FUTURE FESTIVAL - TORONTO WORLD SUMMIT 2026
Sep 30 - Oct 1, 2026
TREND HUNTER
EVENTS

FUTURE FESTIVAL WORLD SUMMIT

Unlocking the Human Advantage in Innovation

Innovation conference for insights, strategy, marketing, and product teams

2 DAYS
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TRUSTED BY THE
WORLDS LEADING BRANDS
Trusted by hundreds of the world's leading organizations to uncover emerging opportunities, identify disruptive trends and build future-ready innovation strategies.

UNLOCKING
THE HUMAN
ADVANTAGE
IN INNOVATION

“Unlocking the Human Advantage in Innovation” explores the capabilities that matter most in an AI-powered world. As AI transforms how we work, the greatest competitive advantage will come from uniquely human strengths like discernment, creativity, intuition, cultural intelligence and the ability to navigate ambiguity.

Powered by Trend Hunter’s world-leading trend intelligence methodology, World Summit equips leaders with the confidence, frameworks, and strategic mindset to harness AI, identify emerging opportunities, make better decisions and build more adaptable, innovative, and future-ready organizations.

WHY
FUTURE FESTIVAL

LEAD WHAT'S
NEXT.

As AI, shifting consumer expectations, and emerging technologies redefine how organizations compete and grow, leaders need the insight and frameworks to stay ahead. Powered by Trend Hunter’s global trend intelligence, Future Festival World Summit equips you to identify emerging opportunities, sharpen strategic judgment and drive immediate impact.

STRATEGIC
KEYNOTES

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Strategic insights from Trend Hunter Futurists and innovation experts on the shifts shaping tomorrow's business landscape

INTERACTIVE
LEARNING

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Executive workshops and collaborative sessions that translate trends into actionable opportunities.

EXECUTIVE
NETWORKING

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A shared program experience—no competing tracks—designed to foster deeper conversations and meaningful connections across industries, from sessions to meals to the Opening Night Reception.

OPENING NIGHT
TECH RECEPTION

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An evening of innovation and connection featuring interactive demos and Toronto's innovation community.

Tue, Sept 29 | 4:30-7:30 PM | Steam Whistle Brewery

SELF-GUIDED
TREND SAFARIS

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Curated experiences exploring Toronto's most innovative retail, technology, and cultural destinations.

PERSONALIZED
ADVISOR SESSIONS

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Exclusive one-on-one sessions with Trend Hunter experts to align priorities, tackle challenges, and identify next steps.

“One of the best conferences I have attended. You will leave more knowledgeable, more inspired, energized and determined to drive change and make a difference.”

TREND HUNTER
TEAM

MEET OUR
FUTURISTS

Natalie Nixon

OPENING KEYNOTE:
NATALIE NIXON

FEATURED
GUEST SPEAKERS

GUEST SPEAKERS
& PANELISTS

THANK YOU
TO OUR SPONSORS
Future Festival Partner Itonics
Future Festival Partner DSM-Firmenich
Future Festival Partner Diageo
Future Festival Partner Goodwill
Future Festival Partner PepsiCo
Future Festival Partner Shnucks
Future Festival Partner IFF
Future Festival Partner Brand Imagination Group
Future Festival Partner Newell Brands
Future Festival Partner Candy Funhouse
Future Festival Partner Metahus
Future Festival Partner Oracle
Future Festival Partner Givaudan
Future Festival Partner McClatchy Media
Future Festival Partner Weber Shandwick
Future Festival Partner Teknion
Future Festival Partner Haven Greens
Future Festival Partner Itonics
Future Festival Partner DSM-Firmenich
Future Festival Partner Diageo
Future Festival Partner Goodwill
Future Festival Partner PepsiCo
Future Festival Partner Shnucks
Future Festival Partner IFF
Future Festival Partner Brand Imagination Group
Future Festival Partner Newell Brands
Future Festival Partner Candy Funhouse
Future Festival Partner Metahus
Future Festival Partner Oracle
Future Festival Partner Givaudan
Future Festival Partner McClatchy Media
Future Festival Partner Weber Shandwick
Future Festival Partner Teknion
Future Festival Partner Haven Greens

Interested in sponsoring or partnering with Future Festival?
Contact us at conference@trendhunter.com

SESSION LINEUP

Here’s a look at what you can expect.
Sessions and speakers are subject to change.

