A quick confession before the list. This is my first Cannes Lions. I have not done the Croisette before, so none of what follows comes from years of war stories on the beach. What it is instead is research, done properly, so you do not have to do it yourself. I have been through the whole programme and pulled out the part that matters: the sessions actually worth your time if you work in social.
Cannes Lions runs from 22 to 26 June 2026 at the Palais des Festivals. The official programme is enormous, with more than 150 hours of content and around 500 speakers, so treat this as a filter. If your job touches social, content, community or the creator economy, these are the talks, stages and beach takeovers worth your time.
One note before the list. Times and rooms move. Save your shortlist in the official Cannes Lions app on the day, and build in travel time between the Palais and the beaches.
If you only catch five
- Discovery vs Belief (Tuesday). LinkedIn, Reddit and Unilever on whether being seen still beats being believed.
- The LIONS Creators beach (all week). The creator economy's actual home at Cannes.
- Mel Robbins (Tuesday). How one person turns social posts into a media business.
- LIONS B2B (Tuesday). A full day on the business of marketing, in partnership with LinkedIn.
- The Friday wrap-up. The first proper read on what the whole week meant.
Monday 22 June
From Creator to CEO: building scalable brands with AI 16:30, Creators Stage. Steven Bartlett (Diary of a CEO) with Adobe's David Wadhwani. Bartlett is one of the few people who has turned a personal audience into a genuine business portfolio. Useful if you are thinking about how social talent scales into something bigger, and where AI sits in that.
Tuesday 23 June
This is the big day for social.
Advertising in the age of AI 11:15, Debussy Theatre. Denise Dresser, Chief Revenue Officer, OpenAI. One of the rare sessions where an AI company talks about money and industry structure rather than features. Go if you are trying to work out what AI actually does to social budgets.
The anatomy of an icon 13:45, Rotonde Stage. Aude Gandon (Estee Lauder) and Nicola Mendelsohn (Meta). A look at why some ideas last, using AI to pull them apart. Relevant if your work lives or dies on what travels.
How Mel Robbins turns ideas into movements 16:15, Creators Stage. Mel Robbins. Less theory, more method. How she tests ideas in social posts, turns everyday observation into content that spreads, and handles brand partnerships. This is the practitioner's version of influence.
Discovery vs belief: where does brand power really sit today? 16:45, Rotonde Stage. Richard Edelman, Dan Roth (LinkedIn), Jim Squires (Reddit), Tati Lindenberg (Unilever). Platforms decide what gets seen. Communities decide what it means. This panel sits right on the line social marketers walk every day, and it draws on Edelman's latest trust data.
Also on Tuesday: LIONS B2B A one-day summit in partnership with LinkedIn, including its CMO Jessica Jensen and ServiceNow's Colin Fleming. If you run social for a B2B brand, this is your day.
Wednesday 24 June
Our world of contradictions: the creative and populace divide 13:45, Rotonde Stage. Mark Penn (Stagwell), Craig Brommers (American Eagle). The gap between how the industry sees its work and how normal people actually receive it. A healthy reality check for anyone who lives inside the feed.
The future of creativity with Demis Hassabis 14:30, Lumiere Theatre. Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind. Big picture rather than social specific, but the person setting the pace on AI is worth hearing in the room.
From franchise to frenzy: the global fandom engine 15:30, Debussy Theatre. Talent from NBCUniversal. How entertainment brands build and hold fandoms across markets. Read it as a lesson in community at scale.
Creativity over clicks: reclaiming retail media for brand building 16:45, The Forum, Rotonde. Ipsos and Mars. Retail media is now a huge channel and mostly a creative wasteland. If social and commerce overlap in your role, this is the argument to follow.
Wednesday evening is the Social and Creator Awards night, and LIONS Creators runs an awards watch party on the beach.
Thursday 25 June
Stop working in advertising: to engage you need to entertain 11:15, Debussy Theatre. Sir John Hegarty, BBH. Hegarty's argument is worth hearing if you have ever been asked to make something go viral. Entertainment has been pushed aside for metrics, and he thinks that is a mistake.
Creativity has to strike back 15:15, Rotonde Stage. Fernando Machado. The marketer behind some of the boldest brand work of the last decade on why ambition has quietly drained out of the work.
Friday 26 June
Future Gazers: the trends defining the next 18 months 12:30, The Forum, Rotonde. A fast read on what is coming, which is useful planning fuel for the back half of the year.
The Cannes Lions wrap-up Friday. A new onstage version of the festival's annual wrap report, pulling together the biggest trends and talking points from the week. If you can only stay for one Friday session, make it this.
The creator economy track: LIONS Creators
In partnership with Adobe, LIONS Creators has its own beach space at Palais Beach with a stage, content studio and editing suite, and it runs all week. This is where the creator economy actually gathers at Cannes. Confirmed names include Dhar Mann, who appears with Shopify's Jessica Williams and Gap's Fabiola Tores on building billion-view content ecosystems, plus Hannah Stocking, Max Klymenko and leaders from TikTok, Twitch, DoorDash and Mastercard. If you hold a creator pass, treat this as your home base.
Off the main stage: the fringe worth knowing
Some of the most useful conversations happen away from the Palais. Worth a look:
- TikTok Garden
- Pinterest Manifestival, running all week
- LinkedIn Rooftop
- Canva Creative Cabana
- Spotify Beach
- The Female Quotient, FQ Beach
- Adobe x LIONS Creators Beach
How to actually do Cannes if you work in social
- Pick three sessions a day, no more. Most of the value is in the conversations between them.
- Book your meetings before you land. "Let's find time out there" rarely survives the Croisette.
- The beaches and fringe spaces are where relationships and deals happen. The Palais is where the signals get set.
- Capture as you go. A voice note straight after a session is worth more than a tidy write up you never finish.
I will be there, so come and say hello
I am at Cannes from Wednesday to Friday, covering it for The Sauce, and since it is my first time I am especially keen to meet other people who work in social media marketing. Part of what I am doing out there feeds The Sauce's Career Ladder, our ongoing picture of what a career in social actually looks like, and the more real voices in it the better. So if you work in social and you are on the ground, I would love to talk. Come and find me, or get in touch before we land.