Cirque du Soleil’s ‘C2’ event on its way to Melbourne!

After six editions of its flagship event in Montreal, C2 International will bring its two-day immersive conference to Melbourne. In collaboration with MCI, world leader in meeting and event management services, and with the support of the Victorian State Government and Melbourne Convention Bureau, C2 will bring the event to Melbourne, Australia, on 30 November, 2017.

Imagined by created services firm Sid Lee in collaboration with founding partner Cirque du Soleil, it is designed to provoke collisions and spark new ideas. It combines talks, workshops, experimental brainstorming sessions, meet-ups, performances, braindates, labs and festivities.

Melbourne’s C2 will be the first major one outside of Canada.

The keynote speaker to kick off the line-up for C2 Melbourne is Uschi Schreiber, Chair of Global Accounts Committee & Vice chair of Global Markets at EY, with more inspiring leaders to be announced in the coming weeks.

“I am excited to be part of the first C2 conference in Asia Pacific. Melbourne is a great place for this as it is associated with innovation and creativity! Today we live in a world that is in transition – from a model of business, political participation and society that we are familiar with to one that is still largely unknown and needs our shaping,” said Uschi Schreiber.

“As the team at C2 was imagining where we may go for the first ever large-scale C2 outside of Canada, we sought cities with a rich culture, an intoxicating energy and a readiness to work together to set the stage that will reset imagination and unleash new ideas for business leaders, innovators and creatives from around the world,” says C2 president Richard St-Pierre.

C2 events target executives from a wide variety of industries and provide the perfect backdrop to explore trends, opportunities, disruptions and major shifts on the horizon. C2 Montreal conference alone attracts over 6,000 executives every year, with participants coming from over 50 countries and 24 industries. For C2 Melbourne 2017, the theme will be “Ecosystems” and programming will explore fields like technology, arts and design, marketing, impact and leadership.

“Melbourne is the ideas capital of Australia and the perfect host city for an event that is all about how creativity and new ideas can drive new business opportunities,” says Victorian Government minister for small business, innovation and trade Philip Dalidakis. “The Victorian Government is investing heavily in innovation because we know it is the key to the business ideas that will drive our economy in the future,” he says.

Melbourne Convention Bureau, Australia’s leading convention bureau played a key role in securing C2 Melbourne.

Karen Bolinger, Melbourne Convention Bureau Chief Executive Officer, said that with Melbourne being an innovator in the events sector, it made perfect sense to bring such a pioneering event to the city.

“Melbourne has always been Australia’s pacesetter in the events space, and we have a mandate to continue to be a world leader by bringing the best events to our city. With C2 Montreal named the number one innovative business conference for two consecutive years, we knew this was an event of our city’s calibre,” Ms Bolinger said.

Visit c2melbourne.com for news and updates about the 2017 edition of C2 Melbourne.

{ SOURCE: Australian Business Review, Marketing Magazine AU }