Unlock the Secrets of Iconic Business Festivals!

All right. Um, so this session is called weaving commerce and creativity into an iconic experience. C2. Yes. >> Very interesting. Uh, a festival. We we really wanted to do this this session about um business festivals. This concept of business festivals which I think C2 is a really interesting example of and the expectations around them and how they influence destination p perception. Uh, and of course you are the CEO of C2. You've been CEO since January 2023. Uh you've been with C2 for over 10 years. >> Oh my god. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Who's heard of C2 before? C2 Montreal. >> Okay, that's about half, I'd say. Who's been to C2 Montreal? >> Okay, we have a little bit of work here. >> Get going. Okay, >> good. So, I want to jump in. I want to start by talking a little bit about we have some pictures running of of C2. if you don't know, it is very visually stunning. There's a lot of visual elements that really stand out, I think, uh, remotely at least. Um, but I want to talk a little bit about >> presence too. >> And presents, too. Well, that's good to hear. Um, I want to start by talking a little bit about how you make this work, right? Because you do these spectacular stages. You have these labs that are really interesting experience. You put CEOs in ball pits and you hang them up from the air. You do all these crazy things, but ultimately that has to make sense for the people paying tickets, for the people sponsoring, for the brands. How do you make sure that they actually get what they want out of the event?

>> There's so many layers to answer this uh this question. I think there's different motivations for different people. >> Um but the premise that we have is that we're all human and business for now anyways is still done between humans. And by designing all of these experiences, we're actually breaking down the barrier for connection between people. We're not all power extroverts. Um, we don't have all the same like facility to connect, but by providing this context to facilitate conversation and connection, there's actually more meaningful connections that happen. And for us our premise is like if you approach business from a very uh transactional lens, the best thing you will get is a transaction selling something. If you approach it from a relationship building lens, then you might discover a business partner, a new idea, partnership, uh an investor, a new employee. And so all of what we're doing is based in the premise that commerce can really fuel uh creativity can really fuel commerce. Um and then when you look at the ROI, you know, there's learning, there's connecting, there's making business for sure, like that's a big part of it. Um and then there's the brands that associate with C2. And we spend a really long amount of time finding really meaningful um authentic ways to embed our partners in the programming um in the experience itself. And so by doing that the perception of people is like oh I'm not just being you know faced with a logo or having a sales pitch in front of me. There's actual real thought that went into what is the value that brand can provide. And so it's for the brands, they're they're actually making really good. >> So take me through that a little bit.

You you know, a brand comes to you and says, "Hey, we have a bunch of money." Which is obviously what you always want to hear from brands. >> Yeah. Unfortunately, it's not always the case. But yeah, that's scenario. >> Let's say a brand comes to you says, you know, we have a bunch of money or we have enough for for whatever. Uh >> can we just do a lanyard? Can we put a logo somewhere? Can we do this stuff? Do you say, "No, I don't want your money." How do you kind of have that conversation about making it work with the >> No, I think we'll try to say, okay, what do you want? What are you interested in with C2? What are your business objectives? Like, what are you trying to reach? Um, a lot of our partners love hosting. And so, they want, >> you know, we're kind of lucky in a way. The average time spent on TikTok, I think, is like 3 seconds. On YouTube is like 10. We get people's attention for full days or even like two or three days. sometimes like this is crazy. So it's like what are you going to do with that time and how are you going to get your message across? And so a lot of time is like okay what is the thought leadership that you want to put forward? What are the innovations that you're working on? What are some of topics that you're interested in positioning your company in or that you know you'd love to have a bit more of collective intelligence? And so by really asking what are you trying to do? Um, we can look at how can we leverage the assets that we have, the space that we have, the participants that we have to better serve your objectives. Um, knowing that we keep a very uh tight hand on the design of the experience itself. >> We were talking I mean I would say C2 is

