Start the day connecting with peers as the room fills and energy builds.

This high-energy, practical session delivers a clear framework to help individuals and teams focus on what drives the greatest results. The 10-80-10 Principle teaches how to identify and amplify high-impact behaviours while minimizing the actions that limit performance.

Designed for real-world application, this program helps professionals shift their energy toward what truly moves the needle—improving productivity, clarity, and overall effectiveness in fast-paced environments like events.

Participants will leave with a simple, actionable approach to:

• Focus on high-value activities that drive results
• Improve team alignment and performance
• Build stronger, more engaged and resilient teams

For event professionals managing constant pressure, tight timelines, and high expectations, this session provides a practical mindset shift to help lead more effectively, reduce stress, and operate at a higher level.

Let’s get REAL about pricing, profit, and financial power in our industry. We’re talking about models, margins, and mindsets, so you can stop apologizing for your rates and start building work that sustains you.

Experience the excitement as the CSE Live show floor comes to life! Explore innovative exhibits, sample fabulous catering by Toronto’s top chefs and pop-ups, network with industry pros, and discover game-changing solutions to elevate your event success.

Schedule: 10:30 am to 4:30 pm

Somewhere in your market, a competitor with a weaker track record than yours is charging more than you, closing faster than you, and getting called first. That’s not luck. That’s positioning.

The businesses dominating their categories have built an identity so clear, so sharp, and so distinct that buyers see them as the ‘only’ choice. What you deliver matters enormously. But buyers choose before they experience it. That decision is made entirely on perception.

In this session, Lara breaks down exactly what separates the brand everyone calls first from every other option in the market… and gives you a framework to become it.

Key Takeaways:

What Actually Moves the Needle on Perception: The tangible, proven changes real businesses made to their identity that directly translated into more revenue, higher-value clients, and shorter sales cycles.

The Identity-Value Framework: The exact framework Lara and her team have used to drive tens of millions in additional revenue for their clients. 

Why Smart Business Owners Stay Stuck: The beliefs keeping ambitious companies invisible and leaving serious revenue on the table. Lara dismantles each one and shows you what to do instead.

Event design isn’t just about how it looks; it’s about what it does.

From flow and layout to content, staging, and sensory moments, design has a direct impact on engagement, behaviour, and ultimately, results. Yet too often, it’s still treated as a layer, not a strategy.

This session brings together leading designers, producers, and planners to explore how design is being used at a higher level to:

• drive audience engagement and movement
• support content and storytelling
• influence perception and brand value
• solve operational challenges in real time
• deliver measurable impact beyond aesthetics

We’ll move beyond trends and talk about how design decisions are made, what actually works, and where it can fail.

Behind every major event is a story of risk, strategy, and decision-making that most people never hear.

In this fast-paced session, three industry leaders take the stage for a series of 12-minute rapid-fire interviews, sharing the real stories behind million-dollar moments in their careers.

From winning a major client, to producing a large-scale event, to building a sustainable event business, speakers will unpack the decisions, challenges, and lessons that shaped their success.

No long presentations. No rehearsed panels. Just honest insight into what it really takes to operate at the highest level in the events industry.

Featuring three conversations:
• Winning the Million-Dollar Client
• Producing the Million-Dollar Event
• Running the Million-Dollar Event Business

From global conflicts and contentious leadership, to climate emergencies, economic whiplash and culture wars, we’re designing events amid constant volatility. This panel explores what it means to create gatherings that are safe, grounded, and meaningful when the world feels anything but. Senior producers, brand leaders, and mental health/DEI voices dig into how current events shape content decisions, security planning, language choices, sponsorship ethics, and attendee care. You’ll walk away with practical strategies for reading the room, protecting your teams, navigating sensitive topics with integrity, and building events designed for calm if the world becomes chaotic.

AI is already transforming how events are planned, from concept to execution, and the planners who are using it are moving faster, working smarter, and delivering stronger experiences with fewer resources.

This session is designed for in-house and corporate event professionals who want to get in the game, now.

We’ll explore how AI is being used across every stage of the planning process, including:

• Concept + creative development (themes, naming, content, design direction)
• Entertainment sourcing and programming ideas
• Floor plans, layouts, and experience design
• Registration, attendee journeys, and personalization
• Content creation, marketing, and communications
• Post-event reporting and insights

You’ll hear real examples of how planners are using AI to:

• Save hours (and days) of work
• Improve decision-making and creativity
• Elevate the attendee experience without increasing budgets
• Support lean teams and tight timelines

This is not about theory.
This is about how to actually use AI to plan better events today.

Back again for the fourth year, this session is standing room only every year at CSE Live!

Where are we really at, and where are we going? This fast-paced, no-filter session breaks down the biggest shifts impacting the events industry today, from pricing pressures and burnout to innovation, AI, and the future of experience design. Honest, practical, and forward-looking, this is a reality check for anyone serious about staying ahead.

What We’re Talking About:

• The Real Drivers of Innovation: Internal pressures, cultural shifts, and creative sparks fuelling bold new ideas
• The Economic Reality Check: What planners should know about the next 12–24 months
• Growth Zones & Business Models: Where opportunity is rising — and how to harness it
• Culture & Conscious Design: How DEI, sustainability, wellness, and food trends are shaping smarter experiences
• AI, Automation & Tech: What’s hype, what’s happening, and how to integrate it with purpose
• Designing for 2026: Must-have elements for future-proofing your events
• The Evolving Audience: How personalization, community, and hybrid thinking are redefining what attendees expect

This is your opportunity to hear directly from industry trailblazers, gain practical insights, and connect with the movement shaping the future of events in Canada and beyond.

That’s a wrap on another fantastic CSE Live Eventfest. But is it? There’s always an after-party somewhere… ask at the CSE booth on the show floor for this year’s private pop-up party location.

The grand finale of Canadian Event Week, proudly hosted by Universal Eventspace by Peter and Paul’s Hospitality Group, this black-tie evening is where Canada’s event community comes together to celebrate brilliance, creativity, and the year’s most spectacular achievements. Guests will enjoy an elegant dinner, live entertainment, and the excitement of honouring 2024’s best in events, from breathtaking designs to groundbreaking experiences.

Get glammed up, bring your sparkle, and join the industry’s finest for an unforgettable night of celebration and connection. Complimentary shuttles will transport guests from the host hotel to the gala venue (just a 7-minute ride).