FDC | FDC Experience: Learning Across Brazil’s Cultural & Business Hubs

Visitors sit inside a large thatched-roof shelter, watching an Indigenous performer wearing a feathered headdress and leaf skirt. The performer stands with their back to the camera during a cultural demonstration.

The FDC Experience

Learning at FDC goes far beyond the classroom. Every program is designed to bridge executive education and real-world immersion — connecting leaders with the ideas, places, and people that shape Brazil's most compelling story.

From the innovation ecosystems of São Paulo and Belo Horizonte to the cultural vibrancy of Rio de Janeiro and the living laboratories of the Amazon, the FDC experience is one of intellectual depth, cultural discovery, and genuine human connection

Belo Horizonte & Minas Gerais

Instituto Inhotim

Set across 140 hectares of Atlantic Forest in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Instituto Inhotim is not a museum in any conventional sense. It is one of the most extraordinary intersections of contemporary art, nature, and ideas in the world — and a defining experience for anyone seeking to understand Brazil's creative ambition. The collection brings together works by artists from over 40 countries, including Claudia Andujar, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Pape, Doris Salcedo, and Yayoi Kusama — displayed across pavilions that blur the boundary between gallery and landscape, between thinking and feeling. For executives and students, Inhotim is an invitation to see the world differently.

Large group of visitors posing on a lawn at Inhotim Institute, gathered in front of a colorful outdoor artwork, surrounded by tropical gardens and palm trees under a cloudy sky.

São Paulo

Natura

Founded in 1969 in São Paulo with a passion for cosmetics and the power of human connections, Natura has grown into Brazil's largest cosmetics multinational — and one of the world's most compelling examples of purpose-driven business at scale. With innovative formulas that combine the biodiversity of the Amazon with cutting-edge cosmetic technology, Natura has built a global brand on the conviction that business can be a force for social and environmental good. A visit to Natura is a masterclass in how values, strategy, and innovation can be woven into the very DNA of a company.

Group photo of participants at a global CEO program posing indoors in a modern building, smiling and waving behind a banner with Chinese text. The event stage and architectural concrete structure are visible in the background.

Rio de Janeiro

The Sambadrome — Marquês de Sapucaí

Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the Sambadrome was conceived as a civic monument dedicated to popular culture — professionalizing the samba school parades and cementing Carnival's role as a national cultural institution. Each school presents a yearly theme expressed through music, costumes, and visual symbolism, elevating the parade from entertainment to collective storytelling. For international visitors, the Sambadrome is a living monument to what humans achieve when artistry, community, and passion converge — and a surprising masterclass in creative leadership and collective purpose.

Nighttime view of a large outdoor event with thousands of people gathered around a central performance area beneath a prominent arch-shaped monument. Bright stadium lights illuminate the crowd, with city lights visible in the background.

The Amazon

Navigating the Amazon River

Few experiences prepare a leader for the complexity of the world quite like navigating the Amazon. The largest river system on the planet, the Amazon is a living metaphor for abundance, interdependence, and the fragile balance between human activity and the natural world. Journeying through its waters — past flooded forests, river communities, and ecosystems found nowhere else on Earth — is a profoundly humbling and clarifying experience, one that reshapes how executives think about sustainability, governance, and long-term thinking.

A local Indigenous woman paints traditional red patterns on a visitor’s face inside a rustic thatched community house, during a cultural exchange experience in the Amazon region.

Group photo of visitors and local participants standing together in a tropical rainforest during a guided nature and cultural experience.

Group photo of visitors and Indigenous community members standing in front of a large traditional thatched maloca, celebrating a cultural gathering in the Amazon rainforest.

Indigenous community members perform a traditional dance inside a thatched communal house, wearing ceremonial attire and carrying leafy branches.