France

Cannes has long been known as the top European destination for celebrities – but it’s not just for film stars. Each year, the best of media, marketing and advertising industries take over the city for five days.

Yes, the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has begun.

Back in 1954, as a consequence of the Cannes Film Festival’s impact, a group of film advertising contractors started their own awards event, driven by the need for recognition that the industry felt at that time, while in the shadows of the flashy film industry.

Originally titled “International Advertising Film Festival,” Cannes Lions hopped between Venice, Monte Carlo and Cannes, before making the latter its permanent address in 1984.

Since the early 1990’s the festival has been trying to keep up with the high metabolism of the advertising industry, not just by increasing the number of prizes and competition categories, but also scaling up the scope of their conferences and seminars with an ever-increasing and diverse panel of experts ranging from healthcare to sustainability or innovation fields.

Known in the industry as the the ‘Oscars of advertising,’ the coveted golden lion prize is something that every creative wants to add to their portfolio; but in the meantime, the festival has become more and more popular for providing media professionals and talent with sweet opportunities to network and keep their creative juices flowing. For many, the week-long experience of the festival is considered as important – if not more – than the awards.

The Cannes Lions Festival, as we know it today, has put Cannes on the annual agenda of tech companies, media outlets, advertising consultancies, influencers and brands as the “Be there or be square” location.

By 2018, the festival registered over 16,000 attendees, 1,000 speakers and 4,700 companies. Among those companies were 22 of the world’s 25 biggest brands ranked by marketing expenditures and budget. However, competition-wise, the event saw the total number of competition entries go south to 32,372 compared to over 40,000 the year before.

Philip Thomas, CEO of Ascential Events (the parent company of the festival), addressed that fact commenting: “Last year we made the decision to press the reset button on Cannes Lions. We closed three big Lion awards, and removed and combined many sub-categories. We did it knowing that this would mean a smaller volume of entries, but it was the right decision for the long term.”

On the bright side, the volume of work submitted by brands and media owners raised around 84% and 59%, respectively, in 2018.

For the 2019 edition, taking place from 17-21 June, there will be five days of industry insights, meetings and inspirational talks from are more than 600 first-class speakers like Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook, actors Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum and hundreds of marketing and creative directors from the top companies in the world. And, obviously, everyone is anxious to see who will be awarded as creative minds of the year with 27 possible statues.

www.canneslions.com

-RF

BUSINESS & FINANCE

By Irene Hell

Royalty and billionaires will once again meet in Monte Carlo for the 9th Global Family Office Summit next week. Riviera Insider discovers how Anthony Ritossa, the summit’s founder is revitalizing the myth of the French Riviera as a hub and a hideaway of the rich, royal and powerful.

“Anthony Ritossa has raised the bar again,” observes Giuseppe Ambrosio, President of the Monaco Single and Multi-Family Office Association. The upcoming 9th Global Family Office Investment Summit from 18-20 June 2019 at the Fairmont Monte Carlo Hotel might well be one of the world’s largest and most exclusive gatherings of family wealth.

Under the High Patronage of SAS Prince Albert II, the theme of the upcoming event is “The Rise & Rise of Family Offices”. By invitation only and strictly private, more than 450 ‘family offices,’ conglomerate owners, Sheikhs, royal families, private investors, business moguls, sovereign wealth funds and industry professionals from around the globe are scheduled to attend.

Representing over $4 trillion in investor wealth, the upcoming Ritossa Family Office meeting in Monte Carlo is revitalizing the myth of the French Riviera as a hub for the super-rich.

Between like-minded peers in a safe-harbour environment, the summit will bridge interests and activities between European families and their Middle East, U.S., Asian and Latin American counterparts.

Hosted by the Ritossa Family Office, a prestigious family business dating back 600 years to the era of the Venetian Empire and with deep roots into Europe and the Middle East, Anthony Ritossa operates on high standards.

Investment-minded blue-bloods, including SAR Le Prince Michel de Yougoslavie, will join the summit next week. “The summit is a good mix of families, of products and services. This sharing of current activities and future trends is very important,” recommends Prince Michel.

