C2-MTL (Commerce + Creativity) Montreal

May 22–25

ATTENDEES

1,300 professionals from 37 countries across a wide variety of industries GENESIS

“There are several conferences on innovation, but none is truly creative in its approach. We wanted to go beyond just talking about creativity, to create a completely immersive experience. My colleagues and I also had a desire to create a platform to showcase Montreal’s hotbed of talent to the world.” — Jean-Francois Bouchard, C2-MTL’s curator

SPEAKERS

A stellar lineup, including filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, former Walt Disney Company CEO Michael Eisner, best- selling author Jonah Lehrer, entrepreneur and hotelier Ian Schrager, Fast Company Editor Robert Safian, AOL Hufington Post Media Group Editor in Chief Arianna Hufington, Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre, Google Creative Lab Chief Creative Oficer Robert Wong, and DreamWorks Animation Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson

C2-MTL was the centerpiece of a “Be Creative a la Montreal” media fam trip, hosted by Tourisme Montreal, that I attended in late May. The trip was organized to showcase the city — a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for the past six

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