Capitale Numérique
The Project
- Strategic analysis – Diagnosis using the EDGY model to lay the foundations for renewal.
- Relaunch workshop – New structure, new identity, new mission.
- Community mobilization – Participatory workshops, engagement of volunteers and stakeholders.
- Workshop with the new Board of Directors – role clarification, long-term vision.
- Launch and results – 2,500+ participants, $1M in revenue, $1.5M in economic impact.
A Digital Ecosystem in Québec That Refuses to Die!
June 2024 — Québec numérique announces it is shutting down. Founded in 2013, the nonprofit leaves behind two major events for the province of Québec: Semaine numériQC and Web à Québec (WAQ).
“This decision stems from ongoing financial difficulties and from the non-payment of the $500,000 expected since September 2023 from the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MESS). In addition, the extra $1M required for 42 Québec will never be released.”
To this day, the reasoning behind this decision remains unknown. What we do know, however, is that digital professionals in Québec did not want to see these flagship events disappear. The reactions on social media made that very clear. It was precisely this strong desire from the community that led us to offer our help.
Over 1,000 shares.
A New Hope: How It All “Started Over”
On day zero, there were five of us: Jonathan Parent, Jean-Philippe Bonneau, Carole-Ann Labrie, Marie-Michèle Bouchard, and myself, Jean-Sébastien Daigle. All gathered in a tiny room at the Gabrielle-Roy Library in Québec City.
The idea was to use EDGY to analyze the situation and find a strategy to “save” the organization, its events, and its community.
Starting Point:
- No employees
- No nonprofit entity
- No production capacity
- No brand
- No products
- No clients and no partners
Great. What do you do with… nothing?
We pushed the reflection further on each of these aspects.
Key Findings:
- The events are 95% run by volunteers.
- Recreating a nonprofit isn’t actually that complicated.
- We know what it takes to create and run events.
- The brands (logos) don’t belong to us.
- Community motivation is still very much alive.
- If we don’t act fast, another entity will step in and take the space.
The Pivot:
Now that we had a clearer perspective on the context… what next? We positioned ourselves using the facets of the EDGY model and defined an initial strategy.
- Identity – Since everyone is motivated… let’s recreate the two main events from scratch.
- Brand – Since the old brands are blocked administratively… let’s create new ones to replace them.
- Experience – To avoid any confusion in how the public perceives things… let’s be as transparent as possible and clearly state: “We are the new version of the events you loved so much.”
- Product – To leave no room for competitors… let’s secure dates and venues right away.
- Architecture – To save time and secure the operation… let’s bring together the people who still have the capabilities needed to create events.
- Organization – To simplify everyone’s work… let’s reuse the structure of the former committees.
And, for the record, it all wrapped up over poutine… and an action plan to start everything over. The result: a sold-out, paid launch event where we announced the plans and the return of the events.
The Community Strikes Back: Motivation and Alignment
Since the previous strategy worked — it secured the events and rallied the community — it was time to move into production. And how do you kick off an event? With a game, of course!
At the time, we were designing a board game to help teams move forward in their projects and initiatives. So we played what is now called La Partie Prenante — a game where you learn by creating a fake wool-sock company using big data as its differentiator.
If that sounds a bit wild, that’s because it is. Everyone had a lot of fun — and also had the kinds of essential conversations every organization needs.
And that led us to a second round.
This time, no wool socks! We played (and created) Interface, an event whose ambition was to hold its very first edition.
After three hours of gameplay and three more hours of documentation on my end, we had a series of boards capturing the essence of the event — and most importantly, a shared vision of what needed to be done.
A few months later, Interface was born!
Return of the Board: How to Design a System
While the first year was incredible (several events, new hires, etc.), driven by accelerated creation, the second year is all about stabilization. The urgency of the moment is giving way to analysis and to laying solid foundations.
The first element to stabilize is, of course, the Board of Directors. A nonprofit is a legal entity that must follow specific rules. The Board is there to guide, decide, govern, and oversee. A new Board must define a vision, mission, and values. It must identify where it wants to go in the future — and what it explicitly does not want to do. It must define a strategy and understand the ecosystem to justify its choices. It has to be clear. It’s serious business.
Events are one thing — they are concrete. A nonprofit and a Board of Directors… a bit less so. To bring clarity, we used a collaborative approach with stakeholders who were motivated to join the Board. With a base already in place for the organization’s identity thanks to the events, the work was structured around a complete reshaping compared to the “first version.” Who is Capitale Numérique? Where are we headed? What do we not want to do? What impact do we want to have on our community?
Through a series of workshops, we refined these foundations, which have now become key reference points.
Of course, a vision alone is not enough to evolve an organization — and that evolution must be ongoing. That’s why, in parallel, the results of various satisfaction surveys were compiled to identify people’s needs (attendees, volunteers, speakers, etc.). Stakeholders in the Québec ecosystem were mapped to understand who could contribute to the adventure, and in what way. A service portfolio was also mapped out to gain better visibility over all the small details that make up an event — and more.
The Epilogue
After the first year, we can safely say that the community, volunteers, and Capitale Numérique team successfully rebuilt the events they cared about so deeply. They managed to hire a second employee, contributed to a third event in Montréal, and are planning a fourth (the details of which I don’t yet know).
They also welcomed more than 2,500 participants across these events, generated $1M in revenue, and created $1.5M in economic impact for the City of Québec. All this, in under a year!
It was a real pleasure for us to be part of this revival from day zero.