Cannes 2026

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I spent last week in the French Riviera at Cannes Lions. It was, once again, one of the most fun and productive weeks in recent memory.

Last year there was a bit of a learning curve as it was our first time there. This time around, we came in so much better prepared and punched way above our weight.

It’s sort of difficult to describe what it’s like to be on the ground at Cannes (besides incredibly hot). The caliber and density of people and talent, the spontaneity, the access, and the over-the-top events all come together to create something unlike any other business event I’ve ever been a part of.

And while it’s difficult to describe, I’ll do my best for those who weren’t in attendance. Here’s a full recap of my week (with lots of photos):

As a Cannes second-timer, I knew that Sunday night was going to be the only night I got enough sleep to work out in the morning before meetings. So work out at the villa I did.

First stop of the day: The Wall Street Journal House. I recorded an interview that made its way to the WSJ homepage the next day.

We dropped by Adweek and Female Quotient to connect and say hi to some people. Then I ran back to a shared apartment we had by the Croisette to record an interview for the Martech Record podcast.

After that podcast recording, I ran across Cannes to record another podcast with Kaya at Scaleable.

I joined Alex Heath, CatGPT, and Casey Lewis on a panel at Yahoo! Beach which was really fun to be a part of.

After the panel I had an hour to kill before a dinner hosted by Feed Me’s Emily Sundberg back at Yahoo! Beach… so I found some air conditioning in a hotel lobby and caught up on emails and Slack in peace.

Snapchat was hosting their party Monday night with J Balvin as the guest performer. We were told to show up by 10pm at the latest if we wanted to get in.

It was 9:45pm and the only thing that had been served at Emily’s dinner was the tuna tartar appetizer. Faced with my first big decision of the week: stick around for the first meal of the day or book it across the Croisette to the Snapchat party.

Being CEO is all about making difficult decisions under pressure.

We got back to the villa around 1am. It turns out that eating nothing but Adderall all day has some consequences — Dan and I were up til 3am working and planning things.

4 meetings, 3 podcast interviews, a panel, workout, dinner and a concert… and somehow we have 4 more days ahead.

I was supposed to attend a 9am breakfast but opted for 7 hours of sleep instead (veteran move). I met a few people from the beehiiv team for a quick bite before heading over to Adobe’s Creator Beach to record a podcast with Gigi Robinson.

After, we had a panel with Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare, to announce our partnership with them.

This announcement was a huge deal, and was picked up by over 60 outlets. We had been sprinting so we could launch it while we were at Cannes.

One of the coolest things about Cannes is that all of the companies who have a presence there send a bunch of important people to take meetings at their activations. Me and our CMO, Darren, had a meeting at Canva Beach with their team to discuss some partnership opportunities.

After, we headed to Cloudflare’s happy hour, followed by a happy hour that we co-hosted with The Rebooting, followed by me dropping by 3CV Beach to hang out with some of the early Morning Brew team.

I attended a dinner with the cofounders of Cameo, Linktree, and Calm at probably the loudest restaurant in all of Cannes, then dropped by the Female Quotient party cohosted by Russell Wilson and Ciara before calling it a night.

Kicked off with me on a panel at Adweek talking about brand desirability.

I grabbed breakfast with the LinkedIn team to discuss our latest partnership that we launched the previous week.

Up next: second panel of the day. We hosted an intimate one moderated by Oliver Darcy. Then I met with Steven Bartlett for an hour to discuss everything from company building to creator economy and more.

I joined the AI Download podcast with Shira Lazar and Jenny Stojkovic, hosted at a custom studio at LinkedIn’s activation.

Afterwards, we swung over to the Carlton to meet up with one of our investors, Caspar. Then took a meeting with some leaders on the Spotify Podcasts team (which btw, we just launched an awesome integration with Spotify last week).

I attended an amazing dinner at Zuma Beach rooftop with tons of media people. This felt like my first genuine sit-down meal of the week where I wasn’t just rushing to the next thing. Better late than never.

Next stop: Yahoo! party with Tiësto. That was actually just a good ol’ fashioned party… vibes were high.

Then we hit afters at this villa up in the hills cohosted by Signals, JT Barnett, and Stan. I tapped out around 3am but there were still some soldiers out there sending it later into the night 🫡.

Was a bit of a slower morning. My first meeting was with Jordyn Holman from the New York Times to chat about beehiiv and what we’re seeing on the ground.

Then I recorded a podcast with Dylan Conroy, had a few other meetings throughout the day, and ended up back at the Carlton to have dinner with Maggie Sellers.

Btw if you also want a “future nepo baby parent” t-shirt, she’s selling them here.

We joined a friend’s table who had a minimum spend, so we helped contribute the best way I know how.

Our friends at Smooth were cohosting an event at COLLINS house that we dropped by for a few hours after dinner. We had ambitions to hit a few other parties but ended up calling it to prepare for the long day ahead.

Last year at Cannes, we hosted a villa party and invited all of the most important people that we wanted to spend more time with. This year, we opted to rent a yacht to St. Tropez and do something just a little more exclusive and extravagant.

We ended up with an amazing guest list and got to spend a lot of quality time together on the boat… and at Bagatelle.

During lunch vs after lunch:

That week felt like a lifetime.

The beauty of Cannes: we were waiting in line at the Snapchat party, our COO runs into an old friend from undergrad who now works for company X. We set up a meeting with the Chief Commercial Officer of company X the next day, and are now scoping an integration and partnership with them.

Where else does that happen?

Anyway, I’m off to my first vacation in 4 years: St. Tropez, Mallorca, Ibiza. Catch you next week ✌.

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