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As with any advertising- and marketing-themed professional festival in the summertime, Cannes Lions 2025 is bound to be excruciatingly hot, crowded and loud. The hours of overstimulation can be incredibly draining, especially on a neurodivergent individual.

This year at Cannes, however, one agency and consultancy hope to alleviate some of these triggers. In a partnership with marketing platform Givsly, the Neu Project is hosting two separate, neurodivergent-friendly events that will be open to all.

Calm on the Croisette, occurring daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the eighth floor of the Givsly Hub, is a sensory sanctuary designed to refresh those who need some time to relax and recharge away from the hustle, bustle and noise. Commodities include calm lighting, ambient noise, and sensory tools such as fidgets and rings. 

Alt Social Happy Hour, taking place June 19 at 5:30 p.m. at the same location, serves to provide a “networking experience that doesn’t suck,” according to the invite, along with a sensory-safe haven. Although the ultimate goal of networking is still its main priority, the event offers painting to help with stimming and easing eye contact, conversation starters in the form of cards, and chocolate and tea in lieu of alcohol. 

“This is our first time at Cannes, [so] it’s a bit of an experiment,” said Rachel Lowenstein, cofounder and chief creative officer, the Neu Project. “We hope that we’ll have more spaces next year, and then more spaces the year after that.”

The Neu Project is an experience design agency that also serves as a nonprofit consultancy, advocating for and working to create neuro-inclusive spaces for professional events. Its neurodivergent founders, Lowenstein, a content creator, consultant and culture strategist, and chief impact officer Megan Henshall, hire only neurodivergent people to work with them on projects.

Along with her duties in the Neu Project, Henshall works for Google as its head of partnership strategy and engagement, Workplace Experience. She’s also the founder and co-lead of Google Experience Institute, where, according to Henshall, the Neu Project began as a large research project.

Since the agency’s foundation, in 2022, the cofounders have run it independently from any other brand or company as to “maximize impact and work with as many people as possible,” according to Henshall. 

How it started

Although not officially partnering for Calm on the Croisette and Alt Social Happy Hour, the Neu Project has been working with Havas’ Neuroverse and Understood.org to provide similar experiences at other events. 

“Our relationship with Understood is wonderful,” Lowenstein said. “We firmly believe in collaboration over competition in this space, because it is one of the few cultural movements where all tides rise if we come together. Being competitive will do nothing to serve the actual community.”

Lowenstein also noted that conversations regarding neurodiversity usually revolve around topics such as STEM, science and technology. She added she appreciates that Havas works toward identifying the topic of creative power instead.

“We don’t just think outside the box, we live outside the box,” she said. “There’s a ton of creative power in that.” 

Networking niches

One constant obstacle that neurodivergent individuals face is their social battery life. Once it’s drained, it can be difficult to keep up the conversation without shutting down.

Before going further into planning a networking or happy hour event, Henshall decided to put out a survey on LinkedIn to ask for people’s thoughts about them. According to Henshall, around 80% of respondents — both neurodivergent and neurotypical — expressed hatred toward such events because of their lack of authenticity, thus providing opportunities to find ways to make them more enjoyable.

“I’ve spent 25 years of my life designing, planning and executing experiences that I largely hated,” said Henshall, who was diagnosed with autism at 40 years old. “I’ve done it all, and my experiences in those places and spaces [weren’t] great and never [have] been.”

Lowenstein, who also received an autism diagnosis later in life, said she’s left most events due to feeling “socially uncomfortable” or “sensorially overwhelmed.” At every Cannes festival she previously attended, she had left feeling “completely” burnt out.

“We cannot be creative if we’re in survival mode,” she added. “I know what a privilege it is to be there, but I don’t think that people who are at Cannes should have to suffer. We fundamentally don’t think it has to be that way, which is why we’re doing this whole event.”

Neurodivergent nightmares

Both Lowenstein and Henshall have yet to be offered a quiet room or sensory space that actually helps individuals take a break and recharge.

Henshall described one space she was put in that was, literally, a blow-up house in a conference room. 

“They’re pretty infantilizing,” she said. “[The spaces] that predominantly exist out in the world today are curated for children. That leaves adults feeling pretty silly in [those] spaces.”

Lowenstein told Campaign that after asking for a quiet space at an industry event, she was once put into a coat closet, sarcastically adding that the experience was “awesome, really humanizing and great.”

To avoid incorporating loud crowds into the Neu Project’s Calm on the Croisette, which is one of the biggest triggers for neurodivergent individuals, the designated room can accommodate only three to four people at a time, according to Henshall. 

“We’ll be sure to operationalize it in a way that it stays within that standard,” she said. “And people do actually get what they need from the space.”

Ultimately, the events that the Neu Project is hosting next week serve to ensure that those who are neurodivergent will have the same opportunities to enjoy themselves, network and thrive at Cannes, just like their non-neurodivergent counterparts.

Henshall told Campaign that with conversations shifting and work rapidly changing, the most needed skill sets include ones that are “uniquely human,” such as creativity, ethical decision making, rational human judgment and diverse thinking.

“In our aspiration to cultivate these things, we are going to have to evolve in how we invite those types of people into business settings, contexts and events,” she explained. “And we need to do it now, so that those people are effectively supported, or else we’re in a bit of a tug-of-war game. The rope will snap eventually. Something has to give, and there needs to be something mutually beneficial.”

This article originally appeared on Campaign US.