Climate urgency at the heart of the discussions: Meeting with Héloïse Cartier for Time to Change 2026

As the Deau­ville Inter­na­tion­al Centre (CID) hosts the 5^th edi­tion of the Time to Change for­um, we met with Héloïse Carti­er, Dir­ect­or of Con­fer­ences and Events at Option Fin­ance Group, to dis­cuss the key chal­lenges of this now essen­tial gath­er­ing for stake­hold­ers in the sus­tain­able transition.

Hello Héloïse. Could you briefly intro­duce the Time to Change event?

Héloïse Carti­er: Hello. Time to Change is a two-day for­um co-organ­ized by the French Insti­tu­tion­al Investors Asso­ci­ation (Af2i), Option Fin­ance, and GreenUnivers. Held under the high pat­ron­age of Mr. Emmanuel Mac­ron, Pres­id­ent of the Repub­lic, the event brings togeth­er around 800 par­ti­cipants. Its strength lies in the diversity of pro­files: insti­tu­tion­al investors, asset man­agers, com­pan­ies of all sizes—from star­tups to large corporations—as well as rep­res­ent­at­ives from loc­al author­it­ies and sci­ent­ists. All are here to dis­cuss cli­mate urgency, the energy trans­ition, and sus­tain­able finance.

This is the 5^th edi­tion this year. Why did you choose Deau­ville and the CID as your base?

Héloïse Carti­er: This is indeed our 5^th edi­tion in Deau­ville and the 4^th held at the CID. Dur­ing the first year, we were hos­ted at the Hôtel Roy­al, but the event quickly grew in scale, requir­ing us to move to the CID for more space. Deau­ville is a stra­tegic choice: it is close to Par­is, mak­ing it easy for speak­ers and part­ners to attend, while also offer­ing a change of scenery that allows par­ti­cipants to fully immerse them­selves in dis­cus­sions over two days.

What are the high­lights and key themes of the 2026 edition?

Héloïse Carti­er: The pro­gram is extremely rich, with more than 20 plen­ary ses­sions and round tables, and con­tri­bu­tions from 120 experts. While we con­tin­ue to address core top­ics such as ESG, decar­bon­iz­a­tion, and agri­cul­ture, this year’s key theme is sov­er­eignty.

Anoth­er major new fea­ture is the intro­duc­tion of a ded­ic­ated track on sus­tain­able invest­ment in regions. We wanted to high­light the Nor­mandy Region, with the par­ti­cip­a­tion of its Pres­id­ent and Vice-Pres­id­ent Soph­ie Gau­gain, as this is a pri­or­ity devel­op­ment focus for future editions.

Bey­ond the con­fer­ences, how are inter­ac­tions between par­ti­cipants organized?

Héloïse Carti­er: Net­work­ing is essen­tial. We provide a busi­ness meet­ings plat­form to organ­ize tar­geted pro­fes­sion­al appoint­ments. At the heart of the CID, the Innov­a­tion Vil­lage show­cases con­crete pro­jects related to green fin­ance and cli­mate trans­ition. Finally, we emphas­ize con­vi­vi­al­ity with key moments such as the Investors’ Din­ner and the offi­cial cock­tail at Les Fran­cis­caines on Thursday evening.

A final word on the future of Time to Change?

Héloïse Carti­er: The suc­cess con­tin­ues, as demon­strated by the very pos­it­ive feed­back from par­ti­cipants, who appre­ci­ate both the qual­ity of the speak­ers and the mix of oper­a­tion­al stake­hold­ers and fin­an­ci­ers. I can already con­firm that we will return to Deau­ville next year: the 2027 edi­tion will take place from March 15 to 17!

CID Team:

• Domi­n­ique Fou­quet – Pro­ject Manager
• Jean-François Vin­cent – Gen­er­al Tech­nic­al Manager
• Julie Drouen – Cater­ing Manager
• Théo Gold­berg – Cater­ing Manager