How C2 is not just an innovative conference… but a mission open to new formats (I)

What is C2 about? As always, the mission is more important than the product. So, besides C2MTL, which is one of the very most innovative and successful conference in the world (taking place in Montreal), “we convene communities, through experiential and content solutions. C2 is a content generator, content which lives beyond the event”. So don’t get them wrong: they organize something an “event” format, but C2 is about a bigger objective, and have no problem exploring new formats (yes, online too) to achieve this goal of getting them together, sparking a conversation which will really bring new ideas.

So C2 did not stop at a single conference (a conference is just a format, you know). They collaborate with companies to help them stimulate innovation. And they recently launched Spark, a set of small events to stimulate business innovation. And since content is still king, they have created assets like the aquarium, a broadcast studio which generates content. As good event people that we are, we start this interview trying to understand if really, the wealth of conversation we have at an event can be translated to online…

Spark: small is beautiful

Spark is a smaller format, linked to business transformation. A one-day event for 150 people where everything in the event is a metaphor for transformation. We get a group in a room, it can be about teambuilding, or about community-building. You have a mix of talks, workshops, artistic performances, collaborative methodology, and we use the furniture to change the environment throughout the day. This is a metaphor for the ongoing transformation that businesses undergo.

Will Covid have a durable effect in your activity, in events?

The impact of Covid will stay and I think it might change people’s behaviour. Smaller, more local events will be a trend. Our industry has to adapt. The digital sophistication we developed these last few months will stay, and “phygital” (fusion of physical and digital) is the future. It is clear that nothing beats face-to-face but the intelligent thing to do is to leverage all the communication tools which are at your service, and this increasingly includes digital.

Exploring further the online component of what you do… C2 is about conversation and participation, but these have so far been limited in online events. The last few months have been more about “broadcast” than about real participation…

I have seen really bad broadcast but there is a way to have great broadcast, just like there is a way to shoot great movies. The quality and imagination you put into the format can help a lot. And you can include some engaging interactivity; for instance we have done things like emoji participation, where people share their emotions through emojis. It is still not perfect, but this is where it is going, and whoever is not investing in this will be in a harder position when things start kicking again.

The other component of event is networking, which has also been very limited online

Networking is a very important component of C2, it is behind almost every methodology we design and apply: we aim to get people connecting and collaborating. Most events will treat networking as a coffee break, for us it goes deeper in terms of how we can create content which forces this interaction and allows people to connect more meaningfully. And the role of technology in that has been huge in the last few years. We are using AI to connect people with topics which are often more personal than strictly business (their hobbies for instance, or the big questions people want to answer, or what they can contribute to the community). Meeting in person is the best, but a lot of connection in C2 has been helped by technology: connected badges, interest-based networking, group networking helped by technologies. And we integrate this into what we organize in digital formats, through our C2 MEG (multi-event gateway) platform.

Frankly, can you be a C2 participant without being physically present?

If you look at a community, you can be involved at different levels. The ultimate level is attending physically, but who knows where technology will lead us, this might change. Who would have thought just a few months ago that we would have all these online meetings? You need to have an open mind, create tools to be effective and better leverage technology.

Going back to your mission, what is the power of what you do, what can be the power of events: can exchanging ideas in innovative ways change the world, help solve big problems?

When you look at what we do, which is convening communities, and what impact we are trying to have, one key dimension is the forward-thinking aspect. We want people to meet, to learn, to experience, to connect, but most of all to move forward. And if you can do this with a group, if you learn together and connect, you open your mind. And one of the reasons why we use a lot of meaningful play in our event design, is to get people out of their usual frame of reference. If you get a group of people tackling issues together with an open mind, in an immersive setting, and keep the conversation going beyond the actual event, you can get them to change. There is a limit to what you can achieve in a few days. If you start with the impact you generate in this high-peak engagement moment (the live event), and spread it in time, creating multiple touchpoints, this is where things get powerful and you can tackle big issues.

This extension is one of the reasons why we love the Spark format. We have a large event taking place in Montreal for a few days (C2MTL which explores commerce and creativity, or our event dedicated to sustainable mobility), and we want to create more touch points, smaller and more local, to continue the conversation that started in the physical event… and combine it with a layer of digital communication. This is an ecosystem of content where the event is the peak engagement moment, but you try to repeat it as often as possible and this is how you achieve the maximum impact.

We bring the experience online too. Our VP of Audience and Marketing comes from the media world; we sold tickets online and we made the effort of putting the same art we have put into developing physical experiences and shifting this creative focus on digital experiences.