Cannes Lions 2012: Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter – Media Person of the Year and Bill Clinton,former US President – Speaker

Cannes Lions 2012 awards this year the prestigious Media Person of the Year Award to Jack Dorsey, creator, co-founder and Executive Chairman Twitter, and co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Square.

Coming from  St. Louis, Dorsey was always fascinated by  mass-transit and how cities function, which lead him to Manhattan and programming real-time messaging systems for couriers, taxis, and emergency vehicles. Throughout this work, he witnessed thousands of workers constantly updating where they were and what they were doing. Later on, he  came up with the idea for a site that would combine the broad reach of dispatch software with the ease of instant messaging. Within a short space of time, he had built a simple site, Twitter, where users could instantly post short messages of 140 characters or less, known as “Tweets”. On March 21st 2006, Dorsey posted the world’s first Tweet: “just setting up my twttr.”

Since than, Twitter became a communication platform that instantly connects people everywhere to what’s most meaningful to them. Twitter is accessible to anyone, via the web, on smartphones and on the simplest of feature phones. Twitter registers now around  340 million tweets per day and more than 140 million active monthly users.

Dorsey didn’t stop and, in 2009, he co-founded Square, that enables anyone to accept credit card payments on their mobile device. He was recognised as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people and was named an “outstanding innovator under the age of 35” by MIT’s Technology Review.

Since inventing Twitter in 2006 Jack Dorsey has, in an incredibly short space of time, brought to the world an entirely new way for people to communicate, share ideas, and learn new things. It has become, in the meantime, a powerful social and political force, and is now part of the everyday global media language. The power and simplicity of what he has created has made Twitter a social phenomenon, and we are delighted to honour Jack with this award.

Philip Thomas

CEO Cannes Lions

Brands have always used Twitter in creative ways to engage directly with customers. This award celebrates those brands and customers alike.

Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey will be honoured during the Press, Design, Radio and Cyber Lions awards ceremony, Wednesday, June 20th, in the Palais des Festivals.

Also, Cannes Lions delegates will have the opportunity to attend the Twitter seminar Harnessing the Power of Real-Time Connections, presented by Dick Costolo, CEO Twitter.

Previous recipients of the Media Person of the Year Award include: Eric Schmidt – Executive Chairman of Google, Mark Zuckerberg – Founder & CEO  Facebook, Steve Ballmer – CEO Microsoft, Anthony O’Reilly – CEO Independent News & Media, Tsuneo Watanabe – Chairman & Editor-in-Chief The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, Sumner Redstone – Chairman & CEO Viacom and Gerald Levin, CEO AOL Time Warner.

Also, Cannes Lions announced that former US President Bill Clinton will address delegates during the festival, on Thursday, June 21st. Clinton will deliver a keynote speech at the event titled “How Advertising Can Help Build a Better World”.

Bill Clinton established William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to improve global health, strengthen economies, promote healthier childhoods, and protect the environment by fostering partnerships among governments, businesses, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), and private citizens to turn good intentions into measurable results. Grupo ABC, which uses social activism as one of its strongest pillars of action, has sponsored the Clinton Global Initiative, which convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges, since 2009.

As has been proven by the superb response to the Cannes Chimera partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, our industry is passionate about uniting together and using its unique skills to make the world a better place. President Clinton’s presence at Cannes Lions reinforces the enormous power this industry has to do good. We are honoured to welcome him to the event.

Terry Savage

Chairman Cannes Lions

59th Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity will take place on June 17th-23rd, in Cannes, France. Cannes Lions is the world’s leading celebration of creativity in communications. Founded in 1954, the Festival takes place every June, in Cannes.