Recorded live at SocialWest 2026 in Calgary, Jessica Lortie, Head of Marketing at Toast, joins host Lindsay Smith to dig into one of the most persistent and underreported gaps in the Canadian tech and marketing industries.

Toast is a tech HR firm dedicated to closing gender gaps in the sector, working with organizations to diversify their hiring pipelines and running a community platform that gives women in tech the belonging, sponsorship, and psychological safety that workplaces often fail to provide.

Jessica shares the data behind a pay gap that tripled between 2016 and 2024, why masculine-coded job titles are quietly filtering women out before they even apply, how Toast's Champions Program is training men to advocate for women in the workplace, and why community might be the most underrated career acceleration tool available to women in tech right now.

The gap is real. The data is clear. And the playbook for closing it is already being written.

Recorded live at SocialWest 2026 in Calgary, Lauren Freund, Campaign Manager at Canva, joins host Lindsay Smith to explore what it actually takes to create content that cuts through in a crowded digital landscape.

Canva is one of the world's most widely used design platforms, helping teams of every size create visual content across social media, presentations, video, and more. At Canva Create 2026, the company made a deliberate shift: from a design platform with AI capabilities to an AI platform with design capabilities.

Lauren breaks down her content that connects framework, why the messenger matters as much as the message, how brands can balance digital presence with in-person community building, and why chasing reach and virality is the wrong goal for most marketers.

Virality is a byproduct, not a strategy.

Edited and produced by Takt.

Recorded live at SocialWest 2026 in Calgary, Charlie Grinnell, co-CEO of Rightmetric, joins host Lindsay Smith to explore why the data brands have been collecting about themselves is only half the story.

Rightmetric helps North America's leading consumer brands harness external digital data across social, search, web, app, and ad spend to uncover what Charlie calls outsights: intelligence derived from how people actually behave online rather than what they say in a survey or focus group.

Charlie breaks down why traditional segmentation falls short, how AI has turbocharged the ability to count and interpret behavioral signals at scale, and what it looks like when a brand finally sees the full picture of their audience rather than the one they assumed was there.

Because there's a big difference between what people say they do and what they actually do.

Edited and produced by Takt.

Recorded live at SocialWest 2026 in Calgary, Jeff Aylen, Vice President of Marketing and Brand for the Vancouver Whitecaps, joins host Lindsay Smith to talk about what it really takes to build a fanbase that sticks around long after the final whistle.

Jeff shares how the Whitecaps went from struggling to fill 12,000 seats in 2021 to selling out 50,000-person stadiums in 2024, and why that turnaround had as much to do with a strategic pivot toward relationship building as it did with what was happening on the pitch.

He breaks down how the team uses data and performance marketing to amplify emotional moments, how they scenario plan for seasons when the results aren't going their way, what FIFA 2026 means for the long-term growth of soccer in Canada, and why building mini-pitches across BC matters more to the Whitecaps than any single World Cup bump.

Because fans aren't acquired. They're built.

Edited and produced by the incredible team at Takt.

Recorded live at SocialNext: Ottawa 2026, Daniel Francavilla, brand and content strategist and founder of The Good Growth Company, joins host Alex to explore what it really takes to build trust in the nonprofit and public sector space.

The Good Growth Company supports nonprofits, social purpose organizations, and governments with training and facilitation across marketing, communications, leadership, and fundraising. Daniel also teaches at OCAD University and George Brown College.

Daniel breaks down why a brand-first approach matters more than ever, how misinformation and AI are reshaping the way organizations need to think about their reputation, what dignity-first storytelling actually looks like in practice, and why retention beats constant acquisition every time.

Because in a world full of AI-generated content and eroding trust, the organizations that show the real people behind their work will always stand out.

Thanks to our Editors, Producers, and Guest Host from Phantom Productions and WebMarketers.

This episode was recorded live at the Ottawa Conference and Events Centre during SocialNext: Ottawa 2026, Canada's leading conference dedicated to nonprofit and public sector marketers.

