The team

Landscape architect for more than 30 years, Raquel Peñalosa works at the meeting of landscape architecture, participatory urban design, active citizenship and social innovation. It is a practice inspired by collaborative approaches in social innovation in order to question and define the place of the citizen at the heart of projects, for a more lively city, adjusted to the aspirations and needs of all. She has been involved in the International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) as President of the Americas from 2014 to 2018, promoting The Landscape Charter of the Americas. She is currently president of Communautique, an open innovation organization, which is hosting the 2021 Fab City and FAB16 Summit in Montréal.

Monique is the Executive Director of Communautique since 2002, a Hub for experimentation and training in open innovation. Since 2008, she has initiated a vast foresight process on citizenship, democracy and information and communication technologies that has positioned Communautique’s Living Lab at the forefront of Montreal’s open culture and global movement of Communs. Also co-initiator of the Fab Labs Québec co-op, and of échofab, the 1st Fab Lab in Canada. She also led the Fab Labs Nation initiative towards a pan-Canadian network of Fab Labs. After helping to host for the first time in America the Living Labs World Meeting in 2016, she led the bid to successfully win the hosting of the international Fab Labs meeting, FAB16 Montréal, and the Fab City Summit in Montréal in 2021. She is also a Laureate of the Women4Climate program of the C40 Cities network.

The growth of healthy collaboration and living together is what drives Samantha. Co-founder of Percolab, an international co-creation lab, she is involved in the social aspect of socio-ecological transition. Samantha puts her background in cultural anthropology at the service of open innovation approaches such as Imaginons Nos Fab Labs or Fab Labs Nation. She accompanies organizations and ecosystems to innovate their culture and governance and sees organizations as a lever for change – see her TedX: The Future is in Business as Commons. Author of Going Horizontal: Creating a Non-hierarchical Organization, One Practice at a Time (BK Publishers, 2018), Samantha is active in the participatory leadership movement. Samantha believes that the future of resilient and responsive cities lies in listening, collaboration and inclusive governance.

Specializing in organizational development and change management, Stéphanie focuses on the people who create the value of organizations and systems. She advocates a strengths-based approach to mobilize stakeholders through a return to meaning, autonomy and commitment. A practitioner in appreciative approach and blackbelt in continuous improvement, she values co-creation as a driver of culture and organizational innovation. Listening, understanding and creating connections to provide a caring experience that puts collaboration first. Focusing on what’s going well, taking a fresh look at things allows for culture change and moving forward. Stéphanie is a member of the Coop Percolab team. She holds a Master’s degree in Administration from the École nationale d’administration publique, Montréal and Paris (Sorbonne) and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Relations Communication (psychosociology) from the Université du Québec à Montréal.