august 9-11, 2026 | toronto, ontario, canada
august 9-11, 2026
toronto, ontario, canada
3 days of
programming
40+ sessions to
choose from
100+ speakers & practitioners
3 days of
programming
40+ sessions to
choose from
100+ speakers &
practictioners
CEMA Summit brings corporate event marketers together from every market and every stage of their career. This yearβs programming is organized around three pillars: impact, influence, and intention. These pillars are built to help you design better, prove more, and lead further, wherever your events take you.
impact
Design Experiences That Transcend Borders
One brand, ten markets, zero excuses. Build events that hold up wherever they show up.
Corporate events are evolving faster than ever, driven by shifting expectations, emerging technology, and changing business priorities. Examine the trends redefining the industry and what they mean for the future of event strategy.
- Albert Garcia β MCI
AI promised growth, but event participation tells a more complicated story. Join Angie Smith, Kati Quigley, and Michael Barnett for a discussion on where AI is delivering results, where it’s falling short, and what still drives people to show up.
- Angie Smith β CEO, Invision Communications
- Kati Quigley β BMC
- Michael Barnett β CEO, InGo
AI should improve the participant experience, not just the planning process. Learn how leading organizations are using AI to deliver more personalized, responsive, and engaging event experiences at scale.
- Josh Shepherd β VP AI Solutions, Amego
In Collaboration with Amego
AI should eliminate busy work, not replace meaningful work. Learn how event teams are using AI to automate routine tasks, improve productivity, and create more time for strategic thinking and creativity.
- George Kelly β CIO, Multi Image Group
- Jonathan Albarran β Principal Technical Product Manager, Creative Technology, PepsiCo
- Mary Poplin β Principal Creative Technologist, Adobe
- Scott Kerr β Chief Revenue Officer, Multi Image Group
- Jeffrey Rogers, ProjectoryΒ
In Collaboration with MIG
The first event is easy. The tenth one (in another country) is where everything breaks. Hear how Deel built their global event programs to scale through the systems, planning, and operating models that create consistency no matter where they are.
- Triana Rocio Jewell Lujan β Associate Director, Strategic Global Events, Deel
No two markets are the same, but your brand experience should never feel disconnected. Hear how global event leaders balance consistency, cultural relevance, and business priorities without compromising the participant experience.
- Jeremy Youett β Head of Proprietary Events, Atlassian
Participation doesn’t happen by accident. Learn how leading brands design experiences that turn passive audiences into active participants before, during, and after the event.
- Huong Nguyen β Founder & CEO, Shiloh Events & Aletheia
- Martin Smith β The Keynote DJβ’, DJ Graffiti
For years, event marketers have measured participant behavior. What if the more valuable metric surrounds how they felt? This session explores the shift toward sentiment-driven measurement and how AI is helping event marketers better understand the participant experience.
- Johnny Martinez β Head of Events and Partnerships, CrowdComms
- Naomi Crellin β Founder & CEO, Storycraft Lab
- Tavar James β Vice President, Global Head of Events, Forrester
- Timothy Calder β Director Event Marketing, Achievers
A strategy that works for one organization can fail in another. This interactive session invites participants to dissect successful ideas, debate different approaches, and rebuild them for their own teams.
- Martyn Clarkson β EVP, Global Head of Strategy, Jack Morton Worldwide
- Mary Trybus β SVP, Executive Creative Director, Jack Morton Worldwide
In Collaboration with Jack Morton Worldwide
Bring your laptop. You’re going to need it. This three-hour workshop is built around making, testing, and refining AI resources that fit the way you work.
- Nick Borelli β Zenus
- Keerat Singh β Chief Revenue Officer, Gevme
Growth exposes every weakness in your event operation. Step into a real-world leadership scenario and make the decisions that determine whether a global event portfolio scales with confidence or collapses under complexity.
- Flo Lewis β Sr. Director, Customer Experience and Events, Crawford Group
- Gregory Schneider β Sr. Director Corporate Marketing – Global Events, Boomi
The moments between sessions often leave the biggest impression. Learn how intentional networking, transitions, and shared experiences strengthen participant engagement while supporting measurable business outcomes.
- Christine Renaud β Co-Founder & CEO, Braindate
- Matthew Kalb β Vice President of Customer Experience , T3 Expo
- Rodney Hart β VP, Events, RainFocus
influence
Lead With Impact and Purpose
Useful gets you a budget line. Necessary gets you in the room before the strategy’s set.
The strongest event strategies are designed to evolve. Learn how leading brands adapt to changing audiences, emerging technology, and shifting business priorities without losing momentum.
- Donald Whittaker β Vice President, Events, Czarnowski
Brought to you by Czarnowski Collective
The strongest communities are built through open conversation. Hear what’s ahead for CEMA, share your perspective, and help shape the priorities that will guide the community forward.
