Essential reading ahead of Cannes Lions 2017! - 12 Jun 2017

The 64th annual Cannes Lions' International Festival of Creativity takes place from 17 to 24 June, covering all aspects of creative communications. Our roving reporter Ann Nurock will provide exclusive coverage on the ground, so keep an eye on our Cannes Lions special section as well as our social media feeds throughout. As exclusive online media partner in collaboration with Cinemark, we'll also be hosting our Case Studies from Cannes round-up of key industry themes, winners and trends in Cape Town and Gauteng, with three of this year's South African Cannes Lions' jury chairs also set to share their feedback at the presentations. Keep an eye out for your exclusive invitation.

To get you in the spirit, I chatted to one of my favourite interviewees - FCB Global CCO Susan Credle - about her post-One Show Creative Week feedback. With international award season in full swing, this is obviously a time of celebrating work that makes an impact, but it's also a good time to reflect on the industry as a whole and network with big players from around the globe to understand the true state of creativity.

As its #YouthMonth, Juanita Pienaar chats Safaraaz Sindhi, who won the Cinemark Young Lions competition in 2015 with Hanro Havenga. Sindhi reflects on his 2015 Cannes Young Lions experience and shares his thoughts on this year's SA winners, Amri Botha and Carina Coetzee from 99C, who are packing their bags to compete in the 2017 competition. Click here for a reminder of Pienaar's interview with them, on the day they were announced as winners.

We also have some of the top insights from last week's Wan-Ifra World News Media Congress or #WNC17, held at the Durban ICC. Click here for thoughts on gender bias in reporting and how media and advertisers represent these as well as the next big thing when it comes to news publishers' business models. Highlights from the first day included a roundtable on sports news as a major driver for media innovation, as well as how to take a pragmatic approach to data, press freedom and the Golden Pen of Freedom Award announcement. #WNC2017 was also host to the first ever Women in News Summit, an endeavour to increase women's leadership and voices in the news. Click through if you missed it or if you'd like a recap.

It's clearly time to get clued up and ready for an exciting ride as we near the end of the first half of 2017.