In this episode of Event Experience by Bizzabo, host Rachel Moore interviews Christine Renaud, CEO and founder of Braindate. They discuss how Braindate fosters meaningful exchanges at events by moving beyond transactional interactions and into true knowledge sharing and the exchange of experience.
In 2008, Christine embarked on a ground-breaking mission: to transform gatherings into knowledge-sharing feasts. Fifteen years and over 1 million participants from 100 countries later, her technology company, Braindate has deeply enriched the lives of those who’ve engaged in meaningful exchanges. In 2015, Christine was selected as one of the “Most Innovative People in the Events Industry” by New York publication Bizbash, and also won the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award in 2016 by Startup Canada. She was also listed in 2018 as one of the Canadian Inspiring Fifty, honoring 50 women shaping the future of technology in Canada.
Here’s what you’ll hear about in this conversation:
[00:00:00] Rachel Moore: Welcome to Event Experience by Bizzabo, the podcast where we bring the best and brightest event experience leaders together to share stories, tips, and lessons learned from creating some of the world's biggest events. I'm Rachel Moore, your podcast host.
[00:00:23] How would you like four out of five attendees to want to come back to your event every time? There's a way, and it all comes down to how our brains connect. Christine Renaud, CEO and founder of Braindate, is about to share her approach to getting beyond the transactional and into the meaningful exchanges that move attendees, and bring them back for every single event experience you create.
[00:00:57] Well, today, everyone, we travel with a [00:01:00] guest who transitioned from a career in education and designing curriculums to being a pioneer in this industry of events and crafting human connections.
[00:01:09] Since 2008, her company Braindate has transformed gatherings into knowledge sharing feasts. So we're about to hit the buffet together, uh, in today's discussion. Please welcome Christine Renaud to Event Experience.
[00:01:22] Welcome, Christine. I'm so pleased to have you with us today.
[00:01:24] Christine Renaud: Hey Rachel. Thank you for welcoming me.
[00:01:26] Rachel Moore: Of course. As always, I do this, the super briefest of the brief introductions about each of our guests, but I wanna give you the opportunity to introduce yourselves to our listeners.
[00:01:35] Rachel Moore: So please tell us a bit more about who you are, and your role at Braindate.
[00:01:40] Christine Renaud: I'm Christine Renauld, like you really beautifully pronounced. So co-founder CEO of Braindate. Actually, you know what, it was our 13th anniversary yesterday.
[00:01:51] Christine Renaud: So Braindate, yeah, is 13 years old as of yesterday. So we created this platform to help the world [00:02:00] learn from each other, basically.
[00:02:01] Christine Renaud: And when we started, it was all about being in coffee shops. So it was really a citizen initiative where people would go to a cafe and have a coffee with a stranger to learn something new or share their knowledge. And we started actually working in the event industry after our first collaboration with C2 Montreal in 2013.
[00:02:21] Christine Renaud: So 2011 coffee shops, and then 2013, we started working in the industry.
[00:02:27] Rachel Moore: Amazing. I'm a big fan of coffee, also tea, but you know, you can get tea at coffee shops too, but it is, it does seem to be the, you know, ritual gathering place of people, but, um.
[00:02:36] Rachel Moore: Well, how timely then that we're having this discussion with you on the day after your 13th anniversary. So super excited about that.
[00:02:44] Rachel Moore: I actually have the fun, get to know you questions next, if you're ready.
[00:02:47] Rachel Moore: So we're going to transition into that. So if you're spending all day in an event, what are your go-to, on the ground shoes that you're going to be wearing?
[00:02:56] Christine Renaud: I went to two events last week and I had my platform [00:03:00] Crocs. So Crocs makes amazing, gorgeous shoes that are extremely comfortable. If Croc is listening right now, I would love to be a brand ambassador. Just saying.
[00:03:12] Rachel Moore: We'll do, we'll make sure we tag them and be like, by the way, Crocs, you're gonna want to listen to this episode. I love that.
[00:03:17] Christine Renaud: I have the high heels. I have the Crocs red high heels, but they're so big that I can't put them in my pocket because they take like half of my carry on.
[00:03:25] Rachel Moore: I think this is the first time I've even heard that they make high heel Crocs. So I'm absolutely.
[00:03:29] Christine Renaud: I swear to God.