- Brian Mason β VP, Strategy & Operations, CEMA
- Bridgette Birdie β Head of Events, Moody’s Analytics, Moody’s
- Gary Murakami β Vice President, Global Sales & Industry Relations, Teneo Hospitality Group
The industry has talked about proving event value for years. Be among the first to see benchmark findings that reveal how corporate event teams are measuring success, demonstrating impact, and shaping future investment.
- Chantal Sturk-Nadeau β Β Vice President, Innovation & Insights, PCMA
- Dustin Arnheim β Chief Sales Officer, Choose Chicago
- Gary Murakami β Vice President, Global Sales & Industry Relations, Teneo Hospitality Group
- Michael Barnett β CEO, InGo
Brought to you by Choose Chicago
The strongest partnerships are built on different perspectives, not identical thinking. Learn how brands and agencies create stronger collaboration, better ideas, and more impactful event experiences by embracing diverse viewpoints.
- Jessica Buck β Director, Keynote Production & Content Operations, Okta
High performance isn’t built during your busiest season. It’s built through the habits, systems, and leadership practices that sustain teams over time. Learn how to create an operating model that strengthens resilience without sacrificing results.
- Stephen Henric β Vice President, Growth, AVFX
Every event marketer has a list of things they’d never do again. This conversation starts there, then turns to the approaches they’ve pivoted to to get results.
- Kacie Finance β VP, Enterprise Sales & Account Management, Bizzabo
Brought to you by Bizzabo
Tired of tackling event challenges solo? Step into Innovation Nation, where event profs share how creative tech and unexpected partnerships helped them crack tough problems. Come curious, leave inspired, and walk away ready to reimagine what is possible with the right technology and the right team.
BONUS: Youβll vote live for your favorite story, and the winner will take the spotlight on the CEMA Summit main stage.
Brought to you by Houston
Events compete for investment like every other marketing channel. Learn how CMOs evaluate event portfolios, define value, and connect live experiences to growth, revenue, and business strategy.
- Adriel Sanchez β Chief Marketing Officer, WalkMe
- Chris Powell β Chief Marketing Officer, Qlik
- Kristin Allgire β EVP, Strategy & Growth, Event Marketing Partners
The best workshops help you solve your own problems. Bring yours to this highly interactive workshop and apply the principles of Mindset, Method, and Action to the organizational challenges you’re facing today.
- Anthony Vade β Chief Innovation Officer, Strategy Table Pathways Inc.
- Tahira Endean β Head of Program, IMEX
The best event teams are not the busiest. They are the most operationally disciplined. Learn how stronger systems, clearer decision making, and smarter workflows create space for better leadership and better events.
- Bridgette Birdie β Head of Events, Moody’s Analytics, Moody’s
- Kristen McLeish β Director, Event Operations and Outreach, Moody’s
Be remembered for solving the problem, not managing the project. This session looks at the shift from execution to influence and what it takes to become a leader whose perspective is sought, not requested.
- Debbie Brewer β ServiceNow
- Jacqueline Cone β Vice President, Experiential Events, Docusign
- Richard Steinau β Senior Vice President, Bellwether
- Sarah Reed β Founder & Global Event Leader, Event Strategy Method
Brought to you by Bellwether
High performing event teams are built with intention, not simply added headcount. Learn how leading organizations define roles, strengthen cross functional collaboration, and align teams around business outcomes.
- Adrienne Grec β Founder & Managing Partner, ATWM
- Nina Cioni β Senior Director, Corporate Events, GitHub
- Stephanie Rogers β Marketing Director, Global Events, Deltek
Events create more value when they are connected to a larger strategy. Learn how to build an event ecosystem that strengthens marketing, sales, customer relationships, and long term business growth.
- Ash Reed β Head of Growth, Nteractive
- Rachael Truscott β Chief Strategy Officer, TPN
Your professional reputation starts long before the first conversation. Learn how to position your LinkedIn profile to reflect executive presence, strengthen your personal brand, and create new career opportunities.
- Leanne Calderwood β Speaker, Trainer, LeanneCalderwood.com
AI is changing how work gets done, but leadership has never mattered more. Explore the human capabilities that technology cannot replace and help shape new research defining what leadership looks like in the AI era.
- Amy Blackman β Founder/Principal, Fruition Co.
Leadership changes more than your title. It changes how you make decisions, build trust, and carry responsibility. Join this honest conversation about the transition from high performer to confident leader, including the lessons no one teaches you along the way.
- Deborah Parsons β VP Business Development, MCW Events
- Linsley Swenson β President, MCW Events
Master the Craft of Meaningful Engagement
Participants don’t remember your brand deck. They remember how the room made them feel.
One challenge. Two perspectives. Your call. Led by both brand and agency leaders, participants will choose the topics, compare real-world approaches, and pressure test the ideas behind today’s biggest conversations in event marketing.
