How its Inventive Director Is Reworking the Convention Expertise

Every Could, C2 is unleashed on the town of Montreal. It attracts 1000’s of artistic enterprise leaders who’re in search of inspiration and new concepts. Like many international occasions, the pandemic resulted in a multi-year detour for C2, although it additionally led to experimentation on new codecs for the occasion. 

Skift Conferences spoke with C2’s Inventive Director, Nicolas Fonseca, to get his tackle what labored at this yr’s occasion and dive deeper into his course of for creating interactive experiences. Fonseca, also referred to as Mister Jaune, is a filmmaker and artist, whose endeavors have typically centered on utilizing layers of meals, sensory design, expertise, and play to create memorable experiences. 

This interview was edited for readability and size.

Now that the mud has settled after the 2024 version of C2 in Montreal, what did you concentrate on this yr’s occasion and the way has it advanced?

It’s a full-circle second for me being artistic director. I used to be contracted again in 2012 to assist create the expertise for the primary C2 and have labored on initiatives on and off for the occasion ever since. 

When C2 began, it was a special period for conferences. The entire cultural context of those occasions was about to alter. It was nonetheless the ‘stunning years’ of social media, which is unusual to consider, when TED talks have been in style on Fb, and conferences like South by Southwest have been simply beginning to explode. It was a totally totally different second and plenty of occasions have been transferring to a festival-like mannequin. 

Then the pandemic occurred, canceling C2 in 2020 and we needed to create the 2022 version in lower than six months. So 2023 nonetheless felt like a Covid version, with digital codecs and companion resort venues, and a commerce off in comparison with the village expertise we’re recognized for. This yr, although, C2 was at a brand new web site by the Saint Lawrence River, filled with pure gentle and artistic areas. There’s a more moderen viewers at C2 post-pandemic. Many attendees don’t have reference factors from earlier than the pandemic. We had many who returned, however there may be undoubtedly a turnover, with new, youthful attendees experiencing C2 for the primary time.  

So C2 has not transitioned to an enormous field resort occasion, as some could have thought? 

No, that was actually a product of the pandemic. The brand new house this yr actually gave us leeway to be artistic once more, in that sense. We have been capable of rekindle that ethos of a village expertise with installations, in addition to singular experiences and areas. 

For example, the primary stage was on the second ground of an exterior lined parking zone, half inside and half exterior with the views of the river. We have been actually pleased with what we delivered. It felt like we have been capable of set up a brand new cycle of C2 after the various experiments through the turning level of the previous few years. And other people actually stated to us, ‘C2 is again.’

C2 has billed itself as a enterprise occasion on the intersection of creativity and commerce. There may be this promise of presenting an array of various experiences, discussions, limitless surprises, and delight. Is there something main that modified for the expertise in 2024? 

It’s a actually excessive bar and we needed to break down our targets in what we may obtain on this three-year means of change. One of many issues that we needed to do was to go from a black field to a white field. C2 was at all times this darkish, nightcluby occasion that moved away from what conventional conferences may very well be and took on extra of a competition strategy. There was a number of projection and lighting related to nighttime occasions versus a convention. 

However then everybody began doing it, and so one factor we needed to resume was to go to one thing that feels extra like daytime and connects to a way of productiveness and development, with out evaluating the social facet of it. It’s unusual, however everybody appeared calmer due to it. We actually labored with the lighting to filter and improve the pure daylight, creating a special temper for mornings, noons, and evenings. I bear in mind working with the lighting designers and saying, ‘I don’t need any pink, blue, or purple lighting,’ which has grow to be the bottom stage of each occasion we go to. The absence of screens and projections additionally helped folks’s disposition, which was a serious revelation through the occasion. 

Does C2 nonetheless have night occasions? I’ve seen movies of Snoop Dogg DJing C2’s closing social gathering in years previous. Is that also an enormous focus?

The large social gathering facet is much less prevalent now, shifting extra in direction of cocktails, dinners, and receptions. This variation displays broader tendencies in conferences, the place massive events are usually not as frequent as they was once. This yr, we additionally did fewer dinners and we centered on pop-up eating places as an alternative, rethinking meals and hospitality in a convention setting. We labored with an amazing restaurant group, creating dreamy pop-up ideas that allowed for pure networking, like energy lunches inside the convention setting.

What in regards to the labs and small group interactions that C2 can also be recognized for? Did this white field mindset additionally carry over into these extra singular experiences?

It did. 2023 was in all probability the yr once we experimented probably the most with lab codecs and collaborations with many artistic artists. We labored with nonprofit organizations, visible artists, designers, artistic entrepreneurs, and technologists. It went in lots of instructions. All by design as we have been prototyping issues and popping out of our shell. So in 2024, we dedicated to a couple codecs, forms of interactions, and vibes that we felt paid off in 2023. These additionally got here out once we did a survey of individuals and companions in 2023 to verify orientations that felt proper for us. 

That led you to one thing referred to as Neurodiverse Lasagna, proper?