[00:03:30] Rachel Moore: Oh my gosh, that's great. Is there anything that you're listening to, watching, or reading these days that you cannot put down?
[00:03:37] Christine Renaud: Right now I'm always, uh, you were talking about buffets. I'm a total buffet reader and I'm a buffet eater. Like, I love to graze on like many things simultaneously. I can read about 10 to 12 books simultaneously. Like, I really love, like a good Sunday for me if my children are not there and I'm alone is I surround myself with my books and just like, [00:04:00] grazing through my books for a full day.
[00:04:02] Christine Renaud: But right now what I'm bringing with me, because I'm still bringing real books, uh, it's a Radical Acceptance, which is all a book about, compassion and radical acceptance of ourselves, of others. It's amazing, you know, like when every single page is life changing, it's like a gorgeous book.
[00:04:20] Christine Renaud: Yeah, really recommend it.
[00:04:22] Rachel Moore: Excellent. Excellent.
[00:04:24] Rachel Moore: So let's dig into why we are gathered together, you and I today. And why our listeners are gathered with us right now as they're, listening.
[00:04:30] Rachel Moore: Well, we gather for all kinds of reasons, right? We gather for FaceTime, for event activations, lead generation, when you get the business part in there, and of course, the eating, drinking and being married together.
[00:04:42] Rachel Moore: Your work at Braindate gets specifically into the exchange and, you know, I like to get into the scientific terminology here, frontal lobes, again, speaking of our brains. I'd love to learn your philosophy on knowledge sharing at gatherings. How did that lead you to create Braindate?
[00:04:57] Rachel Moore: Like what inspired you to say, this is what we need?
[00:04:59] Christine Renaud: Such a great [00:05:00] question. So, as you mentioned at the beginning, I'm an educator by training. So I was a teacher in schools. And so, when I was a teacher, I really just just being in the classroom, realize how not adapted, I would say The way that we still teach our children and adults is to the actual way people are learning and the way that we want to, you know, have a life full of meaning and of purpose.
[00:05:26] Christine Renaud: So it's the same thing for children, you know, they are told that they need to prepare for 15 years to eventually be able to lead a life of purpose. And that's something that even now, I don't, I don't believe in. So I became very, very interested in alternative education and homeschooling and unschooling. So it led me to do a master's to eventually start my own school. So that was kind of the genesis of my passion for schooling and on learning and learning differently.
[00:05:53] Christine Renaud: And so, when I was after my master's, I was living in New York, and I was a podcast producer. But in the [00:06:00] early days, so, in 2007, 2008, and I was just seeing everybody using social media to, you know, find somebody that to pick the brain of when they needed to learn something quickly. You know, I'm a documentary filmmaker and I would like to transition into maybe doing law, law school. Like, do you know anybody who ever did that? Do you know any lawyers that I would love to pay them a beer, a coffee and pick their brain.
[00:06:25] Christine Renaud: And even myself as a podcast producer, like I didn't go back to sound engineering school to be able to do, uh, to do podcasts. You know, I just, my husband is a musician and he just taught me the ropes of the software I needed to learn.
[00:06:38] Christine Renaud: It actually, just seeing that, like, just seeing how naturally people turn to each other when they have to be agile in their learning really inspired me. So that was the genesis of Braindate.
[00:06:49] Christine Renaud: And then, so, as I was saying, we launched more for coffee shops and for, you know, day to day learning, but the problem we had was engagement. Like, people love the idea, but finding the right [00:07:00] time when you have your job and a family and your, you know, workouts and whatever we're trying to do to lead healthy lives.
[00:07:07] Christine Renaud: It wasn't the way of just going for a coffee at 6 p. m. at night, you know, with a stranger that honestly, my door might not show up, you know. So, and for women, like, oh, yeah, you're really interested in Italy, sure. You know, it was, we had, we had, like, issues like that.
[00:07:23] Christine Renaud: But then when we were approached by C2, and we saw that at events, people gather because they want to be inspired, because they want to have a moment where they dedicate some time, some sacred time for the renewal of their own inspiration and energy, where they want to connect meaningfully with each other, expand their networks, expand their minds and really networking.
