Skift Take
While everyone is talking about the industry-leading creative conference design at C2 Montreal, the big story is how the 6-year-old event has evolved as a platform for the region's innovation economy to co-create the future of cities and collaborative urbanism.
The annual C2 Montreal conference every May is widely considered to be the benchmark for corporate event design in North America, but it's actually much more than that.
Inside Montreal's sprawling Arsenal contemporary art gallery this year, as reported last week in Skift, the show floor was filled with dozens of creative activations, such as networking experiences in trapeze chairs suspended from the ceiling. In a high point for the event, attendees booked more than 3,000 face-to-face meetings with each other to discuss topics of common interest via E-180's Braindate platform.
Outside, a pop-up big top circus tent with 360-degree ceiling projection hosted the keynote sessions. Surrounding the tent, stacks of brightly painted shipping containers served as outdoor corporate VIP suites overlooking the dock and restaurant floating on a channel connected to the St. Lawrence River.
In 2012, the Sid Lee ad agency and Cirque du Soleil — both headquartered in Montreal — launched C2 to engage a broader spectrum of potential partners for their respective companies. They also wanted to position Montreal as a wellspring of business and social innovation, with creativity celebrated as the connectivity tissue that links communities. In 2013, the French Le Nouvel Observateur media group called C2 “The Davos of Creativity,” and the unofficial tagline stuck.
C2's programming and content highlight innovative trends springing from the convergence of "commerce and creativity," which gives C2 its name.
Sample sessions this year included "Rethinking The City of Tomorrow" with speakers from the Brookings Institute, MIT, New Cities Foundation, and the City of Montreal. "The Social Economy: Driving Innovation For a Thriving City" session was presented by the City of Montreal and local startups advancing social innovation. There was also a series of dedicated tracks and workshops diving into themes such as artificial intelligence, startup accelerators, small business development, data, and diversity.
In the big scheme of things,
