CSE Live 2026 is where Canada’s event community comes alive, ideas ignite, collaborations spark, and creativity takes centre stage. This year, we’re turning up the energy with a reimagined experience that celebrates the art of event creation like never before.
Sizzle Reel Courtesy of EJSE AV
The week opens with SANCTUARY, a groundbreaking new learning experience devoted to levelling up your creative mind, leadership and personal wellness journey. You’ll unplug, rethink, and rediscover your spark through immersive learning and hands-on inspiration. Day Two delivers powerhouse education with industry icons, celebrity planners, and bold thinkers redefining events. Dive into sessions on strategy, design, production, marketing, and innovation, all built to sharpen your edge. Then comes EventFest @ CSE26, which offers an experiential playground where food, design, entertainment, and tech collide. Every space is alive with ideas you can take home and make your own.
CSE Live 26: a celebration of imagination, connection, and the future of events.
Immerse yourself in a hub of creativity where next-level event concepts come to life. Get inspired, rethink the your new event possibilities.
From immersive lounges to creative activations, networking feels natural, engaging, and fun.
Discover breakthrough products, fresh perspectives, and smart content that inspire and energize your work.
CSE Live is designed to meet you where you are, with flexible options that fit your goals, schedule, and style. Whether you’re in for the full three-day journey or just one unforgettable day, your experience starts here.
Includes SANCTUARY, Opening Night Party, EventFest, premium gifting, education sessions and meals, the Business of Events Forum - and this ticket can be purchased with or without the Gala Awards Dinner.
Stand Alone ticket for SANCTUARY on Monday, April 27 featuring a leadership and creative development experience designed to renew your vision, deepen your connections, and sharpen your professional edge.
Choose from a selection of single and multi day event passes allowing you to curate your personalized CSE Live experience and attend the events that matter most to your professional goals.
EventFest access for Qualified Planners on Tuesday, April 28. By invitation, apply for a free pass today from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm.
Bring 5 or more to CSE Live and qualify for amazing savings. Send us an email or smash the chat button at the bottom of the page for info on group prices
Qualified Planners can apply for a pass, does not include Gala
The opening day of CSE Live 2026 is a full-day, immersive retreat for event and marketing professionals who want to create experiences that truly resonate. This is where creativity and strategy collide, where engagement, storytelling, and innovation are reimagined from the inside out.
Why We’re Here: A New Leadership Era
Before the pace begins, we pause. In this opening moment, founders Stacy, Sam, Connie, and Carly step forward to share the deeper why behind SANCTUARY. An honest reflection on the pressure, pace, and expectations that have long defined our industry.
A playful exploration of personality, communication, and connection. Before we can lead others, we have to understand what drives us and what quietly triggers us.
In this interactive, high-energy session, you will step into a live exploration of personality through the lens of the Maxwell Leadership DISK framework. Not from a seat, but from within the room itself. You will move. You will choose. You will see yourself reflected in real time.
What if the shift you are searching for is not more discipline, but a different frequency?In this immersive session, we explore music as a powerful, science-backed tool for regulating energy, sharpening focus, and elevating performance in real time. Because productivity is not about doing more. It is about learning how to lead your internal state.
Before you lead the room, you have to lead yourself.
This expert panel brings together voices in sleep, nutrition, and movement to unpack the real drivers of performance in high-pressure environments. Because this is not optional. It is foundational.
What if the thing you keep pushing aside is actually the thing everything depends on?
In this powerful keynote experience, Joy Lapps blends storytelling, lived experience, and the vibrant energy of steelpan music to challenge how we define success in high-performance industries.
Because burnout is not a badge of honour. It is a signal. Drawing from her work as an artist, educator, and complex care mother, Joy shares a deeply human perspective on what it means to lead, create, and sustain energy over time. This is a reframe.
What if the tool you use to move faster could also help you slow down?
AI is often framed as a productivity tool. But in the right hands, it becomes something more powerful. A way to create space. In this session, Marli Lichtman explores how AI can support your well-being by reducing mental load, calming the constant stream of thoughts, and helping you move through your day with greater clarity.
We’re often taught how to pursue success, but rarely how to navigate the moments when things aren’t working. The messy middle is where momentum slows, doubt gets louder, and even the most capable leaders begin to question their next move.
In this interactive session, founder and author Brandi Leifso shares her lived experience and guides participants through her signature Failure Party framework. You’ll bring a real challenge, something stuck or avoided, and work through it in real time.
We don’t end the day quietly. We raise the frequency.
DJ RAE takes over the room with a high-energy, feel-good set packed with classics that get your heart beating and your voice singing.
This is your release. Your reset. Your moment to move.
Step into the night at Insert Coin After Dark, the opening party where the CSE Live energy really kicks in. This high-energy arcade-inspired celebration blends nostalgia, music, and playful competition into one unforgettable night. Expect neon lights, throwback vibes, immersive games, and plenty of surprises as the industry’s most creative minds unwind, connect, and play. It’s bold, a little bit rebellious, and the perfect way to launch the week — because at CSE Live, the fun doesn’t stop when the sessions end.
Three Iconic Venues. One Unforgettable Experience.
CSE Live 2026 unfolds across three stunning Toronto venues – each offers its own energy and style, all within minutes of each other, creating a seamless flow of inspiration, learning, and celebration.