[00:07:44] Christine Renaud: Oftentimes, it's just cramming people in a room, you know, sprinkling some alcohol on top of it and hoping for the best and not to, you know, disregard all the amazing initiatives that people put together, but it is difficult to really, like, engineer that serendipity.
[00:07:59] Christine Renaud: So [00:08:00] we saw that we actually could really thrive in a place where people are already gathered, already have this intention, but don't know how to do it. And that was the start of Braindate at events.
[00:08:10] Rachel Moore: It sounds so great. And, and really, thank you for sharing that Genesis or in that evolution too, to like realizing, I mean, I even just think right now too. I mean, I think I canceled lunch with a friend last week and I know this person and sometimes it is, it's just the, you know, go, I got to get, get together and get out of the house and their energy that you expend to do that.
[00:08:29] Rachel Moore: But sometimes you have to, it's almost like trying to go work out where you remember there, there's going to be a benefit at the end of this year. It feels like a chore to go do this thing, but you know, you're going to have a great outcome from it. But I love that you share that that's one of the real obstacles, but then of course, having that natural environment of the events where people are already there and that's what they're seeking.
[00:08:49] Rachel Moore: I want to ask you, obviously you can get together with people and it's very light on substance, right? Where you're like, okay, we're exchanging information. I'm not necessarily [00:09:00] actively listening to you. And maybe you're not really invested in saying things that are meaningful to me.
[00:09:05] Rachel Moore: How do you construct and how would you define a meaningful exchange?
[00:09:08] Rachel Moore: Because yeah, I bet, I bet, uh, you know, especially in an event environment, everybody's like, you just want my email or you just want to show me a demo. So how would you define an, a meaningful exchange as opposed to those kinds of
[00:09:20] Christine Renaud: So I, you know, there's something you said just earlier when you said like, okay, that we kind of Braindate sits in the frontal lobe. If I could really name it the way that people use it, it would be more like soul date or heart date.
[00:09:35] Christine Renaud: Because the whole culture of what we put together is really meant at creating belonging and creating a space where people can truly show up as their full self. And not, you know, like Christine, the CEO of Braindate, but Christine, the CEO of Braindate, the mother, the chef, the nature lover, the, you know, keto, uh, explore, like everything that I am when I come to a conversation, I bring it. [00:10:00]
[00:10:00] Christine Renaud: And this kind of, you know, kind of separation of what goes in business and what doesn't for me, it's absolutely not true anymore. Like, people really want to show up as their full self. And that's how they do business as well. You know, the best business relationships we have at Braindate are with humans that we love and people that we get along with, and that we have the same values, the same vision, the same mission.
[00:10:25] Christine Renaud: So, in the context of Braindate, we have amazing conversations that take place. You know, my team was just showing me at an event that was like, high tech event, we have braindates and the most popular topic was, uh, I would love to share what I learned in terms of leadership, surviving cancer, you know. And that's like, that definitely calls for some tears and some and some emotions and, you know, embracing our vulnerability and being together as humans supporting each other.
[00:10:54] Christine Renaud: So the way that we go about it is pretty simple. It's in all our culture and our comms. [00:11:00] It's all about loving humans and wanting humans to have a safe place to have brave conversations with each other. Conversations that will propel them forward in their lives. And the way we encourage such conversations is by helping people to craft very unique, individual topics of conversation that will gather 1 on 1 or a small group of people.
[00:11:22] Christine Renaud: So, you know, it's mostly networking tools, they just rely on tags. You know, creativity, innovation. But really creativity, I can think just right now about, like, 30 things I can talk about. But when you don't have that specific topic, when you come to the table, people are nervous, people, you know, fall back to their default mode, which is like, okay, business development, you know, proving to my boss that it was worth it for me to come here.
[00:11:47] Christine Renaud: So we help people to come in the braindates from a place of courage and I don't know if it's comfortable. Like, it's still, you know, it's still a bit nerve wracking or like, Oh, I don't know if I'm still the same, the good [00:12:00] things and the right things. And, but definitely a place where people can feel safe and feel that they can be their full selves in a conversation.
[00:12:06] Rachel Moore: Yeah, that's so incredible too, to get beyond that very transactional feeling business, which is obviously a part of who we all are. You just had a great example there, the second you bring up like struggling with chronic illness, whether it's you going through it or someone you love, who can't relate to that?
