Cannes Goes to Dubai For Regional Festival

Don't worry, the annual advertising ego-fest isn't leaving sunny France, it's just launching regional festivals and its chosen Dubai as its first stop outside Europe. Included in the festival, which will be held March 31 - April 2, will be the Dubai's Lynx Awards which launched just last year and were actually organized by Cannes.

With Dubai and the surrounding region growing economically, Cannes CEO Philip Thomas explains the region's growing GDP leads to a dramatic increase in advertising activity, saying, "What we have seen in other regions that have done this [fast GDP growth] is that shortly after that they have shown world-class creativity. Thailand is a very good example. A few years ago it did not figure in Cannes and now it wins regularly. Dubai and the Middle East region are exactly in that position. We got the GDP growth, we got growth in advertising spend. And now more and more the work is becoming great."