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Cannes Lions 2026: XP Land’s Week of Experiential
For one week in June, much of the experiential marketing world descends upon the French Riviera. The Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity draws tens of thousands to the Croisette for awards and activations, beaches and sunburned deal-making.
XP Land will be there all week with front-row access to the activations, conversations, and people shaping what's next. We're also issuing a challenge — to the creatives in this industry, to put experiential at the center of their strategy, and to Cannes Lions itself. Experiential isn't the side dish. It’s the big, juicy, mouthwatering main course.
So if you’re in experiential, come find your people. Here’s where we’ll be:
DOORS IN FIVE
The strategy (and sometimes sheer terror) behind live experiences almost never shows. Our new video series changes that: five questions, live with the people behind the magic. It's not a making-of. We're not asking how it got built. We're asking why it exists, what bet is being made and what success looks like.
Filming all week. Look for us on the LinkedIn news page and on XP Land.
THE BUSINESS OF XP BRUNCH
Thursday morning, we're picking up a conversation that started a year ago at the Canva Cabana with Jimmy Knowles — on the state of experiential right now. It's a fast-moving program that runs from dream collabs between people not usually in the same room, to a FIRE/FYRE-side chat where industry leaders own up to their best, worst, and most profitable ideas, to a closing conversation with Bryan Buckley of hungryman — one of advertising's most successful creatives — on why he's going all-in on live. The throughline: these days, experiential is the channel that creates culture. It doesn't borrow it or amplify it. It creates it.
At capacity. Recap to come.
XP NEXT
Where does experiential go from here? This forward-thinking evening on the rooftop of the Carlton (thanks to our partner, LinkedIn) opens with Braindate conversations to get the room connecting. From there, it moves to the main stage, where the throughline is technology as an invisible, frictionless partner — not the main event. The centerpiece: seven speakers, each completing the same sentence: The future of experiential is…
Seats are limited and going fast. RSVP here
THE EXHALE AT COLLINS HOUSE
Here's one we're keeping intentionally quiet: a Friday gathering to close out the week — less programming, more breath. After five days of noise, a small group of people who shape the industry will gather in the hills above Cannes to do the rarest thing at a festival like this: Slow down. Things are about to get verby and vibey — compliments of Verb and COLLINS.
Invite only.
Throughout the week, we'll be filing dispatches from the Croisette: The activations worth knowing about, the conversations worth overhearing and the moments that remind everyone why live still matters.
Going to be there? Come find us. Not this year? Follow along.