[00:12:25] Rachel Moore: I mean, that's immediately finding those commonalities where it's like, let's step outside of the business, the boardroom for a moment, and really start learning about each other.
[00:12:34] Rachel Moore: I'm loving this just because I feel like this is the foundation of human connection. Where even if there's these big divides between us, you always, there's going to be commonality there somewhere, right?
[00:12:43] Christine Renaud: Totally. Absolutely. And that's, and we have people who cry at Braindates. And people are, I would say, like, I don't have a stat on that. I have stats on other great things, but I don't have a stat on that, but I would say easily, like, 65%, 70% of people are moved by [00:13:00] Braindates because they're not used to go to an event and feel that they can deeply connect with strangers.
[00:13:07] Christine Renaud: Events can be very lonely, you know, especially post pandemic, people are extremely anxious of the small talk and the lack of meaning. And like, folks are really looking to be connected to their purpose at all times and not just outside of work, you know.
[00:13:22] Christine Renaud: So for folks to come to a place where they don't know anybody, they're in a crowd of 10,000, 20,000 people, and they can meet there and talk to their meaningful strangers, it's really, really powerful.
[00:14:23] Christine Renaud: You're talking about creating moments, moving people. I mean, they're going to remember that. That's going to stand out to them. Something they think back to, remember where they were, when they had that experience, remember the people that they talked to.
[00:14:37] Rachel Moore: I mean, this is every event professional's goal. You know,
[00:14:41] Christine Renaud: Mm hmm.
[00:14:41] Rachel Moore: are, amidst everything else they're trying to accomplish, they are trying to foster that. They want to be able to say, I want that person to remember that they came to the event I designed, and this is an excellent, very human way to do it.
[00:14:54] Rachel Moore: So with considering all of those very compelling and sometimes competing goals [00:15:00] that event professionals have today when they are designing those human experiences to gather people together, what are some things that you think can help empower them to create that knowledge sharing, the meaningful exchanges between their attendees?
[00:15:15] Christine Renaud: I would say that an easy win, in just the posture that we have as educators, because for me, event organizers, planners, managers are educators. And I think in a posture of educators, the easiest tweak, our change of posture would be just in reframing our perspective of the people who have knowledge and people who don't have knowledge.
[00:15:41] Christine Renaud: And that's something we see everywhere, you know, even in the mentorship relationship, and there's always this posture of like, okay, some folks deserve the stage, that deserve to be heard and some don't. Some deserve to be sitting down and listen and be filled with great knowledge.
[00:15:59] Christine Renaud: And of course, you [00:16:00] know, there are some people more knowledgeable about certain thing or whatnot, but we've seen over and over again at Braindate that it's not just about knowledge, it's about life experiences. It's about, you know, your failures. And an example of that, if folks that are listening heard me speak before, I always talk about this example, because it's, it was so telling that at C2 Montreal in 1 of our 1st activations, I think it was in 2015.
[00:16:27] Christine Renaud: There was a young women that came to the Braindate lounge because we host the Braindate lounge. We have a learning concierge on site. So we can host a safe space and make people feel seen and welcome. And the young lady came to the launch and she was like, 22, she was a student at McGill University. And, uh, she was like, what's Braindate? What is that? That's what we explain. And she said something that we always hear, you know, it's like, oh, I don't have anything to share, like, I'm just a student. You know, that's what she said.
[00:16:53] Christine Renaud: And we were like, there's nothing as such as just a student, like a young woman, you look amazing, [00:17:00] outstanding, like, let's find a topic for you to put on the platform. So we helped her and she put the topic. I can give you my millennial perspective on your product. That was our topic. And that year, it was the most popular topic of the platform, at C2.
[00:17:15] Christine Renaud: But, you know, there were like CMOs and it was like all the C 's were there, you know, but it was her topic because she had a unique perspective. So just changing that, that posture of deciding who deserves to be heard and who doesn't, uh, I think is a huge shift and you know, Braindate is a way, but there's so many ways that you can just reframe those power dynamics in a crowd.
[00:17:37] Rachel Moore: You make me think of, I've actually made jokes with some friends of mine, because look, I've never authored a book. I know, I have friends that have, and I know it's a huge undertaking. But I've always joked, too, that I feel like sometimes when you're an author of a book, you have an instant in, like, oh, I will, I will be a speaker then, I will be a panelist. I'm a published author.
