On June 18, 2018, the Digital Future Council made its public debut at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The council was formed as an informational intermediary to find common ground between creative and technological industries with founding members from different organizations such as CNN, Warner Bros., LEGO, IBM, and Vice.

With its official launch, the council will introduce a fresh batch of founding members including CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors, Kochava CEO Charles Manning, IBM Global Solutions Leader Chad Andrews, CNN Content and Strategy Head Danielle Lauren, Digital Strategy and Revenue VP Robert Bradley, Foursquare Global Marketing SVP Swen Graham, and The LEGO Group Head of Emerging Platforms James Poulter.

The council is hosting several roundtables, dinners, and town hall discussions during the festival on the topic of blockchain technology and how it can fit into legacy industries such as the media and creative sectors. The discussions will focus on the role blockchain technology can play in reimagining digital advertising models and consumer-controlled data as well as challenge those from outside the industry to envision the positive impact the technology can have on brand-consumer relations.

Wachsman blockchain PR company CEO David Wachsman said, “The Digital Future Council was established to provide a forum for media, advertising and technology leaders to convene and communicate openly about areas of their businesses that could be enhanced by emerging technology. The Digital Future Council gives Wachsman a platform to have eye-opening conversations about how blockchain can transform businesses, specifically in media and advertising, as the proliferation of digital advertising, rising adoption of technology, and shifting consumer habits are changing the business of advertising.”

Along with other representatives of the cryptocurrency industry such as CoinShares, Gifto, and Po.et, Wachsman as one of the founding members of the council is positioned to guide the other members of the council that may be less acquainted with the relevance of blockchain technology in their respective industries.

He said, “Through the dozens of blockchain companies our firm has worked with to date, we’ve seen firsthand what works and what doesn’t and I hope that I can relay some of these learnings to the members of the council so that these legacy companies can truly understand blockchain’s potential impact, in a way that is tailored and specific to their businesses.”

“For example, blockchain can address prevalent issues and challenges related to data management. Privacy and security concerns are major issues in the creative industries, especially with recent developments such as GDPR, and with blockchain, consumer data can be stored privately and securely. Blockchain can also help advertisers more effectively target and engage with consumers.”

The media company with ties to blockchain technology will most likely act as an arbiter between the creative and the tech-oriented personalities hosted by the Digital Future Council. Meanwhile, other companies such as IBM are there to offer tech industry veterans’ perspective as they learn the landscape of the new technology being introduced.

IBM Global Solutions Leader Chad Andrews said, “Because IBM took an early lead in investing in blockchain and launching an enterprise blockchain platform, we are approached almost daily by new companies exploring how the technology can improve or create new value. Our primary interest is in reforming the media-buying supply chain, which is rife with inefficiencies … Blockchain’s ability to remove frictions and build trust is tailor made to close the distance between advertising buyers and sellers, and to hold intermediaries (particularly in Digital) to new standards of openness.”

Andrews also expects that rights and royalties, content exchange, and advertising are included in the most important categories of use cases. He said, “Founding members are walking the walk in each of these [sectors], spanning creatives, technology innovators, thought leaders and great business minds from brands, media companies, agencies, artists, consultants, platforms and, to our delight, a few technology and services companies.”

The Digital Future Council has plans to host quarterly events all over the world after Cannes. They aim to hone in on the value and impact of the emerging technologies for established enterprises through these events which will feature debates and discussions similar to those at this year’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on various topics such as Big Data, blockchain technology, and Artificial Intelligence.

While this is the council’s vision, Andrews says, “Vision is one thing. Execution is another.”

Wachsman emphasizes the same thing. He hopes that the introduction of the council at Cannes will set the stage for conversation to pave way for concrete developments in the future. He said, “The first meeting is kicking off with blockchain based on demand from everyone participating and I think these initial meetings will debunk some myths and plant some seeds about ways that businesses can more effectively utilize bleeding edge technologies such as blockchain.”

Wachsman continued, “In the long term, we want to turn these conversations into tangible action. We hope to set a precedent for how the creative community and technology industries can better work together, create meaningful and sustainable business relationships.”

As Wachsman revealed, this includes “[publishing] educational papers that summarize the DFC’s quarterly meetings so that we can share the insights gathered with the wider industry and enable the masses to benefit from this knowledge.”