A few posts ago I mentioned that the YDreams Group was expanding; turns out our family across the Atlantic has also been growing. Both YDreams Brasil affiliates (Rio de Janeiro & São Paulo) have taken on new members over the past months and in part because of it, they’ve decided to implement the Close Encounter (CE) sessions originally launched here at Lisbon HQs a few years back.

Close Encounters are small internal weekly conferences whose format varies; it can be a round table discussion, a talk about a specific topic or an artistic presentation. Speakers may be volunteer YDreamers or invested guests. Nuno Artur Silva (Produções Fícticias), Artur Arsénio (Robotics), Manuel Lima (Data Visualization) or Prof. Rui Aço (Oficina do Desenho), are some of the wonderful speakers we have had the privilege of having at our CEs. Internally we’ve also had folks talk about ‘Interactive Narratives in Cinema’, the ‘Power of Collaborative Tools’, ‘Digital Art’, and ‘Managing Your Personal Finances for the Financially Challenged’, among others. As you can see the idea is as much to discuss themes related to our core business as to inspire and inform!

Brazil’s first Close Encounter is underway in São Paulo as I write. It’s actually been a day and a half affair, and from looking at the program it sounds much like Orientation meets Team-building Seminar! The session includes an inspirational interview from co-founder and CEO. António Câmara, presentations of the company’s more emblematic cases and talks about, amongst others, “how we as a society have moved away from a ‘heavy’ and ’solid’, hardware-focused modernity to a ‘light’ and ‘liquid’, software-based modernity” (from Zygmunt Bauman’s ‘Liquid Modernity’).

Sounds like interesting stuff! Here’s to the first of many CEs in Brazil!

Karina Israel, YDreams Brasil’s Executive Director will be co-chairing a seminar on the 16th of April at Rio de Janeiro’s ‘Casa do Saber’ (House of Knowledge in Portuguese) alongside Suzana Apelbaum, partner and VP for Creation at REDE agency, a multidisciplinary communications agency that is a part of the ABC Marketing Communication Group.

The course put together and administered by Suzana Apelbaum, is comprised of four sessions, set to take place on the 29th March, 5, 12 and 16th of April at 8 p.m. The sessions will revolve around and analyze new consumer profiles, the changes that have resulted from new agency and media formats as well as the new creative and production processes, the explosion of social networks, the emergence of ‘products that sell products’, brand experience and brand content, amongst others.

Karina was invited by Suzana to round off the seminars by sharing her experience at YDreams, a global company known for combing creativity, design and technology to create innovative communication formats. Karina will be showcasing the company’s more emblematic cases that feature some of the latest trends and novelties in interactive installations resulting in innovative experiences that are revolutionizing the way people today interact with brands.

‘Casa do Saber’ is a well- referenced center for debate, reflection and knowledge, located in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The extra-curricular environment also offers courses and workshops in areas like social sciences, literature, history, plastic arts and music.