a great example of a business festival, but you call it a conference, right, in your marketing. I think that's also for Google for SEO to make >> Yeah, that's Yeah, >> but you also ring fence C2, right? It's not like other festivals where you go to can or you go to Southby and it's sort of like the whole city. You're in a space, right? If you want to be part of C2, you have to pay a ticket, you have to go in, you scan, and you kind of control that space. So, in many ways, you're controlling how you help the brands at least more, right? >> We're a bit control freak. >> I think the planners will identify with that. >> I'm just kidding. But like I think for us it's like we we want people after 2 or 3 days to feel like it's a village that you've started you know let's say you see some of those images. It's like when you've been suspended with you know people in the air like that or you went through the mirror room or you know you've seen some amazing experiences. you actually connected with 12 20 people at the time which means that you know the next time you're going to be at cocktail hour you're gonna have more friends and that's kind of multiplying the effect of like serendipity in connection so I mean and we were discussing that I think it's good and then there's also opportunity of having the brand expand beyond the event wall so you know sometimes we'll do excursions and we'll bring a smaller group we have a community we call EXO and we love to bring them to discover like some of the cool experiential studios that we have in the city and so we'll do little popups here and there. Um but we like people to stay on site >> and a lot of these are the labs, right? So we see these photos and they're really cool but they're not necessarily thousands of people participating small groups at a time, right?

>> We love to look at an audience and be like, okay, there's the big moments which is like mostly the stage moments. Then there's smaller groups like workshops or master classes more around the hundreds or 200s. And then there's round table for 10 to 15. There's lab between 10 to 25. And so by kind of breaking this up, you're also playing with the level of energy that you need to put into, you know, like if you're going to have to collaborate, it's going to be a lot more intensive of what we ask from you. Same thing with networking where this is a bit more chilling. So we kind of play with the up and downs in terms of energy of of the participants and we love to create FOMO >> within one event. >> You definitely create FOMO with all these images, right? >> It's like >> if you have questions for Anique, please do put in the app. We will love to take a couple of questions if we have time. Um want to talk about taking C2. So C2

is stands for commerce and creativity, right? It was created with the city of Montreal with Cirto Sole, Sidley etc. to the original partners. You have connections with the province, with the country of Canada, very focused, >> but you know, there's a lot of business festivals that are expanding around the world. >> Southby is now in London and Sydney, >> right? You have Web Summit just announced today they're going to go to China in 2027. So, they're they're kind of going everywhere, >> but it feels to me that C2 is very Montreal focused, right? And you use so much of the city. I know you you tried something in Melbourne, didn't quite work in the end, but how do you think that can it go to other locations and how do you how can you work with other destinations that say, "Hey, C2, we want we want you to do a conference here." >> I think there's a couple of things there. Like for us, it worked in Montreal and it was designed in a way to it was twofold, right? It was like how do we create something that's going to help us like bring our creativity to the world but then how do we also reinvent the conference format which you know when you look at like 14 years ago was a big opportunity um and we've weaved in a lot of Montreal into the the experience itself like it's Montreal is a hotbed for creative companies for AI for technology for sustainability and so we've really kind of built the value proposition of C2 around some of the e the economic strengths of the city. And I think >> from a business perspective, we chose to grow developing um the studio business which is focused on bringing our expertise to brands. >> Yep. >> Uh in white label um because there's there's specific I think it can work in another city, but it would need a strong um a strong buyin from the local community. Um, it would need strategy to figure out, you know, if we were to talk about fashion in Montreal, a track on fashion, like no one would think that's credible. It's like, why would I go to Montreal to hear about fashion? I'll go to Paris, I'll go to Milan, um, New York. >> So, you're building around the strength of the city. >> Yeah, kind of. And so, I think that would need to be true. And then um I think from a business perspective like commercializing and all of that is also something that takes a lot of capital and stuff. And so for us we've just chosen to focus on C2 for the Montreal market to build our brand there and then to expand from a business perspective delivering services for other brands. >> Okay. So just to put this in clear terms

