What's momondays?
It all started with a mission...
momondays began in 2012 as a humble monthly storytelling gathering created by professional speaker Michel Neray. After sharing the stage with great speakers in more than nine countries, Michel knew how a personal story can change hearts, change minds… sometimes even change the world.
But he also knew that kind of experience was out of reach for most people — maybe once a year at a company conference, if that. And very few people ever had the chance to grow from an even greater transformation: sharing their own story.
So Michel set out to make storytelling more accessible, more meaningful, and more fun — a true art form everyone could participate in.
Michel Neray - Founder of momondays
He was driven by a mission to create an event that made the sharing of powerful, personal stories more accessible to more people and to elevate the art of personal storytelling as a meaningful form of entertainment.
The first ‘moShow’ took place on the second floor of a little tea house with no stage, no audio, and no music… just tea -- and 18 people in the room, (half of whom were the speakers... and the other half were the servers!)
Within a few months, Michel moved the event to a jazz club with real food, a real stage (and real alcohol)... and started encouraging the speakers to tell stories that were more personally significant -- what professional speakers call their ‘signature story’.
The Early Days
The very first “moShow” happened in a tiny tearoom. No stage. No mics. No music.
Just tea… and 18 people sharing real stories.
That spirit of authenticity and connection lit a spark that quickly grew into a movement in more than 16 cities across Canada and the U.S.
And then... the pandemic
The pandemic gave Michel the breather (along with COVID) to focus on his other passion — songwriting — and he realized the power of combining songs with story. Michel has since released two full-length albums (Listen at: michelneray.music), and continues to write songs inspired by life, resilience, and the contradictions of being human.
Realizing the power of combining story and song, Michel created the next evolution of momondays.