MTLConnecte: Montreal's Digital Week
I'm Orléando Dassi, CEO of Automathing, a technology company based in Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. I had the honor of participating in the 7th edition of MTLConnecte from October 28 to 31, 2025, Montreal's Digital Week, as a Digital Ambassador thanks to the support of LOJIQ. This event brings together thousands of participants from multiple countries and continents to exchange ideas about innovation, technology, and digital entrepreneurship.
For a major conference like MTLConnecte, spanning several days and covering multiple themes, it's evident that everyone leaves with different experiences. So here are some elements that particularly resonated with me.
It was a week rich in learning, authentic connections, and strategic reflections. Here are my 10 key lessons from this MTLConnecte experience.
1. We are All Condemned to Learn
Lamiae Azizi hit hard right from the start: we can no longer remain passive in the current era. Continuous learning is no longer an option—it's an absolute necessity to stay relevant.
But what truly distinguishes professionals who thrive from those who merely survive are the intrinsically human skills—those that AI can never truly replace:
- Continuous development: the ability to reinvent yourself, to step out of your comfort zone
- Innovation: imagining solutions that no one has yet envisioned
- Adaptability: pivoting quickly in the face of change without losing sight of your goals
In a world where technologies evolve at breakneck speed—where what's relevant today can become obsolete tomorrow—these three skills become our greatest collective asset. Regardless of your role, industry, or level of experience, curiosity and open-mindedness are not mere qualities; they are our best collective allies for navigating uncertainty and continuing to create value.
2. Don't Attend Events Just to Sell
One of the most common traps at networking events is having the sole objective of selling your product. I discovered there are better alternatives:
Learn From Others
I learned enormously from other ecosystem players—concrete practices, strategies that actually work, mistakes to avoid. Every conversation was a free masterclass.
Recommend other People's Products
Counterintuitive? Perhaps. But recommending other entrepreneurs' solutions creates trust and reciprocity. People remember those who help them, not just those who sell to them.
Connect
Authentic connections are the real treasure of events. These relationships are built over the long term and can transform your entrepreneurial journey in unexpected ways.
3. Glocalization: Think Global, Act Local
A powerful concept emerged during the conferences: glocalization.
Products or services must be designed with a global vision while being adapted to local needs, cultures, and preferences. The reverse—starting with an ultra-local solution and then trying to internationalize it—is much more complicated and costly.
4. A Tunisian Startup Behind the Pfizer Vaccine
Did you know that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was developed thanks to InstaDeep, a Tunisian startup specializing in artificial intelligence? Recently acquired for $700 million, this success story demonstrates that innovation can emerge from anywhere.
This reminds us that as francophone entrepreneurs, we have our place on the global innovation stage.
5. The Francophonie Represents 20% of Global GDP
Countries with French among their official languages represent 20% of global GDP. This is a considerable share that must not only be preserved but continuously improved.
This is a tremendous opportunity for francophone entrepreneurs and innovators to contribute to this ecosystem while maintaining a global perspective.
6. Resilience as a Sustainability Strategy
Auréanne Bisoka highlighted a crucial point: to last in the market, you must always adopt a resilient approach by creating products or services capable of adapting to change.
This philosophy should guide any product strategy: build progressively, iterate based on user feedback, and be flexible in the face of technological and market evolution rather than reacting in urgency.
7. AI is Not Just ChatGPT
Clément Domingo (SaxX) launched a disturbing truth: "You're not doing AI if you're doing ChatGPT."
This statement raises a widespread confusion: artificial intelligence is not limited to generative or conversational AI. It's only the visible part of a much larger and more diverse ecosystem.
AI is Much More Than Text Generation
Artificial intelligence encompasses many specialized domains:
- Computer Vision: image recognition, anomaly detection, medical diagnosis
- Predictive Machine Learning: demand forecasting, fraud detection, predictive maintenance
- Natural Language Processing (NLP): sentiment analysis, entity extraction, automatic translation
- Recommendation systems: content personalization, offer optimization
- Robotics and automation: autonomous vehicles, industrial robotic arms
- Optimization: logistics, resource allocation, planning
Specialized Models Outperform Generalist Models
A crucial point often overlooked: for most professional use cases, a specialized model will be more effective than a generalist LLM.
Concrete examples:
- A medical diagnostic startup will get better results with a model specifically trained on medical images than with GPT-4 Vision
- A financial fraud detection system will perform better with a model optimized for this use case than with Claude or ChatGPT
- A demand forecasting tool will benefit more from time series algorithms (ARIMA, Prophet, LSTM) than from a generic LLM
8. The Best Conversations are Not Only on Stage
The magic of #MTLConnecte wasn't limited to panels and conferences. The most valuable exchanges took place:
- Over coffee, when someone shares their project with passion
- In the corridors, where an entrepreneur shares insights they would never have shared publicly
- During spontaneous conversations where you discover others are experiencing the same challenges as you
That's the magic of events. 🤝
These informal moments allowed me to validate some of our hypotheses about TransformZ and identify new use cases we hadn't thought of.
9. Technological Sovereignty: Let's be Realistic
Anne Nguyen brought a nuanced perspective on technological sovereignty: we must be realistic in our ambitions, as there are several levels and tiers.
She continued by saying that technology has been greatly influenced by several giants over many years. Even with a 100% Canadian phone, there would be many American and international components inside.
True technological sovereignty doesn't mean rebuilding everything from scratch, but rather developing strategic capabilities in key areas, using open standards to avoid vendor lock-in, and training a critical mass of local talent.
10. Authenticity Beats the Perfect Pitch
Confession: I didn't arrive at MTLConnecte with a polished 30-second pitch. I simply had a clear understanding of what I'm working on and why it matters.
Authentic networking > sales pitches
I bet on authenticity, on contextual and natural discussions with other ecosystem players. And I have no regrets.
The strongest connections I established came from conversations where I simply explained how TransformZ solves the data accessibility problem, with no hidden agenda, no sales pressure.
Conclusion
Thank you to LOJIQ, OFQL, and PrintempsNumérique for this exceptional event. Thank you to the volunteers, panelists, and contributors who made this week memorable.
MTLConnecte 2025 reminded me of the importance of building a strong and innovative digital ecosystem, whether in Montreal, Sherbrooke, elsewhere in Quebec, or in other countries, where continuous learning, authenticity, and collaboration take precedence over pure competition.
If you were present at MTLConnecte, I would have loved to meet you. If you missed it, see you next year—and don't forget: come to learn and connect, not just to sell.
About Automathing Group Inc.
Automathing is a Quebec-based company developing TransformZ, a platform that simplifies data accessibility by allowing to interact with data using AI, quickly opening them in Excel, and share them via auto-generated APIs.