hopefully you have C2 Montreal the event. Yeah. >> Right. flagship started in 2012 I think partnership with the city etc. And then you have C2 Studio. You're the CEO of both, but C2 Studio is the for-profit >> Yeah. >> agency for the lack of better word. So your white label agency. >> Talk to me about the connection between these two. Is it only clients that are at C2 Montreal that then come to you and say, "Hey, we want to do something else or is it completely separate?" >> Um, it's never completely separate because of the brand. But I think um we have the fact that we have C2 Montreal. It's a great advantage in a way because we have a public facing product. >> People know the brand, they see it. It also allows us to test stuff like we

don't, you know, a client never wants to we're all risk averse when it comes to doing our events, right? But C2 has been synonymous with innovation and kind of pushing boundaries and so people come and expect something new to happen and they're I think a bit more um they will be more comprehensive if you we try something and it's maybe not the best but you know so it's allowed us to really push the envelope in terms of like R&D. It's also really good to attract talent because people see the brand and they're like wow if I go there I'm going to have fun. and I'll be able to design and to create stuff that are kind of, you know, out of the box and maybe a bit closer to entertainment. So, um, and then we learn a lot from the projects we do with with clients and it brings us all over. Like last year we delivered in the Middle East and Europe and America and Canada. So, like it's um it's kind of a flow between both really. Does it ever limit you in the sense of you're sort of pigeonholed into this thing and and you can't do other things? >> Well, it is very energy uh consuming

because like it's it's it's our thing, right? and we get I think really attached to it and you know there's constraints and there's you know budgets and everyone here I mean I think we've had really hard years at some point like coming out of the pandemic and then you know talent price going up production price going up corporate budgets going down so like it's a big cast like it's a puzzle in many ways but then you do it and you're like oh my god I was crazy to do it but we did it and it's amazing and let's do it again, you know. So, it's like I think we're all a bit recognize that >> we all have this thing in the event industry. >> So, I wanted to talk a little bit about your hotel years. Yeah. >> Right. You had co like many you went virtual 2020. 21 was kind of a hybrid >> and then 22 and 23 you did two years in hotel. You had a partnership with the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth which >> financially just made sense, right? There were tough years to make the numbers work. But you had to bring this crazy creativity into a hotel space. >> Yes. >> What did you learn from that?

>> Um, look, first I think, um, if it wasn't for the Evano Cambridge deal and the FMO deal, I don't even know if, you know, we would still be here. The context was very different because for us in Canada, we had a lot of restrictions, like a lot. And it were there were additions where people wouldn't even go into the office. So part of the reason why Ivani Cambridge the real estate company told us can you do something downtown was because they had just built amazing office space like amazing restaurants and there we were all working from home. >> So you were the ultimate return to office event. >> Yeah. to put some dynamism back. But our, you know, our DNA was also always to be about bringing the international best of the best and the creative and business sphere to our local community. So without that, that was a challenge in itself. Then the venue, I think, was both a big big challenge because hotel carpet, you know, >> I think there's a few people in the audience that know what you're talking about. >> Like sometimes I'm like, "Oh my god." and it's heavily decored already, you know. Um, so from a environment design perspective, it was quite the puzzle. Um, then there were some really good stuff like you know, hosting the the partners and you know the rooms are there, the facilities are there, the FNB is really good, it's easy, you don't have to build walls and then there's bleeding of sound between walls. Like there's a bunch of problems we didn't have. Then from a creative perspective was was a really good challenge to say okay how do we take this Canva and bring it to the next level. How do we still surprise people into something that's highly expected? How do we bring a stage experience with very low ceilings? And I'm talking about stuff that's kind of like you know tactical but it was really challenging like to create this level of immersion. So we did some of the labs in rooms. Um the stage design was like you know like um not high but very elongated. um sure if you're able to play we played with hotel codes so we had like um actors that would do as if a wedding was going really bad when people were checking in you know so so it was like there was a bunch of stuff that we played around with and from a business perspective from the studio side I think it was really interesting because planners came and they were like oh wow this is close to what we do because when we take like an abandoned shipyard or an art gallery or is me or like it's not all of the all events that can afford or that have the time or whatever to be done in those kind of settings, right? So I think it always created a bit of a distance between our audience for the studio work and then this the flagship which seemed almost unattainable in a way >> where the hotels really brought it down to like okay there's actual stuff we can do within a more traditional venue that's going to help us like bring the experience to another level. And so we had some really rich conversations with our industry during those years because it like some of the constraints we had to deal with were very close to constraints that we all have to deal with. And so that was kind of productive I found. >> Super interesting. I have a few quick

