Parents Belong at Cannes. Now Let's Make It Possible

When someone asks if you want to go to Cannes Lions, there's really only one answer.

Yes.

You don't hesitate. Because if you hesitate, you wonder whether the opportunity will go to someone else.

So you say yes.

Then you figure it out.

For us, figuring it out looked different. One of us was leaving behind a four-month-old daughter (six months when going to Cannes) and wondering how to pump every two to three hours in another country. The other was figuring out how to attend one of the industry's biggest weeks while navigating childcare for her young son.

Different stages of motherhood.

The same calculation.

We wanted to share our experiences because we know we aren't the only parents doing this math. This year we saw pregnant women walking the Croisette, parents navigating childcare and others back home wondering whether Cannes was even possible.

We hope they see there's a place for them here, and that our industry hears the need to keep building for it.

For Meghan, returning to Cannes carried special meaning. Eight years ago, attending through the Cannes Lions ‘See It Be It’ program changed the trajectory of her creative career, introducing a global community of women creatives, mentors and lifelong supporters. Coming back after becoming a mother felt like a full-circle moment.

Then the invitation arrived on her very first day back from maternity leave. The excitement lasted only a few seconds before another thought took over.

My daughter is four months old. How am I going to pump? How am I going to travel? Can I actually make this work?

What was a career milestone immediately became a logistical puzzle.

That puzzle filled an entire suitcase: two electric pumps, a manual backup, storage bags, adapters and voltage converters. Every day was mapped in three-hour increments. The pumping happened everywhere - airports, airplanes, bathrooms, hotel rooms, Ubers and, occasionally, dedicated nursing spaces.

When a travel pump failed because of a voltage converter, it meant scrambling through pharmacies in another language for a replacement while staying on schedule. Add in the decision to pump and dump rather than risk transporting milk without consistently sterile equipment, and the logistics became as demanding as the work itself.

Most people never saw any of it. They saw an excited creative walking into meetings and panels. They didn't see someone planning an entire day around finding a private room with a lock.

Like many working mothers, there was another invisible calculation: whether talking openly about those challenges would make people question whether attending was worth it, or whether full attention could really be on the work.

It could. It was.

The work never suffered. Another set of work simply happened alongside it. Meghan’s team at 21GRAMS, a part of Real Chemistry, made her feel supported every step of the way and became her village away from home.

Chinkara's calculations looked different, but they were no less familiar.

As a mother further along in her career, saying yes to Cannes still meant answering the same question every working parent knows: How am I going to make this work?

For years, that answer meant juggling schedules, relying on family and carrying the mental load that comes with opportunities like these.

Then came Camp @ Cannes by The Female Quotient and Lowe’s.

The first reaction was disbelief.

Is this real?

Knowing there was an option where her son was nearby transformed the week. Instead of worrying, she received photos throughout the day. Instead of splitting her attention, she could be fully present.

For the first time, it felt like the industry wasn't simply encouraging parents to attend—it was helping make attendance possible.

This isn't just a story about breastfeeding or childcare. And it's not only a story about mothers, even though it's told by two of them.

It's about access. Who gets to say yes to the opportunities that shape careers, and what it takes to make that yes possible.

Imagine pumping rooms that are easy to find, private and equipped with sinks (something very rare to find but incredibly needed as women need to wash pump parts after every session to avoid infection), refrigeration and places to sterilise equipment, an opportunity for brands that champion working women to turn messaging into meaningful action.

Imagine vetted evening childcare so parents don't have to choose between picking up a child and attending the dinner or networking event that could change a career.

Imagine family resources becoming as standard in the delegate guide as maps and shuttle schedules.

These aren't perks.

They're infrastructure.

And infrastructure determines who gets to participate.

Because this was never about whether parents belong at Cannes. It was about building a Cannes where they can confidently say yes.