The IRL renaissance: 5 takeaways from the Canada Investment Summit

This edition of Second Read went out to subscribers on September 16, 2026. It is my weekly newsletter that goes out to subscribers every Wednesday. You can subscribe here.

I started my career working for Jason Kenney on Parliament Hill.

Jason frequently cited an old Woody Allen quote: "80% of success is showing up," which coincided with his well-earned reputation for being the Minister for Curry in a Hurry.

At the time he was tasked with leading an effort to ensure Stephen Harper's new government built relations with newer Canadians.

Over those years I attended and helped organize more events than most will go to in a lifetime.

On a future edition of Second Read, I will write a case study on how anyone can build a relationship with a new audience to create impact for what you are working on.

But today, let's talk about the benefits of showing up, IRL!

The Canada Investment Summit took place in Toronto this week and the federal government put on a masterclass in how to host an event.

This is not political analysis. This is learning from excellence in the power of convening people and applying it to organizing your events.

Here are 5 takeaways from the Canada Investment Summit that you can apply to organizing your next IRL event.

1 — Be clear about what you are trying to accomplish

What do we want to achieve with an event? How can an event help drive success in realizing your organization's objectives? Who do we need to work with to achieve it? What do we need to work on to create the conditions for success?

Realistically answering these questions gives you the basis for what you are trying to accomplish and how to go about making it real.

The Canada Investment Summit was aptly named.

The federal government brought large pension funds, financial institutions, provincial governments, large project proponents, and some of the biggest names in global finance to Toronto to showcase economic opportunities in Canada today.

But the real difference maker? IRL, putting them in the same room to build relationships for future action, in this case, investment deals.

2 — Set the stage

Why are we here? Who is in the room? What is the lens or frame we want people to think about throughout the event to help advance our goals?

All good conferences or events start with an opening to set the stage. The Canada Investment Summit was crystal clear about why everyone was there.

A best practice for conferences, it kicked off with an opening dinner the night before. The kickoff provided an opportunity for familiar faces to get reacquainted and to give attendees the chance to meet others in the room with a shared reference point.

In smaller events, this can be an icebreaker or simple level set on what you hope people will collectively experience by participating. For events open to the broader audience, you can introduce them to partners in your industry or sector.

3 — The event program

What is the headline or keynote that anchors the program? What are the smaller components throughout the rest of the program? What resources are being given out to attendees? How do we create opportunities for attendees to succeed in their own objectives by attending?

This lays the groundwork for it all to come together and is the event logistics operation's time to shine.

Every component, large and small, should be programmed to achieve what you are setting out to accomplish. What is the mix of public sessions and private sessions? Is there a benefit to having it live-streamed or recorded for future publishing? What takes place behind closed doors?

Your keynote needs to speak to the moment and the room. It creates the headline to grab people's attention.

For a lot of events, the keynote is also the platform designed to reach an audience beyond the physical room and shape the narrative in the public.

Given the nature of the sensitive commercial conversations that would be taking place, the space had to be made to create a forum for investment funds to be able to connect with discretion.

As is often the case, the informal conversations in the lobby and at side-events contribute to the overall success. These are the panels, receptions, and other discussions that take place alongside the main event.

4 — Public relations and maximizing reach

Which journalists or outlets would be interested in covering the event? What opportunities can you create for them to tell the story? What are you releasing in the lead-up to the event to create buzz and frame the event's story? What goes into a media kit to make disseminating core event details easier for everyone?

It's no accident the federal government also had a list of announcements ready that were designed to address criticism of Canada's investment climate and drive media coverage from the summit.

The whole Canada Investment Summit was a marketing moment to confront those reputational challenges and show global capital markets the action being taken to meet them head-on.

The event also created an opportunity for attendees to use the summit to make their own announcements, which added to its overall success and contributed to the momentum the host was trying to create.

5 — Follow up post-event

How are we thanking participants? How are we measuring outcomes to tell the story for the future? How can we make it better and improve for future events?

The outcomes from the first Canada Investment Summit will not be known for months. But follow-up is a key to cementing an event's success.

As a best practice to create loyalty amongst event attendees, be sure to follow up! People are often quite generous with feedback to help you learn and grow as you host more events. Be sure to conduct a full post-mortem to lay the foundation for future success.

The takeaway

While you may not be hosting the who's who of global finance, the organizing principles and planning for success showcased can be applied to events of any scale.

From Conaptus

Preparing executives for the podium moment and how events play into your organizational strategy is a lot of what Conaptus does.

If there's something you have in mind that you would like help taking from idea to making it real, let's talk about it.

Cheers,

-JE