DAY ONE WEDNESDAY, SEPT 30TH
8:30 AM
Registration, Breakfast & Experiential Exhibitions
Pilsner Hall
9:30 AM
Armida Ascano, Chief Insights Officer, Morning Address
Locomotive Hall
9:45 AM
Morning Show
Jonathon Brown Locomotive Hall
10:00 AM
The New I In AI
Natalie Nixon Locomotive Hall
THE NEW I IN AI
Imagination, Inquiry and Intuition
Worried about how you'll find your edge in Al? At its BEST, Al enhances human qualities at work. Natalie Nixon, a renowned creativity strategist, advocates for leveraging curiosity, imagination, and intuition to navigate this evolving landscape. Her keynote offers practical insights to redesign work and thrive in the changing paradigm.
11:00 AM
Augmented Intelligence: The Co-Pilot Strategy
Sean Watson & Panelists Locomotive Hall
Is AI a catalyst for human ingenuity, or a crutch that quietly dulls our judgment? The same tool that makes us faster and sharper can just as easily make us worse — and the moment we stop noticing is the moment it matters most.

This keynote cuts through the hype to explore the fine line between cognitive decline and strategic leverage. Across three arenas — your life, your work, and your world — we'll confront the real risks of leaning too heavily on AI and reframe what it takes to stay sharp, original, and competitive in an augmented age. Expect provocative questions, real-world examples, and a strategy for putting AI in the co-pilot's seat without handing over the controls.

Guest Speakers: Osama Malik (Senior Executive Director, Enterprise Modernization, Oracle), Geoffrey Eisfeld (CEO, Metahus)
12:00 PM
Lunch & Experiential Exhibitions
Locomotive Hall & Pilsner Hall
1:00 PM
Driving Innovation at Scale: From Insights to Connection
Ari Zeitoun & Matthias Veit, ITONICS Locomotive Hall
Innovation at scale begins with human curiosity. When people share what they are noticing, connect diverse perspectives, and leverage AI without compromising human collaboration, innovation can emerge in many forms, from individual actions to organization-wide initiatives.

Guest Speakers: John Comacchio (Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Teknion), Joy Lim (Manager of Innovation & Applied Insights, Teknion)
1:30 PM
Rewiring Risk and Culture for Transformational Change
Seth Rogin Locomotive Hall
Seth Rogin, McClatchy's President of Performance & Intelligence and an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, will lead a discussion on the culture of digital transformation. Having directed programs for some of the world's largest media, technology, and consumer companies, Seth will share how we can navigate rapid internal change and rethink our interactions with brands in an agentic world.
2:15 PM
Trend Digestion
Jonathon Brown Locomotive Hall
An interactive networking experience where attendees unpack the big ideas, exchange perspectives, and turn fresh insights into meaningful conversations.
2:30 PM
Break, Experiential Exhibitions & Networking
Pilsner Hall
3:00 PM
The Trust Signal: Decoding Generational Trust & Cultural Intelligence
Armida Ascano Locomotive Hall
Consumer trust isn't disappearing, it's fragmenting. What signals credibility to one generation can look like hype or pandering to another.

Microgenerations and the Trust Signal explores how cultural conditioning shapes the way different cohorts decide what (and whom) to believe. Introducing Cultural Intelligence (CQ) as an essential brand capability, Armida Ascano reveals how trust has shifted from automatic acceptance to active verification, and why brands must understand the cultural codes behind the evidence consumers seek.

Learn how to recognize each microgeneration's trust signals, avoid its credibility blockers and design proof into every consumer touchpoint, without losing what makes your brand recognizable.
3:45 PM
Cultural Intelligence Fireside Chat
Armida Ascano & Jenine Guerriero Locomotive Hall
Culture shifts fast, and brands that fail to keep pace risk losing audience trust overnight. Building on key themes of modern consumer connection, this duo brings together leading voices in brand strategy, culture and consumer insights.

Together, Armida and Jenine will dissect how leading organizations navigate cultural shifts, rebuild broken trust and embed cultural fluency into every level of their strategy. Expect an engaging, practical discussion full of real-world wins, cautionary tales and actionable advice.

Guest Speakers: Jenine Guerriero (Head of Marketing and Consumer Insights, Givaudan)
4:15 PM
Closing Remarks
Jonathon Brown Locomotive Hall
4:30 PM
Future Party (4:30pm - 7:30pm)
Pilsner Hall
DAY TWO THURSDAY, OCT 1ST
8:30 AM
Breakfast & Experiential Exhibitions
Pilsner Hall
9:30 AM
High-Signal Innovation Panel
Jonathon Brown & Panelists Locomotive Hall
When the signals are noisy, contradictory, or simply haven't appeared yet, how do leaders decide what to trust? Following When Signals Fail, Jonathon Brown brings together industry experts to explore how discernment works in practice. Through candid conversation and real-world examples, the panel will examine how leaders distinguish meaningful shifts from manufactured momentum, balance data with intuition, and make confident decisions when the evidence is incomplete.