Sure, it is a lab that we did in collaboration with a gaggle of younger coaches. They’ve an organization referred to as Nüense and infrequently work with tremendous artistic cooks for his or her workshops. I had been obsessive about lasagna and the way its many layers have been basically an allegory for group dynamics. So the lasagna on this lab was a metaphor to speak about folks’s understanding of neurodiversity within the office. It challenges their understanding of the way it reveals up in relationships. Basically not each tray of lasagna must be baked in the identical mildew. Attendees would minimize totally different shapes and colours of pasta that have been then laminated as enormous pasta sheets. The ensuing colourful pasta sheets have been stunning, nearly like quilts, and we’d make lasagna out of them. We then baked all the lasagna trays on the finish of the day and served them at a cocktail occasion for attendees. 

For a lot of occasions, producing these sorts of experiences would require a sponsor. You might need “the Neurodiverse Lasagna Lab, Offered by Barilla Pasta,” for instance. Is that the case at C2, the place you search manufacturers to assist underwrite and energy these experiences? 

We do, however it’s intentional. Typically we companion with corporations for sure facets of the content material. It’s not that we’re against it. It’s that we don’t put ourselves able the place we have to do it for every piece of the convention. There’s a stability between sustaining the integrity of the expertise and dealing with companions.

You’ve the viewers’s permission to place them in these wacky experiences. How do you develop new codecs and determine what works? 

It’s a push and pull. I’ll provide you with an instance round teaching, which is a brand new provide that we’ve been creating photos for 3 years. It really began as a sponsored exercise the place we had 5 minute teaching classes in a automotive. The response was good: folks have been into it and so they needed extra. So then we requested ourselves, what is that this factor that’s referred to as teaching inside the context of a convention? What can we do with that? That led us to essentially broaden this format and mess around with totally different codecs and theories of teaching. We may look in direction of California coaches which have this tremendous holistic strategy, after which there’s a extra formal, efficiency teaching model. So we’re persevering with to experiment with new codecs anchored in these totally different theories. 

How does the C2 staff handle the manufacturing of all of those experiences? 

It’s an enormous staff endeavor, for certain. There may be the scenography and the setting design, after which there may be content material and programming, and all the expertise, as nicely. So it’s a fairly large staff, however not everyone seems to be solely artistic. We’ve adopted a horizontal collaboration mannequin internally, maximizing creativity and effectivity. Our artistic staff consists of assets shared with advertising, permitting us to work intently, maximize collaboration, and produce every part collectively.

What’s your strategy to networking? Do you propose for receptions as most occasions do and give you approaches that transfer previous the normal constructs of networking? 

All of us need networking as a private consequence and for occasions to be value our whereas. It’s necessary to search out individuals who you need to work with sooner or later, whether or not it’s a venture or partnership. There’s a way of development there. We R&D it by creating these distinctive alternatives for deliberate and serendipitous interactions. We additionally design areas for each intimate {and professional} conversations. Once more, the ability lunch concept at our pop-up eating places is an instance to attach with the folks you typically solely see at conferences. However I don’t really feel anybody is interested in one thing referred to as a networking occasion. 

Every thing is now about AI. Was there something at C2 that was AI-driven or carried out for attendees? 

I feel the app had much more embedded AI in it, which is one thing we’re getting extra used to in our lives. We’re nonetheless experimenting with AI on the occasion general. By way of content material, one factor that we did do that yr was to have three devoted days by way of content material and programming. The primary day was extra immersive and experiential, day two was devoted to sustainability and innovation, and day three was AI and commerce. We did a recreation present round AI referred to as Related or Out of date, which was like a cross between The Worth is Proper and Jeopardy. That was one of many labs and it was a collaboration with a artistic technologist. And so it was AI, it was humor and centered on the extra existential facet of AI. It was a number of enjoyable.

How do you keep forward creatively with out feeling pressured to consistently innovate?

I really feel that stress much less now, and a few folks need the return of one thing they know every year. It additionally creates advertising and communication stress if you’re altering your occasion all the time. Not every part wants to alter yearly to remain revolutionary. I feel it is sensible to have a layer of your occasion that may change yearly. One other layer that adjustments each three-to-four years, after which some issues that change each 10 years. In that sense, not every part has to alter on the similar frequency.

What occasions encourage you?

General, I like nice environments. An fascinating combine of individuals is at all times my factor. With the ability to be in an outlined perspective or perspective, such as you landed someplace. I miss the full journal expertise. After we used to spend cash on magazines each month, you possibly can step into this curated universe with a transparent perspective. Creating areas that really feel like entering into a whole universe that’s about folks and references and information and issues. At its greatest, with any reside expertise or occasion, you’re in touch with one thing communicative. With out it, they don’t make us really feel something particular.

Do you typically have to elucidate your experiences or strategy at occasions to others?

I attempt to clarify as little as attainable. After having gone by means of years of participatory occasions and interactivity, I do know some persons are keener and need to contact every part and check out every part. These persons are actually comfy that they’re writing a part of the story. Others are actually comfortable to know in regards to the story, and simply need to learn it. And a few simply need to thoughts their very own enterprise, however simply need to really feel good within the setting. For me, all methods of studying an occasion are legitimate, and if folks really feel good, my job is finished.

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