50 @ 5: Grady program takes 50 students to Cannes Lions in year five

In summer 2014, 50 UGA students spent three weeks in southern France attending the Cannes Lions Festival as part of a unique study abroad program. It is the fifth consecutive year students attended Cannes Lions as part of the UGA program. The study abroad has expanded rapidly since the first group of 14 students attended in 2010.

Students meet Richard Edelman

Speaker highlights and sightings included Bono, David Hasselhoff, Rob Lowe, Courtney Love, and Sir Patrick Stewart among many others. Themes included empowering women in the profession—Facebook’s Susan Sandberg was there, content marketing, and research about Millennials. Students visited the Google Sandbox, and attended interactive Tech Talks, Forums, Workshops, and Master Classes. Over 60 seminars featuring the world’s most influential marketers and media executives from Facebook, Twitter, Proctor & Gamble, Heineken, BBDO, and Saatchi and Saatchi, among many others.

Exclusive Guest Speakers
This year’s special guests included an exclusive set of professionals who shared their insights directly with the students. They included:

• Gale Anne Hurd, Executive Producer, Walking Dead
• Armando Iannucci, Series Creator, Veep
• Suzy Deering, CEO, Moxie
• Brian Wong, CEO, Kiip
• Fred Cook and Ellen Ryan Mardiks, Golin

Students in the program mixed and mingled with leaders in the brand, media and agency business. Several students were offered internships or positions while attending the festival.

Highlights
Similar to previous years, highlights included yacht parties, scuba excursions, and day trips to Nice, Antibes, Eze and Monaco. Two students groups won “Canned” lions for their class-centered campaigns for forthcoming Netflix Original Series developed during the program.

Hanging with Pinterest's Ben Silbermann

Health Lions
Special this year, students attended the first ever Health Lions held two days before Cannes Lions. Students met David Nutter, Game of Thrones director. They also heard about the promise new life-saving innovations and practices in healthcare marketing. And they were moved by amazing work employed by India’s Lifebuoy (Unilever) team.

UGA Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Dr. Jeff Springston participated in this year’s program. He taught a special about health communication and previewed Health Lions for the students.

Cannes Lions Study Abroad Program

Students earn six hours of upper-level academic credit from the University of Georgia. Although most of this year’s 50 students attend UGA, the program is open to students from any accredited university.

"Game of Thrones" director David Nutter

The program is co-directed by Drs. Tom Reichert and Nate Kohn, professors in UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Students interested in next year’s program are encouraged to visit the website for information about deadlines and the application process (or contact Kelly Meyer: kellym22@uga.edu for program details).