The Lions Innovation start-up package, brand new to the line-up, is a potent combination of inspiration and capitalisation and gathers creative luminaries who bring ideas to life.

“Lions Innovation brings together marketers, storytellers and start-ups to facilitate collaboration that will shape the industry’s future. It allows these specialised groups to connect and do business,” explains Tshireletso Yvonne Diogo, marketing manager & account executive from Cinemark, the official Cannes Lions representative for South Africa.

“It’s an opportunity for South Africans with young and innovative businesses since it allows such companies to access the festival. With ground-breaking tech increasingly becoming key to some of the most celebrated and successful businesses globally, Lions Innovation has identified that start-ups are an integral part of the communications ecosystem and the lifeblood of this Festival.”

The start-up package is a tailored bundle for tech entrepreneurs who want to be part of Cannes Lions, allowing them to network, discover and pitch their products to the high-value audience. The main attraction of a delegate pass is a demo pod to display their company in a purpose-built ‘Start-up Village’.

The delegate pass costs €750 (R12,677) and includes:

• A Lions Innovation delegate pass, providing access to two days of talks, workshops and demonstrations

• Admittance to the awards show, where winners from the Innovation, Creative Data, Mobile, Media and Cyber Lions are announced in addition to the after party
• Access to daily, organised start-up meetups
• A pod in the new Start-up Village, to demo and pitch your tech (one day, one per company)

• Access to the Cannes Lions Beach for the duration of Lions Innovation

The deadline to register is 30 April 2016 and passes are limited. For more information, go to www.canneslions.com.