Denis Bouchard
speakertrainer, author, director, actor and host

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The praise of accidents (or How to live your life instead of suffering it?)

Avec l’humour qu’on lui connait, Denis Bouchard, conférencier fait un survol de sa carrière à l’aide d’anecdotes aussi cocasses que savoureuses. Avec enthousiasme, il nous parle de la grande passion de sa vie, son travail de « créateur ». Et de voyages, sa deuxième grande passion.

In doing so, he shares his thoughts on life, the importance of teamwork, efficiency, stress management, overcoming one's limitations, selling oneself well and self-confidence.

Il s’attarde aussi sur « les accidents de parcours » qui nous arrivent tous dans la vie. Selon lui, ils sont toujours des préludes à des changements bénéfiques et regorgent d’opportunités qu’il faut savoir saisir. « Quand ça nous arrive, il faut faire confiance à son instinct, se dépasser et sortir de sa zone de confort », se plaît-il à dire. Les « game changer » sont partout autour de nous tout le temps. Et il faut juste savoir les reconnaître. Seuls ceux qui s’adaptent survivent.

The praise of accidents is the art of living one's life instead of undergoing it. As he likes to say in his own language: The need creates the organ!

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70 years old and all my teeth (except one)

This conference is designed for seniors living in residential care.

We spend part of our lives preparing for the future, understanding our past, and then find ourselves at 70 with more time behind us than before. You have to know and be able to live in the moment and adapt to change.

Denis Bouchard has stories to tell, tasty anecdotes to share, but also thoughts to provoke on life, well-being and harmonious cohabitation with the challenges of a society that is changing at dizzying speed, upsetting our convictions and our habits of life.

Denis Bouchard has worked in Ukraine, Russia, Lebanon and French-speaking Europe, won over 25 awards in Quebec and elsewhere, and has a busy career as an actor, writer and director. Not bad for someone who never thought he'd live past 40.

This lecture is a vitamin-rich ampoule of curiosity, the desire to learn and even the will to learn how to learn, as an antidote to the passage of time. He believes that the meaning of life lies in the desire to live each moment intensely, because as he says: "By living each moment as if it were our last, we'll end up being right one day".

Growing old is the only way to live a long life.

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"Happiness is like creamed sugar: if you want it, you can get it.

But you have to take the time to make your own cream sugar!

This conference is about letting go, becoming the center of your life again, and learning to breathe again. Healthy living, of course, but also staying young, smiling at life, getting involved and giving back to others.

Always learning. Yvon Deschamps is learning Spanish. My friend Guy Nadon is memorizing passages from Racine to keep his memory sharp.

To stop learning is to start dying.

Staying alert. Challenge your routines, redefine your world and, above all, never get up when you wake up. In praise of nothing at all.

Having traveled to over a hundred countries and won more than 25 awards in Quebec and elsewhere, after a career studded with magnificent roles, Denis Bouchard settles down and tells his story with humor and a wealth of anecdotes.

In the long term, he says, I've got less time, but in the short term I've got all the time in the world.

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My life is an open book

I'm a professional reader.

Reading is the breath of the soul.

I read everything, every day and in the right places. Thrillers, comics, storybooks, texts I'm learning, others I'm writing. Each reading or writing task has its own sofa or desk.

I read to understand where I've come from, what I'm going through, where I'm going or simply to distract myself from all these questions. For me, reading is the only way I've found to live several lives.

After a 40-year career studded with awards, travels to over 100 countries and golden roles, Denis Bouchard tells the story of the books that have marked his life.

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You have the most beautiful job in the world

If you've had a teacher in your life you're privileged. I had 3 in the same year. Michèle Rossignol, André Brassard and Marcel Sabourin in my first year at the National Theatre School. What did they have in common?

Asking more questions than giving answers

Learning to learn.

Doubt is always creative.

You used to walk into a classroom and be able to identify which student would become a doctor, lawyer or politician. Today, 30% of the professions that students will later practice don't yet exist...

It's all about adapting to change, understanding the world in which we evolved versus the world in which the new generation finds itself.

Managing the stress created by these changes.

This talk is an antidote to the dreariness. Denis Bouchard tells his story through his relationship with his son, his 40-year career, awards, roles, travels and tons of anecdotes, all of which converge to highlight the primordial role of transmission from one generation to the next.

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Orchestrating teamwork

No one can succeed alone. If there's one talent that's essential to personal and professional success, it's the ability to surround yourself with the right people and rally them around a common cause.

Whether in the arts, entertainment, education or even business, the concept of "team" needs to be nurtured and valued.

As an actor, creator, director and entrepreneur, Denis Bouchard's life depends on teamwork. He depends on technicians, comrades and audiences. We need only think of the success of Ladie's Night, which has been on stage in Quebec for 20 years, his staging of Daniel Lemire over the past 30 years, Stéphane Rousseau in France, Garou in Eastern Europe, the closing of the Forum in 1996 and, more recently, the creation of his play Le dernier sacrement, which won the Rideau Bursary in 2020 and has been translated into French from France and into English. For him, there's no room for error. The team has to perform. As he often says himself: a success or a flop is the same job, so let's make sure we have successes.

In his lecture, "Orchestrating teamwork", he will talk about :

• How do you manage the stress of teamwork and adapt to change?
• How do you create a team symbiosis with people who don't know each other very well?
• How do you manage "big egos" for the benefit of the work?
• How do you get the whole team to work towards a common goal?
• How do you get everyone to play an important role in the team?

After Denis' talk, you'll be convinced of the adage: One for all and all for one!

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Themes that can be developed in a conference or training workshop:

• Coaching
• Leadership
• The media
• Communications
• Change Management
• Stress Management
• Going beyond the self
• Travel
• Teamwork
• Retirement
• Customer service
• Etc.