I have been in this industry long enough to know how rare it is. A room full of women who actually want each other to win. I found that room at Cannes this year, and it changed how I think about the work.
There is a version of this business that runs on scarcity. Hold your contacts close. Keep your rates a secret. Do not tell her which brand called, because what if she gets the deal instead of you. I have been in those rooms too. They are exhausting, and they are small, and they do not build anything that lasts.
The women I stood with at Cannes operate the complete opposite way. Somebody had an intro, they made it on the spot. Somebody had a stage, they pulled another woman up onto it. Nobody was doing the math on what it would cost them to help. They just helped. And the wild part is how much comes back around when a group of people decides to move like that.
I watched it happen in real time. I connected two women simply because they shared their resumes with me, wanting nothing back, and both of them ended up interviewed. That is what community actually looks like. Not a follower count. Connecting dots for people because you can, and trusting that generosity is not a leak in your business. It is the whole engine.
Liz Lathan, who I sat down with for Socially Loved at Cannes, put language to it better than anyone. Collaboration over competition. Chill with the gatekeeping. We are not saving babies here, she said. We can do this. She builds rooms for a living, and every one of them runs on that same generosity.
Here is what I took home. The gatekeepers think they are protecting something. They are just making their world smaller. The women who open the door, share the contact, and name you in the room you are not in, they end up at the center of everything, because everyone wants to be around people who make them bigger.
So that is the standard now. Be the woman who does not gatekeep. Make the intro. Share the number. Say her name when she is not there to say it herself. That is how you build something that outlives any single campaign, and it is the best thing I brought home from Cannes.