2025 Winner

Aspiring Black leaders looking for mentorship and role models in Canada would be at a loss – fewer than 1% of senior executives in our country are from the Black community. The Afrodescendant Leadership Alliance (ALA), a non-profit dedicated to empowering young Black leaders, sought to address this underrepresentation at its ALA 2024 Gala by offering AI-driven mentorship from history’s greatest Black leaders. “AI Mentors,” by Cossette, was the gala’s centrepiece, an immersive installation allowing attendees to engage in real-time conversations using AI trained on more than 200 speeches from icons such as Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou and Nelson Mandela. The dedicated space featured dynamic lighting, spatial sound design and projection mapping – a technique using projectors to turn everyday objects into interactive displays. The experience provided personalized responses for every participant and made history come alive. Throughout the event, hundreds of guests interacted with the mentors, generating 1,440 history-backed responses.

Credits

AGENCY: Cossette
EVENT AGENCY: Oxygène
CLIENT: Alliance for Afrodescendant Leadership

PRESIDENT, PLUS COVENTURE STUDIO: Sabaa Quao
CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, COSSETTE EAST: Anne-Claude Chénier
SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT, BUSINESS: Jean Hugo Filion
VICE-PRESIDENT, DIGITAL STRATEGY & TECHNOLOGIES: Louis-Philippe Mathieu
AI DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: David Fréchette
VICE-PRESIDENT,DESIGN AND BRANDING: Richard Bélanger
ASSISTANT CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Philippe Brassard
ART DIRECTOR, DESIGN: David Théroux, Isabelle Côté
COPYWRITER: Souléman Diallo
STRATEGY: Mateo Morin
PRODUCT OWNER: Catherine Bédard

POST-PRODUCER: Nasim Mousavi
MOTION DESIGN: Damien Thiebot

CLIENTS: Alexander Sinora, Perry Chuinkam, Roxane Ducasse