Spread the love

Visionary strategist and transformational specialist Ron Gauci has joined C2 Melbourne as Managing Director. As the C2 Melbourne team grows, moving into a new office in Southbank and launching a partnership with the iconic Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the local business community is getting behind C2 Melbourne, the new player in the conference scene.

Gauci has a successful history in taking entities such as Melbourne Storm, Federation Square and Melbourne Polytechnic (formerly NMIT) to the next level. Now, Gauci is changing his own game and joining the innovative team at C2 Melbourne, in a career move that he says ‘prioritises social impact’ and levels the playing field of the future.

When Gauci travelled to the C2 Montréal business event in May this year, his motivation was personal. ‘I went there to learn more about myself as a leader and to open my mind to different ways of conducting business in the new global economy,’ he says. What he experienced was a three-day, action-packed collaboration between cross-industry leaders. Participants eagerly shared knowledge, ideas and challenges in an effort to progress the collective future of business. By the time Gauci landed back in Melbourne, the C2 experience had left a great enough impact for him to consider a rather unexpected career move. True to company spirit, the C2 executive team had spotted a brilliant collaborative opportunity between a ‘big business’ mind and a lean creative SME attempting to shake up the status quo – they quickly put a proposal on the table. Gauci thought about the future of his grandchildren, considered his side-passion for playing music, and decided to take on a new challenge to help drive a creative vision.

C2 Asia Pacific CEO, Martin Enault says, ‘Ron understands the fundamental mission of C2 – to open dialogue and connect humans for the benefit of moving society and the economy forward.’ Enault is focused on the conundrum that while business models, revenue streams, workplaces, technological advancements and networking practices have all shifted rapidly over past decades, the convention of the business conference remains largely untouched. Why do leaders fly all around the world to sit in a static environment that could be replicated on a screen? Enault suggests it is, ‘because there is still no connector as powerful as human contact; no transfer of meaning as efficient as being face-to-face with another individual.’ The magic of the C2 experience, is that it places this human exchange at the heart of the business conference so as to provoke transformative collisions.

Founded in Montreal, Canada, by Cirque du Soleil and world-class creative agency Sid Lee, the flagship C2 event custom-creates an out-of-this-world sensory journey space, through which participants discover inspiring talks, collaborative workshops, experiential brainstorming sessions, performances and festivities. Winner of the BizBash Best Conference of the Year for three years running, C2 will now bring an inaugural event to Melbourne, challenging 3,000 curious minds from 25 countries across 20 industries to benefit from this positive collision. Powered by the belief that creativity is the essential human skill needed to propel society and the economy forward, C2 Melbourne orchestrates a space for daring conversations.

The team at C2 Melbourne have been working together with the local business community and government to bring the unique C2 dimension to Melbourne’s already thriving local events scene. Moving in to their new digs in Southbank, the growing team has also appointed well-recognised Melbourne business identity, Margie Stewart, previously of the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce and Hilton Worldwide, as Director of Business Development. In a world-first, C2 Melbourne has formed an integrated partnership with the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. The move both embeds C2 as a long-term player in the APAC region and showcases the confidence of the iconic exhibition space to invite disruption to take place within its walls. Signature C2 Labs and collaborative experiences will be available for clients to adapt to their own events later this year.

The C2 Melbourne event 17–19 October will showcase a business conference that breaks the rules, so business leaders can remake them. Passes are available athttps://www.c2melbourne.com