If you were used to attending congresses organized under a series of lectures punctuated by the usual set of questions and answers, surely this 8th edition of the Centifolia congress organized by the Club des entrepreneurs du Pays de Grasse would have surprised you. 150 delegates gathered for three days at the city’s Convention Centre to build together “the perfect product”.

Everything was organized to foster exchanges and co-creation with World Café sessions (or "Café découverte") enriched beforehand by the informed testimonials of players operating in the cosmetic industry, but not only. Among speakers, some representatives of the profession like Xavier Ormancey (Yves Rocher), Marie-Laure Simonin Braun (Dessange), Claudie Ravel (Guayapi), Georges Ferrando (Albert Vieille) as well as visionaries like Arnaud Poissonnier (Babyloan), Gildas Bonnel (Si#), gathered around Jean-François Noubel (Collective Intelligence Research Institute), one of the pioneers in collective intelligence and the conductor of this atypical congress.

To create the perfect product - and isn’t it everyone’s goal? - integrating notions of beauty, good and authentic, at all stages of creation is the challenge that Centifolia wanted to take up.

Beautiful

For Guillaume Flavigny, perfumer at Givaudan, "the first ingredient to create something beautiful is the love one has for his raw materials." Beauty adds Ngub Nding President of Ephyla must be made of consistency, "it is necessary to bridge the gap between ideas that are thought beautiful and good and the materials used which are often low-end". Beauty coming from within, always shines out.

Good

As for good, it is the image that is echoed back to us by the product, "if it does good to everyone", emphasises Jean-François Noubel (CIRI). Values in connection with sustainable development, fair trade, respect of ecosystems all have their place here. "Let’s be close to Nature’s knowledge, let’s tap into it without exhausting it", Claudie Ravel, CEO of Guayapi, strongly believes it is the motto to remember.

Authenticity

Authenticity refers to a product that holds no lie, as emphasised Gildas Bonnel, President of the agency Si#. "The necessity of authenticity is more than ever a topicality, we all have become much listened, followed, and credible media, much more than the discourse of companies." Authenticity does not mean perfect, but it is just a product that assumes its strengths and weaknesses and who dares claim them in full transparency. "Imagine the consequences if your brand became fully transparent and authentic" was actually a theme worked on in a World Café. From "all truths are not good to say" to "a tremendous energy will be released by being authentic", delegates reflected on this issue and some of them even lifted barriers.

Centifolia 2011

Interactivity, co-creation, the awakening of consciousness were at the heart of this 8th edition of Centifolia, a different convention where everyone was there to learn but also to enrich the experience of others, be it colleagues or competitors. "A beautiful spirit of trust and sharing prevailed during these three days", according to Xavier Ormancey, R&D director of Yves Rocher and co-organizer of the event. For some participants, a downside however: the absence of decision-makers and marketers, which limits partly the musical setting of the notes selected for this congress.

"Companies, who used to consider the product as the key concern, have transformed in recent years by considering the customer at the key concern and will transform again in the future by focusing mainly on human beings", concluded a congressman. And for most of the participants, the congress did not end on the evening of October 21st, each participant in his way wanting to lay, as soon as possible in his daily life a few stones in the foundation of beautiful, good and authentic. It is also possible to follow these constructions on the Facebook page of the congress.