[00:17:55] Rachel Moore: And granted, I think that's very deserving, but there's been times where I'm like, I'm going to write [00:18:00] just a book, that's like, this is my, “I'm a speaker” book. And all it's going to have is just like nonsensical stuff in there, but I published it, see? But to that point, I think you're so right that it can be very easy.
[00:18:10] Rachel Moore: And, and I think too, this is not to knock event professionals, they're all struggling to find ways to compel people to want to come invest their time, and often money, to come to their event. Well, they are trying to get the people there that are going to make that a compelling reason, you know, in a case for not only the attendee, but maybe they've got to convince, you know, decision makers or bosses at their company.
[00:18:33] Rachel Moore: So they're always trying to find like, who are the people who you know, who's the who are the names with that experience?
[00:18:40] Rachel Moore: But it's so important that you bring up that like this 22 year old student comes up and she's offering a perspective that all of us, like, you've been said it here just now, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, I want to have her on this podcast. Cause she would just really share some amazing, you know, things that we need to know and just removing those barriers, there's no [00:19:00] prequalifications, right?
[00:19:00] Rachel Moore: You're basically just saying, look, do you have a pulse? And have you had a life? You have something to offer. That's incredibly a great way to kind of open that gateway and make people feel like they all have something to bring, right?
[00:19:11] Christine Renaud: Yeah. And I mean, there are people, I think, that deserve to be on a stage, like, I was just at an event this last week and Brene Brown was there. It was the first time I saw her speak, she's amazing. Like, we all deserve and, you know, need a bit of Brene in our lives. That's absolutely fine.
[00:19:27] Christine Renaud: But the thing is that and that's also something we work on is that, I really believe that learning is self directed. And it has to be rooted in your own projects, your priorities, your burning questions, like, you'll learn when you're stretching yourself and you're not the person you have to be yet to be able to tackle, you know, a project or a challenge that you have.
[00:19:52] Christine Renaud: So that means that we don't need the same content at the same time. It's just not true. So the more we do [00:20:00] one track type of events or type of education system, the less relevant it is for the majority of people. So that's why when you empower peer learning and knowledge sharing, then you don't have, you know, 20 speakers that you have to pay and that you have to invite, and that you have to, to pamper and all this that goes around speakers.
[00:20:19] Christine Renaud: You don't have 20 or 50 or 100 of them. Now you have like 15 of them, you know, and it's 10, 000 or 15, 000 of them. So everybody in a room can be each other's teacher. And that's what we need to reframe when we work on any type of educational initiative.
[00:20:38] Rachel Moore: Absolutely. Well, you know, you rattled off some numbers there, which segues again beautifully to my next question. How about some results? Do you have any receipts from how knowledge sharing has improved the outcome for the attendees and the events they participate in? We'd love to hear about those.
[00:20:52] Christine Renaud: Yeah, we just started to measure. So we've always measured the impact of Braindate where a B Corp impact is, you know, at the core of everything we [00:21:00] do. And so we used to only measure the impact of every single individual Braindate and know, like, what is the satisfaction of participants based on that?
[00:21:09] Christine Renaud: But we started also now to gather more data about the overall Braindate experience of participants, because many participants, once they have one Braindate, they'll have 10 or, you know, 15, because they just fall in love with it.
[00:21:22] Christine Renaud: And we just discovered that 80 percent of all Braindate participants say that Braindate is the reason why they would go back to the event the following year. So, in terms of retention, what we create, which is, you know, and again, it's not just about Braindate. That's not what's interesting here. What's interesting is, why are people more likely to come back to the event after their Braindate?
[00:21:44] Christine Renaud: And it is because of feeling seen, feeling valued, feeling useful, being able to learn based on their own purpose and their own priorities. And also connecting meaningfully in a space of belonging with other folks.
[00:21:58] Christine Renaud: And that I cannot [00:22:00] overemphasize enough how different I think, and people know people listening to this podcast know, how different the world is post pandemic and you know we're kind of tired of talking about the pandemic, but I think it drastically changed the level of anxiety of people in social situations that are not created for, to foster belonging.