From knowing when to follow the market to recognizing when conventional wisdom is pointing in the wrong direction, this discussion moves discernment from theory into practice, revealing how experienced leaders make the call before the answer becomes obvious.

Guest Speakers: Dave Theodoropoulos (Chief Marketing Officer, Candy Funhouse), Lisa Ström (SVP, Strategic Insight, Weber Shandwick), Tess Sansbury (VP, Marketing & Consumer Insights, DSM-Firmenich)
10:30 AM
Break, Experiential Exhibitions & Networking
Locomotive Hall
11:00 AM
The 18 MegaTrends Matrix
Jennifer Kang Locomotive Hall
Long-term business success requires looking past short-lived fads to decode the deep, enduring forces shaping consumer behavior. The 18 Megatrends Workshop provides a comprehensive map of these multi-decade shifts, pulling real-time consumer signals and case studies directly from Trend Hunter's Trend Intelligence Engine (TIE).

In this hands-on session, participants will explore how cross-industry megatrends — from Catalyzation and Prosumerism to Curated Coping — converge with the 6 Patterns of Opportunity.

By leveraging the power of TIE data alongside human analytical depth, participants will learn how to contextualize raw market shifts, anticipate macro-level disruptions, and translate global consumer desires into high-value innovation strategies for their brands.
12:00 PM
Lunch & Experiential Exhibitions
Locomotive Hall & Pilsner Hall
1:00 PM
Growing the Future: Where Legacy Meets Innovation
Mark Onufer & Jay Willmot Locomotive Hall
How Jay Willmot transformed generations of farming heritage into Haven Greens, using technology, automation and entrepreneurial thinking to reimagine what a modern agricultural business can be.
1:30 PM
Patterned Thinking Workshop
Zahra Karim Locomotive Hall
Learn to ideate, innovate, and solve real business challenges using Trend Hunter's 6 Patterns of Opportunity. The Patterned Thinking Workshop is a structured ideation session that helps teams solve business challenges using Trend Hunter's 6 Patterns of Opportunity. By applying these innovation lenses, participants rapidly generate, prototype, and prioritize ideas, ultimately aligning on one actionable concept with a clear path to execution. Beyond immediate outputs, the workshop equips teams with a repeatable framework they can use to continuously turn creativity into meaningful innovation.
2:30 PM
1:1 Meetings with Trend Hunter Experts
Trend Hunter Futurist The Tap Room
2:30 PM
Happy Hour Closing Patio Reception (2:30pm - 5:30pm)
Pilsner Hall & Patio
VENUE
SPACE

VENUE

Steam Whistle Brewery

255 Bremner Blvd, Toronto, ON M5V 3M9

September 30th & October 1st - Future Festival

The SoHo Hotel Toronto
WHERE TO
STAY

SAVE 15% ON
YOUR STAY.

The SoHo Hotel · Toronto

TICKETS
SALES CLOSED

TICKET SALES HAVE CLOSED

Registration for World Summit 2026 is closed. Explore our other upcoming events, or contact our team below.

GOT A QUESTION?
WE GOT YOU

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Future Festival is an innovation conference designed for industry leaders who are ready to break through chaos. Content is aimed at Managers, Directors, VPs, and C-Level executives from all industries who lead innovation, strategy, marketing, R&D, insights, and transformation initiatives.

Whether you're driving growth at a global brand, steering change within a fast-growing startup, or guiding strategy at a non-profit or government agency, the content is curated to provide high-impact ideas and tools you can immediately apply.

Yes! Many of the activities are designed for teams, leading you to specific outputs for your own brand. At Future Festival, you will be excited by trends and undiscovered opportunities – you'll get the most out of the event by sharing this experience and building ideas with your team in the room.

Expect engaging keynote programming from our team of renowned futurists, alongside workshops and networking events tailored for meaningful connection and hands-on learning. Check out our 2025 event recap to learn more.

Future Festival is led by Trend Hunter's team of Futurists and we also invite guest speakers who are leads in their fields. Check out each individual event page to see who will be appearing.

World Summit in Toronto is our premier event where we introduce new ideas that will shape the year ahead. It takes place over two days as we go beyond our keynotes and create an immersive experience for attendees.

Check out the event page for World Summit in Toronto to learn more.

Each Future Festival event boasts its own unique schedule, check out the event page you're interested in attending to see which speakers and topics will be covered.

Start by taking our Innovation Assessment to identify your unique innovation archetype. Discover tailored strategies to help you realize your potential faster, and see how you and your organization compare to the world's top innovators.

Yes! Your ticket can be transferred to a colleague, just email futurefestival@trendhunter.com to make the change. Please note that transfers will only be accepted up to one week before the event.