Shyaire Ganglani, associate creative director at Leo Australia, gives all the hot takes in this coffee-fulled, unfiltered guide to what’s worth seeing at this year’s Cairns Crocodiles presented by Pinterst.
Crocs is a lot. In the best way possible. And in the way you least expect from a conference-y like event.
Take it from someone who was a Crocs virgin until last year. It’s a lot of talks, a lot of fun merch, a lot of panels, a lot of pretty cool branded activations (get in early on those bookings) and a lot of trying not to yell “HELL YES” in the audience when someone says something that sounds like a real thought instead of a string of PR statements. There may also be free flash tatts, again. Depending on your emotional state, this could be a highlight keepsake. Take it from the girl with a kind of fresh croc-bandana tattoo.
So here it is! Your unsolicited, over-caffeinated, absolutely-not-peer-reviewed guide to Crocs, depending on what you actually need out of it, whether that’s fixing your career, your craft, your perspective, or the ego death you’ve been calling a personality.
1. If you want to know what’s actually going on right now
If fluff isn’t your thing and sugarcoating makes you gag, these are the sessions that might actually shed light on where the industry’s heading, for better, worse, or some cursed Frankenstein version of both.
What’s a Sheila Got to do to Get a Beer Around Here? Invent it
Because naturally, when beer needed shaking up, a woman had to come in and do it herself. Jane Evans unpacks the rise of the beer-man and the industry’s gloriously messy history.
Growing in the Attention Recession
Because attention is now the industry’s horniest little obsession, and fair enough. Audiences are overloaded, platforms are noisy, and reach alone won’t save a boring idea.
Marketing’s Next Big Headaches
A useful reminder that no one senior is actually having a relaxing time either. Unless their name rhymes with Keelon Fusk or Fonald Grump.
For the numbers nerds, the attribution girlies, and anyone who needs hard cold facts before they allow themselves to feel a single feeling.
Probably one of the clearest looks at who actually holds power now, and which end of the industry is about to be humbled next.
A useful one for anyone trying to work out how marketing leaders are balancing long-term brand building with short-term growth demands, while culture speeds up.
2. If you want to actually get better, not just busier
For when you’re tired of being productive, responsive, collaborative and all other workplace compliments that mean nothing if the work or you are feeling a little dead inside.
Weirdism: The Revolutionary Act of Not Being Normal
A direct antidote to beige thinking, panic-made sameness and the spiritual damage of “make the logo bigger” feedback.
The Art of Fearless Creativity
Go to this if your ideas have been feeling a little over-parented, over-fed and then smothered in legal.
Lessons in Fantasy-Driven Creativity
For people who know the best work usually begins where logic taps out, has a little cry, and goes home.
Make Creativity Great Again
Slightly cursed title, but the conversation could still absolutely slap. For anyone wondering how to protect brave ideas in an industry increasingly run by [insert redacted process].
Don’t Steal From Culture. Add To It
Required listening for anyone who has ever heard or written “let’s tap into culture” and immediately needed to lie down. Get in there!
3. If you’re ready to stop making safe work
If your last three ideas have been described as “this works”, this is your intervention. Time to take the Matrix pill, whichever one leads to less safety, less consensus and fewer ideas dying in a review round. Minus the leather trench, obviously, in the tropical heat.
Who gets cast and who gets missed, and why it matters
A Paralympian, an Art Director and a reality star walk into a panel… and I’m betting it’s one of the more useful conversations on representation all decade.
Victory Lap or Post-Mortem?
Excellent title. Hopefully a refreshingly honest conversation instead of a live demonstration of industry self-delusion.
Protecting Culture in the Age of AI
Important, urgent, and not the kind of session you can politely nod through while secretly booking your next therapy appointment.
Humans vs The LinkedIn Algorithm
Equal parts career anxiety, ego collapse and structural reality check.
G-RUIN – Industry Retro & Roast
From ‘jargon court’ to weird project behaviours, we’ll unpack the off-beat and hilarious things we find ourselves doing in adland.
4. If you want to feel something, God forbid
For when you’d like to reconnect with the reason you fell for this strange little industry in the first place…the creativity, the storytelling, the good weirdos, and the work that still has the power to move you.
Nedd Brockmann in Conversation
If you need your nervous system reset by someone with actual stakes and functioning grit.
Could be naff. Could also be exactly what every over-caffeinated burnout goblin in this industry needs.
Passion, Fandom and the Next Era of Growth
For anyone who understands that people don’t build their lives around products, they build them around passions, identities and the things that make them feel alive.
Stories That Matter
Journalism, documentaries, truth-telling, all the big beautiful words we love until they become mildly inconvenient.
Creativity Needs Different Brains
For all the times you’ve walked into a room, seen the same faces from the same backgrounds and then acted surprised when the output had all the flavour of plain rice.
5. If you want the good stuff, go where the peoples are
Annnd let’s be honest, some of the best parts of Cairns happen off stage too. Not under the fancy lights in the plush seats or while someone with a perfect blow wave says “the future is human”. Although, I must agree, it really is.
Which is why…the good bits happen when your badge is slightly crooked, your social battery is on minus 10% and you’re standing somewhere with a drink in hand, having the kind of conversation people are suddenly capable of once the panel ends, and the microphones are gone.
So, get those chino and denim shorts to the Friends of Rhonda Crocs Meetup, which looks like a must-not-miss. Taking place on Wednesday 13 May from 4:30pm to 6:30pm at Hemingway’s Brewery, it promises drinks, connection and conversation in a setting that feels more “hot queer industry catch up” and less “networking event”, hosted by Jules Stretch, aka Mum the Drag Queen.
And just before you go, my shameless little plug: G-RUIN – Industry Retro & Roast from 3:50pm to 4:30pm. Hosted by Mum the Drag Queen, it brings together Elle Bullen, Shyaire Ganglani, Seamus Fagan and Alex Sol Watts to tear into some of our favourite industry tropes, the nonsense people post on LinkedIn and the full bingo card of cardinal ad sins. As God, shame and the advertising industry intended.
So, pack the humidity-proof hair stuff and make the most of all of it. Go to the big sessions, sure, but also talk to strangers in hallways. Have the harder chats. Say hello to people whose work you rate or…don’t. Let yourself be surprised. Go where the energy is and maybe even get the impromp-tattoo if Pinterest brings back the flash booth again and commit to the bit.
Because the magic of the Croc at Cairns is rarely just what happens on stage. It’s what happens around it… in the gaps or the drinks after. In the unexpected side quests. In those little moments where this industry, for all its nonsense, briefly feels human again. Leave with better stories, better conversations and maybe, against your will, a little bit of hope.
It’s not too late. Snap up your Cairns Crocodiles presented by Pinterest tickets HERE!