[00:22:17] Rachel Moore: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I even think about myself and I'm sure everybody listening is, you know, thinking about how it was different for you before and how you are now. And, you know, there was definitely a shift and maybe it's big, maybe it's little, but it did change. And even if it didn't change you that much, it changed the people you do meet up with, you know?
[00:22:35] Rachel Moore: And I always laugh because like, you know, we'll put like invitations out and, I've heard so many people, who have voiced that they're like, I just feel like it's a little bit more normalized that I can say no to some things, you know, that,
[00:22:46] Christine Renaud: mm hmm.
[00:22:47] Rachel Moore: they don't feel obligated, especially if you're not an extrovert to say, I can really be choosy about where I'm going and not feel obligated and really choose where I'm spending my time.
[00:22:58] Rachel Moore: But that, I think, just [00:23:00] going back to what you just said, eight out of 10 people were like, yeah, this is why I want to come back to this event so I can do this again. Obviously, it lands as something that is the thing that they want to, like I meant, I'm going to go right back to what I said about my friend earlier.
[00:23:15] Rachel Moore: I will get up, I will get out of my pajamas and I will go, go meet with you because it's going to be meaningful for me and I remember how great the outcome was last time. And so, uh, great that you're shifting that for people or, or at least, you know, putting it on their radar that this does land as something that they would prioritize for their time and energy.
[00:23:34] Christine Renaud: Totally, and it makes us so proud, you know, because that's what we want. Like, we want, we always tell our clients and that's why we're so involved also in the engagement strategy and the lounge design with our clients. I'm not an entrepreneur that sells tech tools. You know, I'm an entrepreneur that creates spaces for people to learn from each other and grow as humans.
[00:23:52] Christine Renaud: So if nobody's using it, I'm not, I'm not happy.
[00:23:56] Rachel Moore: That's right. That's right.
[00:23:57] Rachel Moore: So, uh, I will ask you the easiest question [00:24:00] of all, uh, where can our listeners find and follow you online?
[00:24:03] Christine Renaud: I think LinkedIn is a good place for sure. And our website, we're about to launch our new website that translates what we do a bit more so they can, they can go there for sure.
[00:24:12] Rachel Moore: Ooh, excellent. What's the website?
[00:24:14] Christine Renaud: Just, uh, www. www.braindate.com
[00:24:17] Rachel Moore: Oh, that'll be exciting. Looking at a shiny new website and after your 13th anniversary and coming up, uh, around the witching season, if you will, which every season is switching season, cause women. Awesome.
[00:24:39] Christine's Skill Up advice reminds us all to look beyond someone's title when we think about them as an attendee.
[00:24:47] Christine Renaud: You can never separate the humanness from the humans. Something around, like, it's very similar to what I said earlier, but we're never just a mother or we're never just, you know, a VP of events or [00:25:00] we're never just anything where we always come with everything that we have and that we are.
[00:25:05] Christine Renaud: And that, you know, that includes emotions and that includes, you know, perspectives on many things, knowledge. So I think that the more we design experiences around what it means to be a thriving human with all our facets, including, you know, our mental health and our, and our physical health, like sitting.
[00:25:29] Christine Renaud: When I go to events, I stand in the back, you know, like sitting all day. All of those things that, and it's not about events, you know, it's just about the way that we craft our ways of working in the society we're currently in.
[00:25:45] Christine Renaud: And I think that school has such a huge responsibility in reframing some of the things we take for granted, but I also think that events can play a huge role in that. Because people come to events wanting to be inspired, and wanting [00:26:00] that kind of break from my current ways, that break from what I always do.
[00:26:04] Christine Renaud: They want to have these experiences that will shake them up and reframe some of the things that need to be reframed. And I think it's such a great honor for us as event professionals to be like, okay, I don't have all the answers, but I'm going to try and give you another perspective on what your life could be.
[00:26:21] Christine Renaud: And implement and not just talk about it, but like, make it, make people live an experience that will alter the way that they imagine their lives, you know,
[00:26:31] Rachel Moore: Thanks again to Christine Renaud for joining us on Event Experience. And thank you for listening. If you're enjoying the show, we'd love to hear it. Connect with us on social and subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you're listening. Also, don't forget to share the show with your colleagues and friends. You can find transcripts of each episode and key takeaways on bizzabo.com/podcast. On behalf of the team, thank you. We'll gather again soon for a new episode of Event Experience.
