After much build-up and a couple of heart-stopping late technical hitches, last week’s live digital scribe at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival was judged a success. In 45 minutes, Richard Pinder of Publicis Worldwide and Paul Kemp-Robertson and Jess Greenwood of Contagious explored the ways that smart brands are igniting, owning, confronting and subverting the conversations they are having with their customers. Emphasising engagement over reach, and conversation over the traditional ad campaign, they showcased some ingenious examples of brand as talking point.

What did all that mean for me? A frenetic 45 minutes of scribbling basically! Obviously, I’d had some time to plan the content, which helped enormously, and I think I just about managed to cover each case study in real time. But I was glad to have the opportunity to put a few more hours in after the event to enrich the content and refine the drawing. Hopefully, the final result does justice to a fun, engaging and thought-provoking seminar. Big thanks to Richard, Paul and especially Jess for their support and confidence in the value that scribing can bring to the conversation.