In Toulouse, breakfasts to boost creativity

“It all started in 2012,” remembers Benoît Rouhier, co-coordinator of Creative Awakening. Nicolas Tirard, at the time a journalist at Milan presse, visits his sister, who lives in New York. He takes the opportunity to attend a Creative Morning, a morning mini-conference. When he returned to the Pink City, he imported the concept, which had already spread to some metropolises around the world. He mobilizes his contacts. His daughter, who works in a bakery, helps him get prices on croissants and pain au chocolat.

This is how a one-hour “Creative Awakening” was launched, once a month (the equivalent of ten meetings per year), free of charge and upon registration. The meeting begins at 8:30 a.m. with a thirty-minute breakfast, during which the public is welcomed and gets to know each other, each with their badge. At 9 a.m., the guest speaks for twenty minutes to share his way of approaching creativity in his discipline. The remaining ten minutes are devoted to an exchange with the public. Each intervention is broadcast live on Campus FM and is then accessible on the association’s website in podcast form.

Share your approach

That morning, at the coworking space La cantine by la Mêlée, it was already the 118th edition of Réveil creative. Today’s guest, psychosociologist Julie Chabaud, details, in front of around forty people, how she weaves links between arts, human sciences, design and ethics of care, in order to open spaces for experimentation and dialogue. The guests’ fields of activity are very varied: graffiti artist, scientist, therapist, wool weaver, videographer, interior designer… “The idea of ​​creativity is a transversal theme, which can apply to everyone,” explains Benoît Rouhier. What interests us is to know the sources of their creation. Our audience comes to meet guests who have things to say. » Benoît thus discovered activities that he would not, at first glance, have imagined to be creative.

“I am thinking of Marie-Christine Llorca, doctor of educational sciences, who made us aware of the pedagogies in force in different parts of the globe. We came away amazed. The geographer Philippe Valette reconciled me with his discipline by showing us how he drew the landscape he observed, and by telling us the history of the river landscapes of the Garonne valley. Denis Pellerin, service designer, revealed how he could reorganize the operation of an emergency department in a hospital to prevent people from spending the night on a stretcher under neon lights, by inventing protective caps. »

The choice of speakers is decided during a quarterly planning meeting, each of the nine members of the association proposing their candidates. They all have a very specific role: coordination, logistics and manufacturing, press relations, website and communication, breakfast and above all support for the guest. This coaching role is carried out in particular by Sophie Grangé, HR consultant and social psychologist. Its goal is to help the guest reveal what is deep within themselves, by thinking differently. “I first research who they are and how they communicate. Then I meet them. You can exchange up to three times. I am keen to give them the lead: not promotion, but exposure to their creative process. Let everyone tell their unique way of embodying their creation – some have sometimes never been aware of it or verbalized it. And that we can reinvent the format. This moment resonates strongly with me. »

Throw the routine away

The Creative Awakening sometimes adds fifteen minutes of bonus in the form of a performance. Nathalie Lebrun-Bailly, a visually impaired tango dancer, made everyone dance with their eyes closed at the Grave chapel. Jocelyn Lermé from Belem took his audience out into the street to describe the architecture of the building where he was speaking.

“The team’s leitmotif is to break the routine of mornings that are the same,” explains Benoît Rouhier. Decide, this time, to arrive a few minutes late for work, to postpone everyday worries until later. The goal is to cultivate curiosity, attracted by the promise of a moment of sharing around creativity. » It lasts an hour, the time needed to leave with a light heart, a boiling imagination, and a smile on your lips.