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Tuesday, September 29
| 8:00am |
Registration + networking breakfast (8:00am - 8:55am)Court Under your hood: A live CRM maturity diagnostic with Jam and Toyota (VIP breakfast hosted by JAM CRM) (8:00am - 8:55am)Loft 1/2 Sponsored by:  Score your own CRM, then see what great looks like. CMOs are under real pressure: prove marketing’s value, deliver greater personalization at scale and unlock efficiencies through AI, often all at once. And they’re being asked to do it while navigating legacy infrastructure, incomplete data, disconnected systems and internal teams pulling in different directions. Most know that something within their CRM engine isn’t working as hard as it should. Far fewer can pinpoint where their operation is performing well and where it may be quietly costing them. At this year’s CMO Breakfast, Jam CRM will lead a live, condensed version of the Jam CRM Accelerator: the diagnostic we use to help clients answer that question. Using your own device, you’ll assess your CRM against the five measures of CRM 3.0, our framework for what separates an operation that scales from one that stalls. We’ll then bring each measure to life alongside our long-standing partners at Toyota, using real examples from the work we’ve built together. Rather than presenting a traditional retrospective case study, Toyota will offer a firsthand perspective on what advanced CRM looks like in practice and what it takes to build, evolve, and sustain it. You’ll leave with a personalized maturity profile across all five measures, a view of how your peers scored, and a clearer understanding of where your CRM is strong, where the greatest opportunities lie, and what a more advanced operation could look like in practice. Featuring:
   
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| 9:00am |
Welcome remarks (9:00am - 9:05am)Court |
| 9:05am |
Kit Blackburn: Leading with courageous possibility. (9:05am - 9:35am)Court Curiosity is your competitive edge. Are you still using it? Uncertainty does two things: it opens up opportunity and it tempts you toward the safe call. Kit's session is a direct challenge to that pattern – the most interesting brands right now aren't playing from a bigger budget, they're asking better questions. Featuring:
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| 9:35am |
Breaking the category to build a brand with Mid-Day Squares (9:35am - 9:55am)Court Jake Karls helped build Mid-Day Squares into one of the most talked-about emerging brands in North America by taking a different approach to brand building from day one. He breaks down how the team used storytelling, authenticity, and sharing the real journey to earn attention, build a deeply engaged community, and turn customers into passionate advocates. Featuring:
The CMO Loft (with Susan Irving, Kruger Products) (9:35am - 9:55am)Loft 3 New for 2026, "The CMO Loft" is an exclusive series designed to bring together top marketers and a small group of attendees for candid, off-the-record conversations. Hosted in a cozy lounge atmosphere, this AMA format prioritizes open dialogue and meaningful connection. Seating is limited and requires advance sign-up. You can sign up at the registration desk on-site on the day of the event. Featuring:
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| 10:00am |
Beyond the Buy: How Programmatic Partnerships Are Evolving in Canada (The Trade Desk upfront) (10:00am - 10:30am)Loft 1/2 Sponsored by:  Most marketers still think of media companies as one thing: a place to buy ad space. That's changing. A growing number of Canadian media owners are realizing they can be an advertiser, a publisher, and a data owner at the same time, and that each role, activated programmatically, makes the others more valuable. This session uses a new, first-of-its-kind Canadian partnership between Cineplex Media and The Trade Desk as a real-life example of how that looks in practice: unlocking premium inventory for programmatic buying, activating proprietary audience data to reach high-intent consumers across the open internet, and treating owned media as one channel within a broader always-on strategy rather than a standalone buy. The result is a blueprint other Canadian organizations (retailers, broadcasters, venues, and beyond) can start applying to their own data, inventory, and media strategy today. Featuring:
The Comeback Kids. (The Globe and Mail Upfront) (10:00am - 10:30am)Loft 4/5 Sponsored by:  For decades, great marketers have had reputations as innovators, trend-setters and early adopters, but technological leaps have put their roles under threat, alongside other white-collar work. It's time to move past fear mode and into confidence mode. What strategies are on the table that involve working alongside technology in creative and efficient ways and bring back some of that marketing swagger? Featuring:
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| 10:30am |
Networking coffee break (10:30am - 10:50am)Sponsored by:  |
