Big Plans and Beaches: 2017 on the Horizon

2016 is winding its way down. In offices across the industry, Secret Santas are being drawn from hats and calendars are filling up with parties. But between the events and silliness and hangovers, our minds are turning towards 2017. If the past 12 months have been an ‘Annus Horribilis’ for the worlds of politics and in terms of the terribly sad losses in the arts world, 2017 offers a blank sheet, a fresh start, alive with opportunity.

At LBB, that means that we’re looking at 2017 as a chance to build on our progress and to turbo charge the team, try out new things and improve on areas that need a bit of love. Members should have already received their first ‘nice to meet you email’ from our Community and Content team (a.k.a Liam and Adam), who will be working with you to help make the most of LBB as well as sharing news about site updates and fixes. They’re a fun team, super friendly and would love to get to know you if they don’t already.

Next up is the LBB Creative Challenge. I don’t want to say too much at this stage but our Facebook fans and Insta-friends should be in for a treat. (And if you’re not already following us, https://www.facebook.com/LBBOnline is a great place for regular updates… and on Instagram you can have a nose at what we’ve been up to by following @lbbonlinepix).

There’s also the little matter of my promotion… Working in partnership with our founder and CEO Matt Cooper, I’m going to be getting more involved in steering and running the business as MD. Someone once told me that journalists are totally crap at thinking with a business brain, so I feel like I have something to prove over the next 12 months. I’ll still be editing the newsletter and writing and guiding editorial… just with a slightly twitchy eye.

What else? We’re even getting stuck into planning for next year’s Cannes Lions. After all, we’re not going to let a little thing like Brexit get between us and the LBB & Friends Beach. The wonderful Plage Croisette Beach is already booked up and we’re also getting together a dream team of sponsors. LIA, Chesterfield, Good Films, Honeycomb, Adobe, Focus, Rushes, Jungle, Native Music, Simian and Taylor James will be joining together to host the hottest spot on the Croisette. The pumping beach party-slash-meeting spot is growing every year – and in 2017 it looks like there will be some new evening events too. 

If that doesn’t have you reaching for the rose, there are still slots left for co-hosts. If you’re figuring out your marketing budgets for 2017, it’s the perfect time to have a chat about either sponsoring the beach or hosting an evening event – contact sarah@lbbonline.com for more information.

Between big projects for the editorial team, new partners to announce and plans for our growing content agency LBB/Lab we’re all pretty excited about 2017. Apologies in advance if we chew your ears off about it! But if 2017 represents a world in flux, we reckon creativity is the key – that’s why we’re so psyched about helping the creative industries thrive.