Festival will also work with the group to produce a short documentary about how a more gender-balanced creative industry ensures better work. The film will be produced by Weber Shandwick and will be released in the summer. "We're proud to be part of what is an important moment for our industry and a powerful experience for this impressive group of women. Our hope is that we can begin to help tackle a critically important issue in a personal and inspiring way," says Gail Heimann, President of Weber Shandwick.

With numerous sources stating upwards of 80% of purchasing decisions are made by women, marketers would be wise to demand more female creative talent to work on their brands. Not that a man can't create an ad targeted to women but still. Analysis carried out by Cannes Lions has found that 15% of delegates under the age of 28 are female and in creative jobs, compared to just 4% of delegates over the age of 28. This closely matches the 3% statistic of female creative directors worldwide.

See It Be It will run from Sunday 15 June to Tuesday 17 June in Cannes. The participants have been chosen from nominations put forward by agency leaders. The women are:

Nivedita Agashe, Copywriter at Taproot Mumbai; Juliana Ardila, Art Director at Leo Burnett Dubai; Biba Cabuquit, Associate Creative Director at DM9JaymeSyfu Manila; Celeste Dalairac, Creative Director at Del Campo Saatchi Buenos Aires; Stefanie DiGianvincenzo, Associate Creative Director at Wunderman London; Jenna Livingston, Copy Director at R/GA NYC; Erica Pressly, Senior Copywriter at Barbarian Group New York; Cheyney Robinson, Creative Director at SapientNitro London; Jem Robinson, Design Director at AllofUs London; Ulrike Schumann, Creative Director at Serviceplan Zürich; Angie Sun, Creative Executive at CAA Marketing Los Angeles; and Melo Xu, Creative Director at JWT Shanghai.