The Hopscotch communication group was awarded by the Top Com panel on 14 February for the design and construction of the Usine Extraordinaire at the Grand Palais, a unique event to get the French population to fall in love with industry again.

“The Usine Extraordinaire is the meeting of two worlds that have remained too far apart: factories and society. Or how to reforge strong links through events,” explained Michel Athimon, member of the executive board of the Fondation Usine Extraordinaire, and Carla De Oliveira, deputy managing director of Hopscotch.

Factories are at the heart of human societies and all strong economies, but they suffer from lasting prejudices. To encourage the French to “change their mind about factories”, the FIM (Federation of Mechanical Industries) and Hopscotch devised an immersive scheme designed to amaze young and old, under the glass roof of the Grand Palais: to recreate a living, life-size factory.

Under the aegis of the Fondation Usine Extraordinaire hosted by FACE (Fondation Agir Contre l’Exclusion), the event focused on the public interest, both in terms of its format and content. Free and open to all, the Usine Extraordinaire welcomed more than 40,000 French people of all ages and all backgrounds, including 13,000 pupils on guided tours.

Supported by over one hundred patrons and partners, from major groups to SMIs and education, the Usine Extraordinaire was placed under the high patronage of the President of the Republic. For the first time, from 22 to 25 November 2018, industrialists, teachers, secondary school pupils, students, families, the media, public and private decision-makers came together under one roof to celebrate the richness and modernity of French industry and experience a factory from the inside. An inspiring, creative and inclusive factory that offers multiple opportunities and gets new generations to see themselves in such an environment.

Hopscotch supported FIM throughout the project: creation of the concept, search for partners, staging, event creation and production, dialogue with experts and stakeholders, drafting of content, mobilisation of the educational community, media relations and communication plan. For 12 months, the agency, an expert in relational capital, ran a complete ecosystem aimed at pre-figuring the Usine Extraordinaire and bringing together all the stakeholders involved in the project (business leaders, public authorities, the education community, engineering schools, communication managers of sponsors, media partners, associations, qualified personalities, etc.).

Under the nave of the Grand Palais, 40,500 visitors came to view the 13,000 m² of space laid out and staged, under 4 key words: Share, Invent, Manufacture and Connect. 50 spaces for interaction and experience allowed the public to immerse themselves in the factory. The 4 agoras, spread across the great nave, hosted over 245 lectures and keynote speeches. Some 13,300 secondary school pupils guided by 200 engineering school students discovered a large-scale factory and met technicians, engineers and workshop managers. 13 ministers, Secretaries of State, around twenty ambassadors and representatives of embassies, as well as parliamentarians, visited the Usine Extraordinaire and chatted with the public.
From its opening on Thursday 22 November morning, the Usine Extraordinaire, which hosted the National Industry Council, was inaugurated by Edouard Philippe.
On the first evening, the Usine Extraordinaire dinner, chaired by Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Secretary of State to the Minister for the Economy and Finance, brought together 700 managers of industrial companies of all sizes. The following evening, an extraordinary cocktail was held alongside the machines. This event culminated with an electro mix by the artist, JACQUES, who electrified the great nave – followed by a festive and offbeat free fight oratory show on the theme of “Make France great again”, in the dome of the SHARE area. Finally, the video-mapping of the façade of the Grand Palais, recounting 150 years of industrial revolutions and their leading figures, closed the event beautifully.

The Usine Extraordinaire event is the result of a collective dynamic driven by 5 co-founder sponsors: FIM, EDF, Michelin, Sanofi and its partners, and the UIMM.