| 10:50am |
The new rules of retail: Simons (10:50am - 11:10am)Court Canadian retail has never been harder to navigate. Simons competes across fashion, home and private label, facing fast fashion on one side and premium designers on the other. Frédérick Lecoq shares how the Canadian retailer is using brand, community and its distinctive physical store experience to stand apart, build relevance in new markets and grow without losing the identity that made it successful in the first place. Featuring:
The CMO Loft (Jonelle Ricketts, IKEA Canada) (10:50am - 11:10am)Loft 3 New for 2026, "The CMO Loft" is an exclusive series designed to bring together top marketers and a small group of attendees for candid, off-the-record conversations. Hosted in a cozy lounge atmosphere, this AMA format prioritizes open dialogue and meaningful connection. Seating is limited and requires advance sign-up. You can sign up at the registration desk on-site on the day of the event. Featuring:
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| 11:10am |
Everyone wants into sports. But how do you make the investment pay off? (11:10am - 11:40am)Court From the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics to emerging domestic leagues and hyper-local activations, sports and cultural partnerships are rewriting the marketing playbook. Hear from Coca-cola, Labatt, NFL Canada and Sephora as they unpack their partnership strategies, explain how they measure real ROI and share what it takes to create experiences that drive both business results and lasting fan engagement. Featuring:
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| 11:40am |
Beyond the label: In conversation with Kraft Heinz (11:40am - 12:00pm)Court In this brand-led session, Diana Frost, Chief Growth Officer at Kraft Heinz, explores how the company turns cultural moments into opportunities for its brands. From R&D-driven innovation to an agile structure built for speed, Frost breaks down how Kraft Heinz spots what matters to consumers – and moves quickly enough to act on it. Featuring:
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| 12:05pm |
The next chapter of commerce: Winning in the age of agentic AI (Criteo upfront) (12:05pm - 12:35pm)Loft 1/2 Sponsored by:  Commerce is entering a new era. As agentic AI transforms how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products, retailers and brands face a fundamental shift in shopper behavior and the rules of engagement – a revolution of the same magnitude as ecommerce itself. After helping build the retail media industry over the last decade, Criteo is seeing firsthand how AI is disrupting established approaches and creating new opportunities for growth. Criteo will share a commerce-focused perspective on the changes reshaping the market, from evolving consumer decision journeys to the increasing importance of connected data, trusted partnerships and outcome-driven commercial models. Drawing on real-world examples directly from leading retailer and brand partners, we’ll explore what forward-thinking industry players are doing today to remain relevant and competitive as AI-powered agents become even more integral in the shopping experience. Featuring:
The multiplier effect: How connected insights drive better business results (Environics upfront) (12:05pm - 12:35pm)Loft 4/5 Sponsored by:  CMOs need to build brands, drive growth and demonstrate business impact. Customer insights, media metrics and business outcomes often sit in separate systems across internal teams and external partners. As a result, marketers struggle to understand what drives results and optimize their budgets. When those insights come together, marketers gain a clearer picture of their customers and what matters to them. They can sharpen brand strategy and connect brand awareness to business outcomes. This creates a stronger foundation for marketing investment decisions. Join Kevin Lacey, SVP, Sales, CPG & Pharma at Environics Analytics, as he shares real-world examples from organizations across multiple industries. Learn how leading marketers are breaking down data silos to create a more complete view of the customer journey. Discover how connected insights can strengthen strategy and improve media activation. See how this more connected approach can deliver outcomes that matter, including ROI. Featuring:
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| 12:35pm |
Networking lunch (12:35pm - 1:45pm)Court |
| 12:55pm |
From Fandom to Growth: The Business of Sport (12:55pm - 1:30pm)Court Sponsored by:  Sport is no longer just entertainment, it is a powerful engine for culture, brand relevance and business growth. This conversation explores how SPORT BEACH and the Toronto Tempo are creating new ways for brands, athletes, creators and fans to connect and what it takes to build lasting value in today’s sports economy. Featuring:
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| 1:45pm |
