In this interview, Myriam Hadnes talks with Laure Cohen van Delft about the Never Done Before (NDB) festival. Laure defines facilitation as the future of leadership, describing it as the art of gathering people together to create magic through meaningful conversation, decision‑making, and brainstorming. She explains her session “The Magic of Rituals,” highlighting how rhythm, safe space, and storytelling function as invisible yet powerful rituals that shape facilitation. Laure shares her excitement for NDB, emphasizing the freedom to be curious and the role of Braindates—structured one‑on‑one or small‑group conversations that deepen connections and energize participants. She recounts a spontaneous Braindate sparked by Malcolm Gladwell’s talk on identities, where participants explored personal narratives, leading to lasting connections. The conversation ends with optimism about making the NDB festival a recurring ritual, inviting others to join and share never‑done‑before experiences.
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Hello.
Thank you for taking time to speak to me and the audience about Never Done Before.
Always a pleasure.
And as a ritual, as we just figured out, what does facilitation mean to you? What does it mean to be a facilitator?
Yeah. I love that question, and it's close to my heart to answer it in a leadership sense. I think, deeply think, it's the future of leadership. Every leader needs to become a good facilitator in my mind, and that's why the Never Done Before Festival is so key to learning from others. Like in peer learning, what's facilitation? So for me personally, I learned a lot from a dear friend of ours called Priya Parker. And for me, facilitation is really the art of gathering, the magic that comes out of being together, and then finding ways to decide, to brainstorm, to have meaningful conversations. So it's the art of gathering, but it becomes the magic as well of this gathering. How do we get something out of it? And that's the role of not only the facilitator, but the whole group. That's what the facilitation is about for me.
And talking about magic, at Never Done Before, your session is called The Magic of Rituals. So what can participants expect from your session?
Yes, I was kind of completely attracted by the magic and the rituals, and I thought, wouldn't it be nice to put it all together because it has so much to do with facilitation. So for me, this session will be an invitation to experience because Never Done Before is something we've never done and I've never done it. online especially, to experience what's the role of rhythm, the cadence in the facilitation process. What's the role of space? Yes, the safe space, but also the space we are in. And then what's the role of the storytelling? What are the narratives we have that of tied it all together. So for me, the magic of rituals is almost talking about something that is invisible, but to bring it to the surface so that as leaders or as facilitators, we become more aware of the importance of those rituals and make them actually visible. And so that they help the audience to have meaningful gatherings, discussions.
Wonderful. And you've been such an ambassador and frontrunner of the entire Never Done Before idea, and I'm curious, what is it that excites you about it? And maybe you also want to share a sponsorship partnership that you have initiated and pushed with Braindates based in Montreal. So maybe you can also share about that one.
Yes, that's true. I'm a proud Montrealer, always on the lookout for new technologies, as you've done and all the facilitators and participants have done so far, testing new things. So that's what I love about Never Done Before, is the permission to be curious as much as you want and to find other curious people to discuss about topics. So we've done that already in the preparation leading to this event, and that was, I think, a beautiful experience in itself, bringing more than 80 or 100 people together already in our Slacks talking about something we're passionate about. So to answer your question, braindates are exactly that, talking about something of interest and being able to share that interest either on a one-on-one if we want it to be an intimate conversation, or in a group if we want to have more of a facilitator's experience talking about something and getting some input, that energy It energizes us to go a step further. So Brain Dates, I think, goes hand in hand with the never-done-before experience and will bring, I think, people even more together than, than we thought. So happy.
Absolutely. Yeah, we just joined both the same conference and experienced Brain Dates firsthand. And I posted the topic of podcasting as a brain date and was amazed how many other conference guests reached out to me to speak about it. And I'm curious, what are your brain dates that you posted maybe in the past conference and that you are ready to share and post that you had never done before? Such a good question.
Well, I'll share my surprise because after listening to Malcolm Gladwell's conference on identities, I kind of had a spur-of-the-moment question which was around narratives. So I just, you know, posted out in the world and it was something around what are the narratives that get under your skin? And that maybe you want to unpack, to, to open other doors or possibilities. So I don't know, but it was definitely, what are the narratives that go under your skin? I received an avalanche of requests and people from all walks of life in different positions who wanted to explore that topic. I'm not an expert. of narrative coaching at all, but it's something that was kind of of interest, and it allowed me to go deep within 30 minutes on this particular topic with people who had a lot to say on it. And that was funny enough. I think I've made some connections that will last way after The C2 conference. C2 being commerce and creativity conference. Yeah. So isn't that interesting to make friends over a brain date that lasted 30 minutes just because you shared a common interest towards something? I don't know if you had that same experience around keeping ties with those people.
Yeah, absolutely. I made— I had a few very interesting and deep conversations, and let's see what will happen afterwards. Let's see where Never Done Before Brain Dates will take us in the journey.
Yeah, we will make it a ritual, I am sure, of having our Never Done Before festival. Every year, every 2 years, I don't know, but I'm very, very happy to be part of that wonderful adventure. It's an adventure. So I hope, I hope to see a lot of you come in, join us, and, and yes, share never done before experiences. Right.
Wonderful. Thank you so much, Laure.
You're welcome. Thank you. See you there, November 20th.
