C2 Montreal’s people-centered vision

The CEO of Montreal-based events company C2 told Anick Beaulieu she experienced “complete imposter syndrome” while speaking at an architects conference in Abu Dhabi recently. convene during the video interview. She said there were “some of the best architects in the world” in the audience. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God. What am I doing here?'”

Beaulieu said she realized the other presenters were showing images of “raw environments – no humans – very beautiful lines, a great Scandinavian feel.” It occurred to her: “What we’re doing” — speaking as the head of one of the world’s most forward-thinking business initiatives — “is building relationships.”

Beaulieu said that when she reflected on this, she thought about how everything C2 does as an events company is about finding ways to increase those connections, which “include different positions, the hierarchy of the company, men and women, different culture, different people.” Neurodiverse backgrounds,[whether you are]an introvert (or an extrovert), have high-energy and low-energy moments. ” She said she was struck by how C2’s job is to create “deeper, more meaningful” connections between participants. “When you look at it through that lens,” she added, “we believe that businesses Instead of doing business together, humans will do business together. “

Here’s more from Beaulieu on the complex nature of building relationships, and why it’s a wellspring of creativity for C2 organizers.

How is the network evolving for C2 and the entire network?

I think traditionally the way networking has been handled in an enterprise environment has been very transactional. The premise is, “I’m going to set up a booth and hand out business cards, or I’m going to have a cocktail hour sponsored by a brand that has a name on the bar and/or napkins.”

Anick Beaulieu, CEO of Montreal events company C2, says C2’s secret to hosting creative business meetings is designing a beautiful environment and approach to create connections among participants.

Our vision is that we believe humanity is interconnected and we believe humanity can do good together. We believe that business or economic impact is also driven by people meeting and doing business together. When we look at the power of creativity – which I think is where a lot of what we do comes from – beautiful environments have the ability to inspire and create things that can be talked about, things that can be connected.

The same goes for methodology. When we think of a workshop or a masterclass, it’s again providing a context, a speaker, a topic and then designing a method for people to work together in a group. When you solve a problem with someone, you’re actually more likely to find common perspective or knowledge that one person can bring to the other, and you’ll want to continue the conversation after the event is over.

We see that we have provided context for this connection. The same thing happens when you look at some of the iconic experiences we’re famous for, like Skylab, where we levitate people (in chairs) in the air. Then again, if you’re at a business event with someone you don’t know and you’re more likely to continue the conversation, or a day later you’re at a cocktail party (reception) – because we still believe in wine and food (laughs) – — to have this conversation.

How do you continue to create new and innovative ways to connect year after year?

When you ask how we’re going to evolve, it’s really focused on how we increase the number of connections that happen at any given time during an event. When you look at KPIs for a campaign, you often think, how many potential customers do we have? How much money did we make? How much interaction do we have socially? How is our content performing? It’s all about that connection. It either connects people to do business or connects with an audience, such as a digital audience interested in your products or other content.

For us, it’s really about finding different formats, ways of leveraging creativity that get us closer to generating more interactions, which usually ends up allowing us to hit more KPIs, or grow the brand, or get more More ticket sales because we connect with our audience in a unique way.

In a Lasagna Lab at this year’s C2 Montreal conference, participants discussed the importance of embracing different types of neurodiversity when cooking lasagna.

Can you give us an example of the new format you tried out at C2 this May?

We have a neurodiverse lasagna lab. That was exploring the importance of being inclusive of different types of neurodiversity, as people were cooking lasagna talking about their own neurodiversity profiles or situations that were relevant to them. Why cook lasagna? Because when you cook, when you touch food, when you share this beautiful moment with people, your guard is down, your barriers are reduced, and you actually focus on what you’re doing , instead of focusing on, “What should I say? What looks good in this situation? I don’t want that person to judge me.” By stripping that back, you’re actually allowing yourself to be more authentic, which you can then relate to Make real connections with people next to you.

One thing we explored this year is having multiple perspectives contribute to the conversation on stage when we discuss a topic. What that does is it creates a desire in you to continue talking about what you just heard, because there’s some friction, there’s some conflict, there’s a point. This is not vanilla. You say, “Oh, that person said that. I don’t know if I agree, but that person said that, and I totally agree. You are?”

Then we took a quiz, which is an AI tool that tells you whether you’re relevant or outdated. We had the audience come on stage and participate in a televised quiz competition.

This year we relaunched Braindate. We have a lot of really interesting food experiences and restaurants, as well as some more traditional ones – we’re not against the traditional good cocktail hour (party), a well-planned group of people interacting with each other after a day filled with so many experiences and content comminicate.

I think for us, the diversity of connections and touchpoints creates fertile ground for friendships, partnerships and deals to happen.

You talked about high energy and low energy. How do you build these two extremes into a program?

Lasagna Lab – It’s a very dynamic place because you’re making things while discussing, you’re in a team, and you really need to fit into the world in some way. Even if we figure out a way to make people feel comfortable, you’re still contributing, you’re still in a social environment.

On the other hand, we have an introspection lab that looks at language models and our relationship to language, and even animals’ relationship to language, and how that evolves or changes once we start having machine-generated language models. It’s very much about being in your own little bubble in a beautiful environment with headphones on. Very introspective, very focused on your own thoughts rather than concerned with having to perform or feel involved in a conversation. We also have multiple lounges. Some of them are in high-traffic areas where you can walk around, meet someone, stop and say hello, but some are more remote where people just spend a little time browsing emails and, I don’t know, maybe getting some sleep. .

We also do this in the restaurants we design. Some restaurants are actually open plan (plan) giving you the opportunity to mingle with people while you dine, but we created coves for more intimate private conversations. The same goes for our partner lounge, which is partly outward-facing and partly more private. And then even in the programming – we started with a witch opera about vibrations, where you align yourself with something a little bit spiritual in the moment, but then start off with something very dynamic.

You talk about people making connections that last throughout the year. Are there any examples?

In fact, two entrepreneurs who met on one of the Ferris wheels during C2 ended up starting a business together, got married, and had a child. This is the most extreme example!

Michelle Russell Is the editor-in-chief held.

on the web

C2’s Anick Beaulieu said that in addition to hosting its annual flagship business conference C2 in Montreal, the company also “provides white label experiences to some of the world’s top brands” and has partnered with AccorHotels to develop spaces “designed to be more collaborative and flexible” , a cooler way to hold meetings.” For more information, visit c2international.com.

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