Culture of innovation – with Moment Factory, Ubisoft La Forge and Gsoft

CULTURE D’INNOVATION – HORIZON series, presented by Lenovo

It comes as no surprise that businesses who implement and invest in innovation, research, and extra-curricular creative endeavours have not only better employee retention, but tend to have better success rates. In fact, world-class companies operating in the tech and creative industries such as Ubisoft, Moment Factory, and Gsoft owe a big part of their success and growth to corporate innovation.

Yves Jacquier (Executive Director – Production Studios Services Ubisoft), Jean-François Larouche (Director of the interactive and creation department at Moment Factory), and Guillaume Chalifoux (Product and Marketing Director – Innovation laboratory – GLab, Gsoft) will tell us about their respective experiences with leading innovation and R&D initiatives within their organization, the importance of sustaining creativity and diversity amongst employees, the added value of prototyping, as well as the best practices to achieve a return on investment when developing a new product or idea.

	Guillaume Chalifoux, Product and Marketing Director – Innovation laboratory, GLab, Gsoft Guillaume Chalifoux believes that entrepreneurs are equipped to solve the most glaring problems of humanity. And as Director of the Innovation Lab at GSoft, his role is to disrupt markets by offering technology products that have a positive impact on workplaces. Each year since 2017, the GLab has launched 2 to 3 new technological products, from design to first sales. He previously co-founded two companies, in addition to having coached more than a hundred startups in Africa, Europe and Quebec. A proud graduate of the University of Sherbrooke, Guillaume also holds a master’s degree in entrepreneurship from HEC Paris.
	Yves Jacquier, Executive Director – Production Studios Services, Ubisoft Divertissements inc. In addition to the development of the production services activities, Yves designs an academic R&D strategy with two significant milestones : creation of a chair in Artificial Intelligence (Deep Learning) in 2011 and foundation in 2016 of the first Lab in the gaming industry dedicated to apply academic research : Ubisoft La Forge. Since his debut as electronics engineer in the health sector, then in particle physics, Yves has developed a solid expertise in technical innovation. He was previously project manager in telecoms and research engineer at the CERN (Conseil Européen de la Recherche Nucléaire) on the ATLAS experiment. Yves is also member of the board and scientific counsellor of CDRIN (Centre de Développement et de Recherche en Imagerie Numérique) and an enthusiastic scientific communicator for Ubisoft.
	Jean-François Larouche, Director of the interactive and creation department at Moment Factory Passionate about design, UX and an assumed geek, Jean-François has nearly 20 years of experience in creation and digital. His beginnings as a designer and user interface designer have allowed him to win several awards with, among other things, the La Presse + project. Today, he leads at Moment Factory a team of more than 50 designers and developers who create immersive and interactive experiences all over the world. He is notably behind the interactive and generative magic of the illumination of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge as well as several Lumina night tours. His concern to educate, motivate and his lively and collaborative spirit make him an inspiring leader for the studio.

Moderator : Nadine Gelly, General Manager, La Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec

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