Schedule
Your playbook for building brands, mastering mindset, and winning the game of CPG.
Thursday, January 22, 2026
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
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Registration/Check-in, pick up your swag bag, and introduce yourself
Sponsored by Mindful Snacks
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM
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Energy-packed opener — why we’re here, what the day’s about, and the rules of the game
Sponsored by Thorne
9:30 AM - 10:45 AM
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AI is the new strength coach for the CPG world — leveling up how teams think, operate, and execute. But this session isn’t theory. It’s reps.
In this hands-on AI Training Camp, Temi will walk you through exactly how to set up and use the AI tools that are reshaping product development, retail execution, content creation, supply chain planning, and day-to-day operations.
Bring your laptop.
You’ll be building your new playbook in real time.
By the end, you won’t just understand AI — you’ll have it working for you, with practical workflows you can plug directly into your brand and your team.
This is the session that takes you from watching the game to becoming a high-performance, AI-powered athlete in the CPG arena.
Sponsored By: Toodu
10:45 AM - 12:00 PM
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In the sport of building brands, fundamentals win championships — and no one in Canadian CPG teaches the fundamentals like Suzie Yorke.
Suzie isn’t just a marketer or a founder — she’s a builder who’s done it at every level:
Big CPG marketing leading major national campaigns
Founder of Love Good Fats, scaling it past $100M+
And now launching a new venture, The Little Cacao co™
In this high-impact session, Suzie opens up her 4P Playbook — the exact framework she’s used to build and scale some of the most memorable brands in the industry.
She’ll walk you through:
Product: how to design offerings consumers fall in love with
Price: what modern pricing strategy actually looks like
Place: how to win shelf space and build a distribution engine
Promotion: what real brand storytelling and demand creation looks like today
This isn’t theory.
This is Suzie showing you the actual roadmap she uses — with examples, stories, insights, and decisions that shaped her biggest wins (and the lessons behind the tough calls).
Expect a tactical workshop-style session where you’ll walk away with:
A clear brand positioning framework
A sharpened 4P structure for your business
Better decision-making tools for retail, marketing, and scaling
Practical steps you can apply the next morning
If you’re building a brand — early-stage or scaling —
This is one of those rare sessions you’ll reference for years.
Sponsored by: MNP
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
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Refuel like an athlete. The CPG Power Lunch is designed to energize both body and mind—offering great food, meaningful conversation, and a mid-day reset to keep you performing at your best. Connect with fellow founders, marketers, and industry pros while you recharge for the second half of the day.
1:15 PM - 2:00 PM
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In the sport of building brands, capital is the fuel and strategy is the playbook. But when it comes to raising funds, planning for growth or navigating the financial side of CPG, the game can feel complex.
That’s why this fireside chat from MNP, one of Canada’s leading business advisory and financial services firms, is a can’t miss. Join Matt MacDonald, MNP’s National Leader of Food and Beverage Processing and Brodie Sheahan, MNP’s Ontario Leader Food and Beverage Processing, as they share proven strategies for emerging and high-growth brands to secure capital, strengthen financial readiness and scale with confidence.
This interactive session will cover:
What investors and lenders actually look for in CPG brands
How to assess financial readiness before you step on the field
Key metrics that drive valuation, growth, and performance
Building a strategic game plan to scale successfully
Corporate finance fundamentals for structuring deals and raising capital
Choosing the right capital partner to ensure long-term business health
Expect real-world examples, insider insights, and practical advice that you can put into play immediately. This isn’t theory. It’s inside game, from professionals who help businesses structure deals, improve performance and grow sustainably.
If you’re a brand in the process of raising capital or simply want a clear financial game plan for growth – this session is your way to stay winning.
Sponsored By MNP
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Founders aren’t just operators — they’re athletes.
In the sport of building brands, the mental game ultimately determines who wins.
In this transformational session, Dr. Cassidy Preston — sport & executive psychologist to elite athletes and top CEOs — breaks down the mindset frameworks that separate high performers from everyone else.
You’ll learn how to:
Build mental resilience when the pressure spikes
Overcome performance blocks and decision fatigue
Stay composed when retail, cash flow, and competition get loud
Lead your team with clarity, confidence, and emotional control
This isn’t a lecture — it’s training.
Expect a live breathing reset, a guided reflection exercise, and practical tools you can use immediately to show up stronger for your brand, your team, and yourself.
Walk in as a founder.
Walk out as a founder-athlete — ready to win the day.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Sponsored by Thorne
3:00 PM - 3:15 PM
Coffee & Hydration | Refuel for the back half of the day
Sponsored by: Thorne
3:15 PM - 4:15 PM
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In the sport of building brands, story is your offense, the thing that moves people, builds momentum, and turns casual shoppers into lifelong believers.
In this high-impact workshop, leading brand strategist Camille Moore breaks down what the fastest-growing modern brands are doing differently.
This isn’t just a talk about social media.
This is a deep dive into building a brand people care about, share, and rally behind.
You’ll learn how today’s winning brands:
Lead with story instead of shouting features
Build authentic communities that drive real demand
Use social platforms with intention, not desperation
Create narratives that deepen loyalty and accelerate growth
And to make this even more powerful, Camille will run a live brand story audit, showing exactly how to strengthen your positioning, messaging, and content strategy in real time.
This is a workshop disguised as a keynote.
You’ll leave with:
A clear brand narrative framework
A social strategy you can implement tomorrow
Practical tools for building community and momentum
A deeper understanding of how to differentiate in a crowded market
If your brand feels stuck, scattered, or invisible…
This session is where everything clicks.
Presented by Camille Moore
4:15 PM - 5:00 PM
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In the sport of building brands, data is your game tape — the truth that shows where consumers are moving, what categories are shifting, and which brands will win the next cycle.
In this session, Nick Gibson from NielsenIQ breaks down the freshest consumer and industry data from across Canada — insights most founders never get direct access to.
Nick will walk you through:
How Canadian shoppers are actually behaving right now
Category winners, losers, and the factors driving the shifts
Emerging growth pockets and white-space opportunities
How to read data properly (even if you’re not a numbers person)
What the next 12–24 months of CPG will look like
This is the kind of session that changes how you build, plan, market, and sell.
You’ll leave with a clear, data-backed understanding of:
Where your brand sits in the landscape
Which channels and categories are heating up
What pricing, innovation, and promotion trends are shaping consumer decisions
How to use insights to gain a competitive edge — not just react to the market
If you want to stop guessing and start making decisions like a top-tier operator,
This is the session you show up early for.
Sponsored by | Nielsen IQ
5:00 PM - 5:45 PM
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This panel pulls back the curtain on how buying decisions are really made — and what brands need to understand to win in today’s retail and digital shelf landscape.
You’ll hear directly from Charles Buhagiar, Health & Wellness Buyer at Metro, alongside the Senior Director of U.S. Emerging Brands & Canada Ad Sales at Instacart Graham Edwards
Together, they’ll share candid insights on:
What retailers actually look for when evaluating new and emerging brands
How brands should think about velocity, data, and proof points — before and after a listing
Where Instacart fits into a modern go-to-market strategy
How retail media, digital shelf, and in-store execution now work together
Common mistakes brands make when pitching buyers — and how to avoid the
Sponsored by Toodu
6:00 PM
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Close out the day with good vibes, great people, and a well-earned drink. The CPG Happy Hour is your chance to connect with speakers, founders, creators, and industry pros in a relaxed, high-energy setting. Celebrate the wins, swap ideas, and build relationships that will carry long after the event wraps.
Sponsored by
7:00pm - 10:00pm
The VIP Dinner Hosted by the CPG Dept.