ContenFest Plots 2027 Mexico and Morocco Editions After Two Sold-Out Montreal Editions

ContenFest will host its third edition on September 30 at Montreal's Société des arts technologiques, marking the operational test for an international expansion that includes parallel events in Mexico City and Morocco in 2027.

Founded in 2024 by Jacques Eastwood, the conference positions itself as the first Canadian Creator Economy event built to bring Francophone and Anglophone creators into the same room. Both prior editions sold out. The 2026 program features motivational creator MD Motivator (Zachery Dereniowski), Quebec-born dancer Énola Bédard, who recently performed with Shakira at the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final halftime show, and magician Raphael Laferrara, who holds roughly 4.7 million YouTube subscribers.

What does the format change?

Eastwood's core bet rejects the executive-led template common at most Creator Economy conferences. "When you go to creator events, they bring executives," he said. "But they don't give the mic to the creators. And actually, who's the one we want to hear?"

Panels are organized around each creator's specific niche rather than broad industry themes. A mental-health track addresses the algorithm-driven output pressure creators absorb. "The pressure of creating content, dealing with bad criticism, the pressure from the algorithm," Eastwood said. "We're talking about the effect that has in the head of somebody who cannot deliver."

The event pairs creators directly with brand executives for matchmaking. "The creators come to meet the brand executives. The brand executives come to meet the creators," Eastwood said. "It's a conference with a festival aesthetic."

Is the algorithm the new gatekeeper?

Eastwood pushes back on the claim that social media has democratized influence by eliminating gatekeepers. His argument centers on algorithmic reach. A creator with 5,000 followers may reach only 500 people per post, he said, forcing either higher content volume or paid distribution to scale.

"There is gatekeeping," he said. "The gatekeeping is the algorithm itself." That view shapes his larger thesis on brand behavior: "Each brand, each company has to build a media department right now. We're still at the genesis, but not for long."

Where does ContenFest sit against VidCon?

The competitive context shifted recently. LIONS, the company behind Cannes Lions, announced that VidCon will join its portfolio, combining VidCon's fan-and-exposition model with Cannes Lions' brand-executive depth. The combined event heads to Nashville.

Eastwood does not position ContenFest at that scale. "We're not at the stage of VidCon in Canada yet, but we're building toward it," he said. ContenFest's near-term ambitions are more measured: a fourth Montreal edition planned for May 2027 during the Formula 1 Grand Prix weekend, plus the Mexico City and Morocco pilots the same year.

Why Mexico and Morocco?

The Mexico City team already has experience producing major creator events, according to Eastwood. He frames Mexico as the largest creator market among Spanish-speaking countries, with concentrated activity across food, fashion, beauty, athletics, and education. "The creator space in Mexico is so huge," he said.

Morocco draws on Eastwood's earlier work as Executive Producer and Head of International Business Development at Just for Laughs, where he helped expand the comedy festival to Morocco, Tunisia, and South Africa over a four-year run. He started ContenFest after attending Web Summit in Lisbon, pivoting from a music-promotion career that began with after-parties and live shows across Montreal.

A 2024 phone call from Ryan Konarsky, who was organizing a TikTok event in Montreal, catalyzed the move. Platform data could not surface creators by city due to privacy constraints, so Eastwood assembled the local creator community through direct outreach. "I said, 'I know everybody, don't worry, I got you,'" he recalled.

What's the long game?

Eastwood's stated ambition is global. "There are more than 200 million creators in the world," he said. "I want ContenFest to become worldwide. That's my vision."

The 2026 edition also carries a formal partnership with World Children's Day, with a share of proceeds directed to the initiative. The alignment reflects Eastwood's stated personal history. "I think my childhood is the cause of who I am today," he said.

If the Mexico and Morocco editions perform in 2027, ContenFest will have moved from a single-city bilingual experiment to a three-market creator circuit, built on a model that explicitly rejects both the fan-exposition and the executive-conference templates now consolidating at the top of the event industry.