Day two of the Experiential Marketing Summit offered up a jam-packed slate of hands-on experiences, curated off-sites and discussions focused on how fresh thinking, hyper- personalization, sustainability and measurement maintain relevance and impact in a digitally dominated world. Let’s dig in.
The Main Stage
The morning kicked off with a high-energy trivia contest, followed by an outstanding EMS 2026 opening keynote, “Confetti Meets KPIs—Balancing Bold Ideas with Business Impact,” delivered by Canva’s global head of experiential, Jimmy Knowles, who made the case that we are in the imagination era, and that large event budgets don’t necessarily equal meaningful engagement.
“Here’s what I have learned about resources and imagination” Knowles said. “They are not the same thing. A bigger budget can make something louder. It can’t make something matter.”
Knowles also offered attendees a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Canva engineers culture-shaping events that fuel a brand community other companies can’t replicate, and how its events offer as much business impact as they do emotion-driven, awe-worthy touchpoints.
Hot Topics
The day’s lineup of panels and breakouts covered ground across c-suite and stakeholder engagement, shrinking attention spans, ops efficiencies for sustainable events, outcome-based trade show booths, measurement and metrics, nurturing fandoms, emotion-driven design and much more. And a few themes emerged across the content:
Merging Creativity and ROI
Knowles set the tone early that bold ideas and business impact shouldn’t be in competition. The most effective event programs aren’t choosing between the creative and ROI—they’re building systems that make both possible.
AI as a Sounding Board
One of the most buzzed-about formats of the day was the “Human Creativity vs. AI Creative Brief Challenge,” which pitted human insight against machine output in real time. The result wasn’t a verdict so much as a conversation about where AI accelerates ideation and functions as a sounding board of sorts, why and where it falls flat without human context, and what it means for the marketers building the future of brand experiences.
Quality Over Quantity
Across several conversations on building culture, fostering community and beyond, speakers made it clear that creating a one-size-fits-all programming built for everyone is akin to creating an experience for no one.
TED’s chief program and strategy officer, Monique Ruff-Bell, brought this perspective: “It’s not about the quantity. It’s about the quality, because I am sure way more people would appreciate really good content over hundreds of pieces of bad content, because nobody likes their time wasted.”
Personalization Drives Inclusivity and Engagement
Tailored designs and tactics that cater to varied audiences ensure accessibility and deeper engagement. Think: Modular trade show designs and differentiated activations for largescale audiences.
EMS Experiences
When attendees weren’t consuming session content, they partook in Braindates that allowed for curated peer-to-peer discussions, community mixers, creativity challenges and the EMS scavenger hunt.
After Hours
In the evening, EMS shifted gears but kept the networking and good vibes flowing. Happy hour in the Hall of Ideas brought another round of demos, conversations and spontaneous connections, as well as the first ever EMS lip sync contest, which saw speakers, sponsors and EM’s own editors rocking the stage at The Clubhouse.
The night’s headliner was Women in Events Night, hosted by InVision in partnership with EM. The exclusive, invite-only evening gathered corporate event bosses for a dynamic experience that celebrated the people who make event magic happen, regardless of who takes the stage.
And for those with a little more fuel in the tank, EMS After Dark delivered with an exclusive VIP takeover of On the Record, where the vibe was laid-back, and the conversations were the kind you can only have with people who truly get what you do.
Stay tuned for insights from day three, and the full EMS 2026 recap.
