La Factry now has a person entirely dedicated to its partners. Audrey Enet has recently joined the school as Head of Partnerships, Funding and Philanthropy. Her role involves securing government funding, concluding commercial partnerships and developing the Factry Foundation. Interview with a woman with a passion for creativity and business development.
What is your role as head of partnerships, financing and philanthropy?
My day-to-day job is to imagine, create and implement a strategy that will enable us to surround ourselves with partners on a long-term basis, so as to maximize our development opportunities, build a better network of influence, and increase the scope of our mission and our visibility. The aim is to develop our educational initiatives and our business over the long term.
At Factry, we do training, yes, but we’re open to anything that might be out of the ordinary – it’s in our DNA. My role is to represent us in order to create unique partnerships and collaborations. The skills essential to creativity are so universal and transversal that we can address everyone and collaborate with so many different organizations, whether in education, immigration, youth or digital. Sky’s the limit.
My role also involves all aspects of financing. La Factry is an NPO and seeks public funding to offer free programs (Pause, Canada créatif, for example) to various audiences in Quebec and Canada. Of course at Factry we generate private income by selling services to businesses, but I deal specifically with public funding, i.e. designing and submitting grant applications that are aligned with our mission and development strategy.
And our final source of funding, for which I am also the guarantor, is philanthropy, through our foundation.
Let’s talk about philanthropy. La Factry has had its own foundation since the beginning. What does it do?
At Factry, we teach the creative posture and essential skills of the future. The Foundation’s role is to democratize access to this teaching, to promote the professional development of everyone, whatever their field of expertise, educational background, socio-economic environment, etc. We want to give the next generation the means to take charge of their future and be agents of change! We want to give the next generation the means to take charge of their future and be agents of change!
We do this by seeking support from companies that share our vision, a vision of a changing society that requires individuals to have know-how and interpersonal skills, and a vision of education that focuses on what makes us fundamentally human.
The foundation is not new. Philippe Meunier, co-founder of Factry and Chairman of the Board of Directors, created the foundation in 2016 at the same time as the school. Today, it wants to give itself a new lease of life, and that’s where I come in. Over the coming months, the Foundation will become increasingly visible and audible. In fact, we’re currently looking for new administrators. Calling all enthusiasts!
How did you end up at Factry? How did you get here?
I joined Factry in September 2023. I’d describe myself as having a dual profile. On the one hand, I’ve always been very business-minded: I did business development consulting in London. When I arrived in Montreal, I wanted to reorientate my career towards the cultural and creative industries, in show production, event management, and more generally in business development linked to creativity. I worked at Moment Factory, Les Grands Ballets, La Piscine and C2 Montréal. So I’ve navigated through various creative companies in Montreal, each with their own reality, and that’s allowed me to couple that with my business side. And all this led me slowly towards the Factry’s vision of creativity.
My path has not been linear, I’ve always gone by feel. But I’ve always been drawn to the strategic and business development side of things, so you could say that’s been the guiding principle.
At Factry, we say you have to “listen for real” when you want to achieve the best possible collaboration. What does listening mean to you in your job?
Of course, my role is very cross-functional: I talk to management, production, communications and sales. So I have ears all over the office. But beyond listening to team members, I have to listen to the ecosystem in Montreal, Quebec and Canada, and to all kinds of realities. I have a strategic role to play in the development of the Factry, and how the school is going to position itself. So there’s a broader listening role, to be at the right time, in the right place with the right people. And to be on our X. We’re in the creative business, but we want to respond to real social issues.
