Plank is very proud to support CreativeMornings/Montréal. I've been a fan for while, and a few of the talks have really resonated with the office. I put out a call on twitter to see if anyone might be interested in getting something going here in Montreal. A resounding YES came back.

I am one of 9 team members which span a number of agencies and companies. We've all teamed up to make sure this is something special. Over the spring we produced an application video (that I hope we get to release one day) and did our best to convince the fine folks in NYC that we'd be excellent ambassadors here in MTL.

We got our official word 2 weeks ago. "Welcome aboard!" from Kevin, Sally and the CM team. I took on the role of organizer and liaison with the headquarters/NYC team. The 1st talk happened on My 31st at the Notman House. The speaker was Vincent Ramsay-Lemelin (@lagrossebarbe). Plank lent a hand in making this happen along with Atelya and F. & Co. Vincent is the Interactive Creative Director at DentsuBos in Montréal. He's authentic, unique, well spoken and has an epic beard. A real pleasure and I'm grateful for his time and effort in being our first speaker.

The free event "sold out" in 15 minutes and we had a 84% successful attendance rate, 1000+ visits to the Eventbrite page and a long ticket waiting list. The venue was bit hot due a sudden MTL heat wave, but otherwise everything went off without a hitch. The video of Vincent (with EN subtitles) will be online on our CreativeMornings/Montréal Vimeo page in the coming weeks.

Some of my own thoughts:

  • I'll be the first to admit that jumping into a hosting role with some public speaking is something I'm going to need some more practice at.
  • When there's a heat wave in MTL, and no AC, bring 10 stand up fans.
  • Vincent is a very interesting guy — can't wait to share his video.
  • My first real experience with Eventbrite. A pleasure to use.
  • Doing a bilingual event seems to work. I wasn't sure how smooth it would be. Very happy with how it came together.
  • We need stickers.

Some selected tweets and media from the event (#mtlcm):

See you in June!