The X factor: The forgotten generation with WGSN (1:45pm - 2:20pm)Court This year, Gen X will drive $15.2 trillion in global spend. If they were a country, they’d be the world’s second largest consumer market, outspending China’s consumers 2:1. With the generation poised to inherit the largest wealth transfer in history, Gen X represents one of the biggest growth opportunities for brands. WGSN’s Andrea Bell shares fresh insights into the cohort's multigenerational spending power and the long-term loyalty trends marketers need to know to stay relevant. Presenting:
The CMO Loft (with Shawna Miller, Mastercard Canada) (1:45pm - 2:05pm)Loft 3 New for 2026, "The CMO Loft" is an exclusive series designed to bring together top marketers and a small group of attendees for candid, off-the-record conversations. Hosted in a cozy lounge atmosphere, this AMA format prioritizes open dialogue and meaningful connection. Seating is limited and requires advance sign-up. You can sign up at the registration desk on-site on the day of the event. Featuring:
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| 2:20pm |
Cracking the Creator Code (2:20pm - 3:00pm)Court Has anyone actually cracked the creator code? Beyond the vanity metrics lies a tougher question: how do brands balance authenticity, brand safety and measurable ROI? In this candid conversation, top CMOs and a leading brand partner share what’s working, what’s not and what it really takes to build creator partnerships that drive mutual growth. Featuring:
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| 3:05pm |
Smarter TV starts here: Lessons from Skip and Samsung Ads (Samsung Ads Canada upfront) (3:05pm - 3:35pm)Loft 1/2 Sponsored by:  How do brands find, understand and engage the right audiences as television becomes more fragmented? Join Erin McGrath, head of customer engagement at Skip, and Kristyna Petrollini, marketing lead at Samsung Ads Canada, for a fireside conversation exploring that question from two sides of the TV ecosystem. Samsung Ads brings the audience, technology and measurement perspective, with a view into how Canadians are watching across linear TV and streaming. Skip brings the brand and advertiser perspective, sharing how an iconic Canadian brand can turn those audience insights into smarter media decisions and stronger connections with consumers. Together, they’ll unpack practical lessons for marketers on how to reach smarter, turn audience insight into action, and make TV work harder. The result is a conversation that connects what is changing in the way Canadians watch with what marketers can do differently because of it. Featuring:
Inside Crave’s Growth Engine: Turning Attention Into Business Growth (Bell Media upfront) (3:05pm - 3:35pm)Loft 4/5 Sponsored by:  What does it take to turn attention into business growth? Using Crave as a real-world case study, this candid conversation examines how business strategy, brand, content, media, and performance marketing can work together to create sustainable growth and stronger business outcomes. Featuring:
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| 3:35pm |
Networking coffee break (3:35pm - 3:55pm) |
| 4:00pm |
Putting the "Unique" back in USP: How fan culture wins the attention economy (4:00pm - 4:30pm)Court Deep fandom offers the ultimate antidote to shrinking attention spans and media fragmentation. Crave's Heated Rivalry has become a global phenomenon and shows how leaning into a very specific world - rather than something generic designed to appeal to the masses - can spark intense fandom, engagement, and ultimately scale into broader reach. Ikea's iconic staples like Billy have spawned an endless flow of Hack content, and the multi-generational followers of the Swedish retailer's seasonal drops, collabs - and quirky personality - prove that fandom is not confined to the entertainment space and has longevity. Bell Media's VP Global Content Justin Stockman and Ikea Canada's Head of Marketing Jonelle Ricketts take the CMO stage to share their insights and experience in connecting more authentically with audiences and creating space for fan engagement, from collabs to content drops. Join them for a conversation on how fandom is triggered, nurtured, and how it can transform attention economy issues. Featuring:
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| 4:30pm |
The CMO Interview: Two massive portfolios. One shared challenge with PepsiCo Foods and GM (4:30pm - 5:00pm)Court A staple of the Forum, the CMO Interview brings together two of Canada's top marketing leaders for an unscripted, peer-to-peer conversation. Hear candid perspectives on navigating Canada’s complex consumer landscape, what’s keeping them up at night and what’s getting them energized and moving in the morning. Featuring:
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| 5:00pm | |
| 6:00pm |
Strategy Awards (6:00pm - 7:00pm)Court Join us as we celebrate the best brand-building ideas, the insights behind them and the planners who brought them to life. |