- Callie Motz β Vice President, Growth & Strategy, Augeo Experience
- Sarah Gannon β Director, Corporate Events, MathWorks
They loved it is the outcome, not the strategy. Hear three event leaders compare how they define success before planning begins, align stakeholders around shared objectives, and make every decision with intention.
- Amy Gattoni β Senior Account Director, Pinnacle
- Angela Strahan β VP Creative Services, Fern Expo
- Jenn King β Senior Account Director, Pinnacle
- Lisa Eagleson β Sr. Manager, Global Events, Twilio
- Mark Mallchok β Sr. Event Strategist, Brella
Fast-paced. Unfiltered. Occasionally humbling. Hear senior event leaders roast outdated best practices, share the mistakes that changed their thinking, and reveal what they’re doing differently today.
- April Shomper β Sr Event Marketing and Planning Director, Vizient
- Jennifer Sipple β BD
- Kelly Lagneaux β Intralox
- Liz Nacron β Partner, President of Creative and Production, Live Marketing
Warner Bros. Discovery transformed one of media’s highest-stakes presentations into an immersive experience that influenced billions in advertising commitments. See how strategy, storytelling, and production came together through this behind-the-scenes case study.
- Jimmy Ervin β President, Velocity XD
- John Newcomb β EVP, Creative Strategy , Velocity Experience Design
- Meredith Cluess β Senior Director, Revenue Marketing Trade, Warner Brothers Discovery
Technology is most valuable when it makes experiences feel more human. See how Workday used personalization to increase engagement, strengthen belonging, and build the business case for event technology investment.
- Kathleen Tranzillo β Principal, Events Management-Experience Marketing, Workday
- Michael Barnett β CEO, InGo
- Naomi Crellin β Founder & CEO, Storycraft Lab
- Rodney Hart β VP, Events, RainFocus
Without a throughline, every event starts from scratch. See how Amazon Business created a third-party event strategy where every activation reinforced the next, creating a portfolio that worked harder together than it ever could apart.
- Ashley Moye β Strategy Director, Augeo Experience
- Kevin Cobb β VP, Experiential Technology, Augeo Experience
- Mindy Gunn β Amazon
The most powerful experiences change how people connect with a brand and each other. Discover how leading brands use reinvention, community building, and the neuroscience of emotional resonance to turn cultural moments into lasting movements.
- Amy Williams β Head of Production, XD Agency
- Jenny Anderson β Senior Director, Corporate Events, Lowe’s
- Lauren Rice β Senior Director, Strategy, XD Agency
Most event teams don’t have an event problem. They have an operating model problem. In this Learning Lab, deconstruct the event journey, identify where buying signals disappear, and rebuild it into an AI-enabled system that keeps momentum moving long after the event ends.
- Eileen Page β SVP Digital and Innovation, Invision Communications
The best events do more than bring people together. Learn how intentional environment design influences relationships, decision making, and business outcomes long after participants leave the room.
- Dionne Bishop β CEO, Events by Dionne Inc
The most successful events create momentum that lasts long after participants leave. Learn how to extend engagement beyond the event and turn one experience into lasting relationships and measurable business impact.
- Anna Boggs β Event Analytics Advisor, ITA Group
- Ashley Bohnenkamp β Senior Manager, ITA Group
Brought to you by ITA Group
The events that participants remember are the ones that make them feel seen, valued, and part of the story. Learn how to evaluate every touchpoint through the participant’s perspective and design experiences that create stronger connection from beginning to end.
- James Papadopoulos β Former Executive Producer, Celonis
Agendas get built out of habit. This session is about breaking that habit. Bring your honest take. This is a working session for content and programming leaders to challenge assumptions and figure out what actually belongs on stage.
- Chris Carver β CEO, Sessionboard
- Megan Martin β Founder, M Squared Dynamics
- Megan Saad β Sessionboard
Brought to you by Sessionboard
Build an Event Marketing Dream Team with Humans & AI
Why do some teams click while others crumble, and why are clarity and empathy more important than ever? Find out during our opening Main Stage, where you’ll discover how to build rock-solid trust in an AI-enhanced workplace, strategies for partnering with AI to unleash creativity and innovation, and techniques for fostering resilience and adaptability. Go beyond using AI; build a dream team where human ingenuity and artificial intelligence join forces to crush your event marketing goals. Ready to unlock effortless collaboration and unstoppable execution in the age of intelligent teamwork? Join Dr. David Burkus and learn how to make your team click, delivering record-breaking results time and time again.β
Designing Your Career: A Conversation with Elaine Welteroth
Join Elaine Welteroth, New York Times bestselling author, TV Host, and Founder of birthFUND, for a closing Main Stage session unpacking the unique challenges faced by senior leaders who often prioritize brand transformation over personal growth. Elaine will share insights on designing a purposeful career, navigating reinvention after success, leading authentically in high-pressure roles, and staying creatively charged while juggling major responsibilities. Donβt miss this chance to refocus your own professional journey.β