For generations, Hadi Al Alawi, the Chairman and CEO of the Al Hayat Group in Bahrain and his family have been combining doing well with doing good.

Now Al Alawi teams up with the Vision Peace Foundation Germany. In Monaco, both will announce a global peace project called WORLD TOUR for PEACE by David Wared.

A peace plane with more than 100 people will visit 100 countries across all continents and organise 100 peace congresses and ignite 100 cities of peace.

Al Alawi will also speak about the best practice to pass on the family business to the next generation. Other topics of the conference will be lucrative new markets. Investors will get exclusive insides in current megatrends, geopolitical risks, economic challenges as well as crypto capital markets.

Khudairi worked alongside Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, as a member of the World Wide Web Consortium executive team at MIT. Sally Khudairi, the spokesperson of the Apache Software community, which created open source technology worth billions of dollars, is now launching blockchain innovations through her latest venture, OptDyn.

OptDyn just developed the world’s first cryptocurrency mining router and provides products and solutions in billion-dollar sectors that include Cloud Computing and peer economy marketplaces.

Honouring Prince Albert II

The Family Office Lifetime Achievement award in Strategic Philanthropy will be awarded to Prince Albert II of Monaco. Bernard Fautrier, Vice President and CEO of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation will address our planet’s alarming environmental situation.

Major Family Office Meetings such as The Ritossa Summits which take place in Monaco, Dubai and Miami have become investment powerhouses, capable of competing with global banks and private-equity firms on big transactions, observes The Economist. The leading business magazine describes them as “an essential part of every self-respecting billionaire’s stable.”

SPONSORED 

The Domaines de Saint-Endréol is located in the heart of lush Provençal nature, surrounded by forests and mountain ranges of red ochre rock and not far from the pretty village of La Motte-en-Provence (Var). Famous for its golf course, which is situated in a green, dreamlike setting and with an exciting design, Les Domaines de Saint-Endréol is currently building a new residential complex of twelve apartments.

Located in the countryside of the Côte d’Azur, these homes will offer their customers residential real estate in a secure and luxuriously furnished complex. The bright two- and three-room apartments are located in three separate cottages. All of the generously proportioned apartments have a terrace or balcony with south-west orientation. The modern interior not only contains high-quality materials (such as large-format tiles, large bathtub, fully equipped American kitchen…) but also has the green qualities of a low-energy house (heat pump, acoustic insulation, etc.). On request, the apartments can be furnished and ready for occupancy – in consultation between the customer and their interior architect.

In addition to access to the year-round 18-hole golf course and the 2,000 square-metre spa area, residents of the new hamlet “Le Riou” have access to a large outdoor pool with panoramic views, two tennis courts and, of course, the Clubhouse and restaurant in a magnificent setting, serving fresh and refined cuisine.

Domaine de St Endréol is not only for passionate golfers but you can also enjoy life far away from the hustle and bustle of the coast, which is less than 30 minutes away.

Prices starting from 326,000 Euro.

Contact:

Elisabeth Lutz
Tel. +33 (0)4 94 51 89 93
e.lutz@st-endreol.com

www.st-endreolimmobilier.com 
www.st-endreol.com

COMPETITION

The Diacosmie in Nice-West, between the airport and the new football stadium, produces all of the sets and costumes of the Nice opera: The ballet ensemble trains here, the orchestra rehearses, the actors do dress rehearsal…but above all, carpenters, technicians and tailors work on everything necessary for a stage performance.

Sets have been made here in the 22,000 square meter building since 1987. 

Riviera Press is honoured to have an exclusive tour of the premises on Tuesday, 25 June at 7 pm and we are inviting a few subscribers to join us!

If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail with the subject “Diacosmie – RI” and your email address to secretariat@riviera-press.fr . Closing date is the upcoming Tuesday, June 18, 2019.

The tour lasts about 90 minutes; If you like, you can join us for a cocktail on the terrace of the Nice opera in the old town from 9.30 pm (transportation not provided).

Good luck!