CANNES, FRANCE -- Here we are in the French Riviera once again for the annual Lions Festival bringing together some of the best companies and minds in advertising, media and technology. Although there are some less noteworthy, but much appreciated, changes this year including somewhat cooler weather and more yachts as meeting locations...there were definitely a few major themes this year that either didn't exist or simply were not as pronounced in 2015. The first theme that can't be overstated is the discussion around the Association of National Advertisers report around agency rebate practices.

Back in the early '90s, had you told Shane Smith that Vice would eventually become a "food network," he would have laughed you out of the room. "But, you know, that's what we're going to do," Smith sheepishly told Cannes Lions TV, on Friday. What changed? Well, "The largest cohort that goes out and spends money on food in the world is Gen Y, yet there's no food programming on traditional media for Gen Y," said the co-founder of Vice Media.

CANNES, FRANCE -- At a time when many on Madison Avenue believe the next wave of advertising will be -- or already is -- content marketing, one of the world's greatest content marketers advised the ad industry not to try so hard at selling things. "I think things work when they're subtle," The Weinstein Co.'s Harvey Weinstein told delegates here this morning during a Q&A with Publicis chief Maurice Levy. Specifically, Levy asked Weinstein why, after decades of failed attempts to merge "Madison and Vine," it has "never worked beautifully."

What gets the attention of the most creative people in entertainment? For Spike Jonze, it's unapologetic individuality. "Anything that resonates with me -- whether it's Louis C.K. or Samantha Bee or Kendrick Lamar or Chance The Rapper -- it feels like [the work] is coming from somebody with a very specific point of view who's unapologetic about that point of view," the Oscar-winning filmmaker said from the main stage, in Cannes, on Thursday.

At this year's transFORM summit in Cannes,panelists spanning business, media, technology and entertainment industries all agreed: accelerated transformation has been institutionalized.

"Every decade we hand over the company to interns," quipped Shane Smith, founder, CEO, Vice Media during a discussion at Cannes Lions with Spike Jonze, co-president, Viceland and moderated by Time magazine's Joel Stein.

During a Friday Cannes session panelists said that advertisers have placed boys in a "male box" that speaks to what it means to be a man. They are protectors, responsible, providers. And it is within advertisers' scope to expand these identities and make them more realistic the panelists said.

Fortunately for us judges, the first weekend of Cannes Lions saw the sun go into hiding and the rarity of rain fall on the Cote d'Azur. As a result, being confined to our bunker for ten hours a day pouring over the Media category submissions didn't seem so bad at first. Now however, it's not just the weather that's hotting up. I personally have already voted on around 500 entries across 30 Media categories and we're finally getting close to awarding those coveted golden Lions. In my first confession, I made some predictions about what I was likely to see, …

The millennial workforce is looking to curate their career-gaining these rich, diverse experiences across multiple companies and sometimes even multiple industries. The newest generation of employees is motivated by opportunities to sharpen their skills and grow both professionally and personally.

Sadly, "There's no algorithm in the world that can actually tell you what people are going to like." So Michael Kassan, founder and CEO of Medialink, told Cannes Lion TV, on Thursday. "You can use predictive modeling, and you can use all of that to give you an edge and a little bit of a better view, but at the end of the day the consumer is going to make that decision based on their gut," according to Kassan.