questions in the app. There's also a little thumbs up next to the question in the app. If you see a question that you want us to um ask on stage, make sure you click that thumbs up. Um if you don't mind, we'll go to that top question. >> Yeah, sure. So Nicole asks how do you manage the risk of investing in high value experiential concepts crucial to sell the event but often before you revenue uh generate revenue from the event >> but we have history so we didn't build this in you know two or six months uh so I think it's part of the offering right people come to expect that we're going to bring some of those experiences to life they're not all expensive I think sometimes we think every thing that it's experiential needs to be more expensive. Sometimes it's just about thinking of the concept and spending time like having an attention that is clear. So it's not always more expensive. I think it's also about, you know, what you're trying to actually achieve. Um, so I think it's the same, right? You're going to have to do a stage here before selling the tickets. But >> it's a little different from building, you know, a massive stage and people hanging from the ceiling and all that, but yeah, we have to build a few Look, it's um we we manage it >> and having circ involved and Sidley etc. That kind of helps as well. You have >> network. Yeah. >> And you have props and you have things and you know you can build things. >> Well, yes and no. >> Or do you build everything from scratch? >> A lot from scratch. Um some stage we might reuse but yeah. >> Okay. There's another question that's

popping up with 19 thumbs up. So that's definitely a question people want to hear about is what data are you capturing? What are the metrics of success? Well, traditional metrics like you know revenues and attendance and time spent in sessions and you know where did people go and how many people registered to sessions that were presented by partners. >> But you also manage your deal flow, right? Like how much commerce is happening. >> Yeah. And then we have a methodology that you know looks at how many deals after like six months were made. Um tourism impact. So >> how do you do that? Is that interview based? You kind of keep in touch with people. >> So it's it's interview based um like surveyed and stuff. There's a whole process and rigor around it. Yeah. >> Yeah. Super interesting. So not just the normal metrics for an event, but you're trying to capture the the business impact. >> Yeah. And then there's, you know, I think for me this is probably going to be the most interesting place to explore like how do we measure like sentiment? How do we measure um things that are maybe a little less like accessible right now to prove that ex investing in creativity yields better business result like there's a human aspect of this and I think we've seen it in marketing in general right it's like so much easier to invest in like digital data than to invest in brand building exercises but at the end of the day like we've seen brands that you know like a Nike that devested brand marketing and then had struggle from a business perspective So I think it takes a bit of vision and stuff but tracking some of these more soft metric to me will be really interesting in the future. >> Okay. So last quick question. You had C2

spaces super interesting announcement with a core partnership. You created a space in a hotel in Paris the Pullman Paris Mras. We haven't heard anything for a while. What's next for C2 spaces? Are you going to design more rooms and spaces? >> Yeah, I I wish we will. I mean this was a bit of an answer to um the fact that you know as planners in our industry is like we want to go to places that are meant to host good groups and people uh but we thought there's a huge opportunity to develop a brand that stands for a certain level of experiential delivery when we're in hotels or convention centers. It's very complicated deals. Like I had this vision I was like okay this is going to be it. It's going to be amazing. And then you get to the real stuff and it's like, oh well, you know, there's a real estate owner and then there's an operator and then it needs to be the right timing because there's a lot of investment. So, it's not as straightforward as I would love it to be. But I still think that, you know, when you look at convention centers or even hotels, like there's not a brand that owns the quality of what will be delivered in those big economic sectors, you know? So, I I I think there's something there to be done. I just haven't like >> quite there >> fully nailed the model. >> So, we might look forward to a convention center with a C2 space in it or multiple conventions. I hope. Yeah, I'd love to. >> Anique, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for the conversation. >> Thank you.