From a young age, Christine Renaud has always been passionate about surrounding herself with extraordinary people to create solutions for human problems. After studying education, she realized she did not enjoy teaching silent students arranged in rows. This realization led her to pack her bags for Harvard, where she pondered many questions before starting to create technologies, spaces, and books that help people around the world, both young and old, to learn differently.
In 2008, she embarked on a ground-breaking mission: to transform gatherings into knowledge-sharing feasts. Her technology company, Braindate, was designed to facilitate transformative conversations, enabling anyone, anywhere, to share knowledge and insights with their peers. Fifteen years and over 1 million participants from 100 countries later, Braindate has not just changed, but deeply enriched the lives of those who’ve engaged in these 500,000 (and counting!) meaningful exchanges. During that journey, Christine became a fierce advocate for women in leadership & technology.
In 2015, she 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, and in 2018, as one of the Canadian Inspiring Fifty, honoring 50 women shaping the future of technology in Canada.
In 2022 and 2023, Braindate was nominated for the Webby Awards, which are considered the “Oscars of the internet”.
Christine is a sought-after speaker and was recently invited at the World Innovation Summit in Education (Doha, Qatar), SXSW & SXSWedu (Austin, USA), Morgan Stanley Women’s Leadership Summit (Chicago, USA), C2 Montreal (Montreal, Canada), Creative Mornings (Montreal, Canada), re: publica (Berlin, Germany), Tech Open Air (Berlin, Germany), and IBTM (Barcelona, Spain).
In this talk, Christine showcases how her platform has facilitated over 500,000 transformative conversations across the globe, deeply enriching lives and revolutionizing the way people connect and learn. Her talk highlights the strategic importance of creating spaces for belonging and deep connection within organizations, offering actionable insights for fostering a collaborative learning culture. By intertwining stories of unexpected connections with research on belonging, Renaud illustrates the tangible business benefits of increased brand loyalty and the crucial role of meaningful interactions in combating loneliness, ultimately guiding attendees on transforming organizational culture to enhance collaboration and connectivity.
Today, AI is a hot topic, but truly understanding it is another story. One thing is clear, though: it’s shaping our world, and its design profoundly affects our lives. However, there is a consensus in the scientific community around its inclusivity: AI left women behind. While boosting the number of women in AI development is a crucial part of the answer, there’s a bigger question: What can the everyday person, the one who isn’t a tech expert, do to advocate for inclusive AI? Christine, in her true educator style, cuts through the noise to explain AI in plain language. She explores why AI isn’t fully embracing women and outlines why it matters, and what we can all do about it – no tech lingo necessary. By the end of this talk, you’ll be ready to take actionable steps and help shape an AI future that’s fair, unbiased, and truly representative of everyone.
Christine celebrates feminine leadership in her talk “Witches in Business,” highlighting the impactful contributions of women who have broken societal norms and achieved remarkable success by embodying qualities like courage, creativity, and compassion. Through inspiring stories of historical figures and modern trailblazers, Renaud explores how feminine leadership qualities contribute to building successful, inclusive, and innovative organizations. She provides practical strategies for attendees to cultivate these qualities within themselves and their organizations, emphasizing the power of historically feminine qualities for enhanced organizational performance and long-term success.
In this talk, Christine shares her transformative vision of converting traditional workplaces into dynamic environments that prioritize continuous learning and development, termed “learnplaces.” Drawing from her experience with Braindate, she demonstrates how adopting a human growth mindset can drastically improve employee engagement, satisfaction, and organizational success. Renaud offers practical strategies for fostering a culture that values growth and learning, showcasing the benefits of such an approach, including improved retention rates and productivity, especially among Gen Z employees. Her talk invites attendees to embark on a journey to redefine their organizational cultures, unlocking the full potential of their workforce through personal and professional development.
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