Robbie Thain
Founder, CEO
AI-generated illustrative image. Not an official campaign image.
Canva’s upfront offers a planning lesson for CPG teams: connect venue lead times, field execution and post-event follow-up to business goals.
On October 15, 2026, EMARKETER reported that Canva had hosted an invite-only experiential upfront for about 300 prospective sponsors during Advertising Week New York.
The gathering brought prospective sponsors into a conversation about Canva’s future live experiences. For CPG and beverage leaders, the useful story goes beyond the guest list. It connects decisions that often sit in separate workstreams: securing the physical setting and defining what the experience must accomplish commercially.
According to EMARKETER, the upfront previewed roadmaps for Canva Create, Canva AI Vision and Canva Cabana. Behind those plans were two reported practices worth examining: long-horizon venue sourcing and business measures written into event briefs.
Canva’s Global Head of Experiential, Jimmy Knowles, told EMARKETER that the company books Canva Create venues a year and sometimes two years ahead. He also described a quick transition between editions. The team wraps in April and is discussing the next event by mid-May, using customer feedback to decide what to keep or change.
Knowles said he consulted Canva’s CFO about which numbers would make an event valuable. Those measures then became part of the brief. EMARKETER lists pipeline and marketing-qualified leads among the hard metrics. Attribution and contribution to annual recurring revenue also feature, alongside organic reach as a softer signal.
The report also distinguishes between audiences. Canva’s Cannes Lions activation is measured for pipeline, while an education conference for a K-12 audience has separate targets. In another account, Adweek reported that Canva’s Bett UK activation generated 340 MQLs against a goal of 70.
These are reported Canva practices and company-specific results, not universal venue timelines or proof of Return on Investment (ROI). The reporting does not disclose the upfront’s lead definitions, attribution windows or financial returns. The practical lesson is the connection between intended outcomes and planning decisions.
At Makai, we believe a welcoming experience and a demanding operational brief belong together. The human interaction should feel natural. The planning behind it should be clear about what the brand is trying to earn from that interaction.
For CPG and beverage teams, that distinction matters because product trial and qualified pipeline are not interchangeable goals. A retail demonstration can center on shopper conversations and purchases. A trade show activation can center on qualified commercial interest. Our view is that the brief should preserve those differences rather than give every program the same success label.
We run experiential and engagement programs coast to coast with local crews, logistics support and permit expertise. That national execution experience is why we read Canva’s story as an operations lesson rather than simply an endorsement of bigger events. An ambitious calendar still needs a workable connection between the concept and the field.
Our team handles activation execution from the initial idea through final logistics. For us, the discipline is keeping the intended response visible throughout that work. The creative moment matters, but so does what happens when the conversation ends and responsibility moves to another team.
Canva’s reported venue strategy puts physical availability into the strategic discussion early. For a CPG activation, the useful application is to assess the venue timeline against the actual program rather than borrow another company’s calendar.
Makai’s services span permitting through CRM reporting, with storage and nationwide delivery coordination also in scope. Those capabilities connect the event setting with the practical work of getting a brand into market. Our view is that venue sourcing belongs inside that broader execution discussion, alongside the intended experience and its business purpose.
That is the value of connecting the creative brief with operational planning. The planning question is not only whether a space looks right. It is whether the overall program can support the interaction the brand wants to create, with the logistics and permitting work treated as part of the same assignment.
A goal of qualified conversations calls for a different staffing discussion from a goal of broad visibility. That is an operational reading of Canva’s event-specific targets, not a reason to make every ambassador responsible for every commercial outcome.
Our retail demonstrations use trained brand ambassadors to support in-store sales through product trials and real conversations. Our trade show work focuses on spaces that attract attention and turn visitors into customers. Those service roles give the staffing brief a concrete purpose beyond simply filling positions on a schedule.
For marketing leaders, the useful discipline is planning field coverage around the intended interaction. A clear outcome gives the team a basis for discussing its responsibilities. It also keeps staffing tied to the experience being delivered instead of treating labor as a separate procurement exercise.
EMARKETER reports that Canva adapts formats while keeping its brand personality consistent. Knowles described smaller rooms for executives and creative space for creators. The audience changes the setting without requiring the brand to become unrecognizable.
We see a useful principle for CPG trade shows: judge the footprint by the conversation it is meant to support. Attention is part of the assignment, but it is not the entire assignment. Makai plans and manages trade show spaces to attract visitors and start conversations that can become customer relationships.
From that perspective, booth flow deserves a place in the business discussion. The question is how the space supports participation and meaningful dialogue. A visually strong presence should serve that purpose rather than become a separate definition of success. This keeps the footprint connected to the brief instead of allowing the build itself to become the goal.
Canva’s reported inclusion of attribution and revenue contribution makes the handoff after the event part of the planning conversation. For Makai, inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing are operating problems, not just reporting problems.
We believe the intended business outcome should remain recognizable after the show closes. If qualified pipeline is the goal, the brief needs to connect the live interaction with the follow-up responsibility. That is a question of ownership as much as measurement. A busy booth does not answer it by itself.
For CPG leaders, connecting live engagement with commercial outcomes also requires keeping different outcomes distinct. Shopper response and a trade show lead serve different purposes. The planning lesson is to name the intended outcome early and carry that meaning through execution and reporting, rather than let every interaction become an undifferentiated success count.
Knowles’ account places customer feedback close to the next planning decision. That is the useful feature of the April-to-mid-May transition described by EMARKETER: review is connected to what happens next rather than left as a closing document.
For us, a post-event review should preserve both the human experience and the operational lesson. Makai’s experiential work is designed to connect emotionally and drive measurable response. Evaluating only the atmosphere would leave the response out. Evaluating only the final count would leave the experience out.
The practical implication is to give review a place in the planning calendar. Feedback can then inform decisions about what to retain or change before the next brief takes shape. That keeps the next edition connected to evidence from the previous one without assuming that every successful format should be repeated unchanged.
Knowles told EMARKETER that being together in a room remains meaningful in an AI-saturated online environment. He called it “the last real thing that will remain.”
We share the belief that face-to-face interaction deserves serious attention. At Makai, that belief sits alongside a commercial responsibility: experiences are designed to capture attention and generate measurable sales pipeline. Warmth is not the opposite of accountability. It is part of an experience whose purpose still needs to be clear.
For a CMO or VP of Marketing, the lasting lesson is not simply to book earlier. It is to keep the business purpose intact as the work passes from planning into physical execution.
When your next activation brief reaches approval, will the path from a real conversation to a business outcome already have an owner?
Field marketing leads own the handoff from show-floor engagement to sales; when Makai manages the trade show space, the focus is on attracting attention and converting visitors into customers. For teams facing inefficient post-event follow-up and CRM routing, Makai creates experiential campaigns and trade show activations designed to turn consumer interactions into qualified leads for premium CPG brands.
30 Years Experiential & Retail Activation Partner for CPG & Beverage Brands | Multi-Market Demos, Roadshows & Costco/Club Programs That Actually Sell
