In Montreal, sustainability and AI experts press for change
C2 Montreal is an immersive event with speakers on a smorgasbord of topics under the big tents of engagement, sustainability and artificial intelligence. The three-day event in Montreal, Canada, May 14-16, was imagined and hosted by creative agency Sid Lee in collaboration with Cirque de Soleil. Smart Meetings was there with our meeting prof hats on, to hear an overarching call to act now.
Our Shared Complicity
An entire day of C2 centered on themes of innovation and sustainability.
Key sessions delved into strategies for using solar and other alternative energy sources and weaning ourselves off dependence on fossil fuels, a migration well underway at many meetings venues; and the environmental benefits of repurposing structures without demolishing them, a topic that called to mind all the old bank buildings, churches and other decrepit but historic structures now revived as luxury boutique hotels and meeting venues.
Read More: Sustainability Tools for Easier Green Planning
One of the more profound moments of the day happened during the “How to Hope” session on sustainability—from Indy Johar, executive director of London-based Dark Matter Labs, which “designs institutional infrastructure for a more equitable, caring and sustainable future,” who captured the frustration of sustainability activists over the reluctance of corporate entities to accept responsibility for their impact on the declining state of the planet.
“I would argue that that most corporations are right now complicit in some theory of massive structural violence against future generations [and] ecological systems,” said Johar, “As soon as we recognize our shared complicity, then we can actually [have] a shared pathway forward.”
Jobar continued, “We have to be active in redesigning and rebuilding the world around us, as well as recognizing our inner journey that we have to make to be able to see that.”
Jobar’s comments drove home how important it is that the events and hospitality industries are leaders in making sustainability a cornerstone of their business models.
AI Will Take Your Job…If You Let It
Speakers on the panels on AI weren’t predicting the uprising of machines, but they were concerned about how humans were programming AI tools.
Ruha Benjamin, a sociologist at Princeton University, observed, “A very small sliver of humanity is currently shaping the world that everyone else has to inhabit and navigate.”
Read More: Why AI Might Mean Salvation for the Meeting Industry
Neil Patel, best-selling author and cofounder of digital marketing agency NP Digital, spoke during the session “AI: Are We Worried About the Right Things?” He believes as jobs are taken over by AI down the road, new doors will open to expand skillsets. “With [the new AI] technology, there’s going to be a role with people having to know and learn AI,” says Patel, “But if you’re flipping the hamburger, a robot will replace you. It’s just a matter of when.”
Sasha Luccioni, AI and Climate Lead at Hugging Face, a Montreal company whose mission is to “advance and democratize artificial intelligence through open source and open science,” had a different take.
“I think that AI might replace tasks like flipping burgers or mowing lawns, but then I think there’s always a human involved in broader tasks,” says Luccioni, “the conception and design comes from a human.”
Just as welcoming human faces and minds are at the epicenter of hospitality and the meetings-verse.
This article appears in the July 2024 issue. You can subscribe to the magazine here.
Featured image: C2 event interior, photo by Jimmy Hamelin
