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Taking place at Cannes from 17-18 June 2017, the best in global healthcare and pharma communications will be honoured at the Lions Health Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 17 June.

Executive festival director of Lions Health, Louise Benson, commented, “Lions Health has grown into the must-attend event for healthcare creatives and marketers globally and it continues to flourish year-on-year. We’re delighted to announce such an exciting, progressive content programme this year, which will set the direction for the future of industry communications.”

Speaker highlights

• Sci-fi artist and body architect, Lucy McRae joins Havas Health & You to discuss how art and science disciplines are converging to innovate healthcare.
• Jean-Marie Dru addresses disruptive innovation in healthcare and considers new approaches to create urgently needed change in today’s industry.
• The genomic revolution transforming the future of medicine is the theme for Illumina’s senior VP and EMEA GM Paula Dowdy and iVentures Health who will explore how genomics could revolutionise healthcare communications.
• Biogen’s Shwen Gwee, alongside Langland, will share principles from MIT's medicine hackathon playbook on how to develop creative ideas for healthcare.
• Shwen Gwee will also participate in Sunday’s Shakers & Stirrers session on the Cannes Lions Beach.

Further highlights

• The MedTech Expo returns for a second year. Sponsored by Omnicom Health Group, and showcasing next-gen technologies transforming healthcare globally, the exhibitors are announced as: Twitter, Google, IBM Watson, Control Bionics, GMR Marketing, Sensely and Omnicom Health Group Data Is Delicious.
• The Lightning Talks take place on the Health in Action Stage. These short 10 minute talks from the MedTech Expo exhibitors will bring attendees up to speed with next-gen products.

New Unconference Sessions

Attendees are invited to join four think tank sessions. Before coming along, they can write down discussion points on the Unconference Zone whiteboards, led by graphic facilitation firm ImageThink, to feed in their ideas, live in person. The four sessions are:
• The Future – responding to questions such as “Is our industry prepared for the future of healthcare communications?”
• Brand Reputation – asks for candid viewpoints around reputational risk and corporate image
• Talent – exploring the role of creatives in the new era of cognitive machines
• Digital Disruption – examining how to drive the best ideas and build the right skillset for tomorrow’s creative teams.

New for 2017, The Health Marketers Accelerator Programme recognises that for marketers today, creativity is an essential business tool. This specially designed programme is free-to-attend for marketers coming to Lions Health. It is designed to help client-side marketers get the most out of the event, guiding them through winning work, summarising information from the stages and demonstrating how they can be applied. Registration is available here.