SocialNext is part of the SocialNext series, Canada's leading platform for marketing conferences, media, and community.

Recorded live at SocialNext: Ottawa 2026, Anouk Bertner, Executive Director of Future of Good, sits down to explore what it really means to tell stories that matter and why the nonprofit and social impact sector deserves better media coverage than it gets.

Future of Good is Canada's only media publication dedicated exclusively to the social impact space, covering the sector through written journalism, live journalism, and data products including their Changemaker Wellbeing Index, a national survey of 1,100 Canadians tracking how people working in social impact are really doing.

Anouk breaks down the three types of media content nonprofits should understand, how to craft a pitch that gets a journalist to call you back, why coalition building matters more than individual asks to government, and what media literacy looks like in an age of AI slop and news avoidance.

Because if changemakers don't tell their own stories, someone else will. Or no one will.

Thanks to our Editors, Producers, and Guest Host from Phantom Productions and WebMarketers.

This episode was recorded live at the Ottawa Conference and Events Centre during SocialNext: Ottawa 2026, Canada's leading conference dedicated to nonprofit and public sector marketers.

Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Tom Elson, Employer Success Manager at Riipen, joins guest host Rachel Thexton to explore how work-based learning is closing the gap between graduation and meaningful employment. 

Riipen connects students, educators, and employers through real-world project work, giving students hands-on experience while giving organizations access to fresh talent and ideas, often with government-funded subsidies covering up to 50% of student stipends.

Tom breaks down how Riipen works, what employers are actually looking for in junior talent, and why their new Future Path program might be the most flexible student engagement tool available to Canadian organizations right now.

Because the talent gap is real — and the solution might already be in a classroom near you.

Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Nihal Mandanna, Director of Growth at Cyber Impact, joins guest host Rachel Thexton to explore what it really means to build trust through email marketing.

Cyber Impact is a Canadian email marketing platform built around data sovereignty, security, and compliance — storing all client data on Canadian soil and helping organizations stay compliant, deliverable, and genuinely connected to their audiences.

Nihal unpacks why the best email strategies focus on relationship-building over reach, how hyper-personalization is reshaping lifecycle marketing across industries, and why choosing a Canadian platform is about more than convenience — it's about who holds the keys to your data.

Because whether you're a scrappy startup or a government agency, email is still one of the last permission-based channels where trust is earned, not assumed.

Produced by TAKT.

Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Ben Wise and Darren Chiu, co-founders of Captivate, join guest host Rachel Thexton to explore the art and science of human behavior.

Captivate translates academic psychology into practical tools for marketers, sales teams, and leaders, helping them communicate in ways that actually move people.

They unpack why most marketing falls flat by being overly rational, how emotional decision-making really works, and why storytelling, including friction, consequences, and vulnerability, remains one of the most powerful tools in business. 

Because whether you’re selling to consumers or corporations, you’re always selling to a human.

Produced by TAKT.

At SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Warren Thompson, Co-Founder and Director at Olo Metrics, sits down with guest host Rachel Thexton to demystify marketing data.

Warren explains why most teams don’t have a data problem, they have a clarity problem. Instead of obsessing over every metric in the funnel, he shares how focusing on a few “North Star” KPIs can simplify decision-making and drive real growth.

From performance marketing and SEO to AI’s impact on emerging marketers, this conversation explores how technical skill, strategic thinking, and creative craft must now work together, not in silos.

Clearer metrics. Smarter decisions. Stronger teams.

Recorded live at SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver. Produced by TAKT.

At SocialPacific 2025 in North Vancouver, Charlie Grinnell, Co-CEO of RightMetric, joins guest host Rachel Thexton to break down the uncomfortable truth about modern marketing.

Charlie explains why most brands operate on assumptions, not evidence, and why “looking before you leap” is no longer optional. From ego and institutional bias to blind faith in performance marketing, he challenges marketers to stop guessing and start triangulating the truth using real external data.

The conversation explores attention economics, content engineering, and why in a saturated digital world, creativity without context is just expensive guesswork.

Thanks to TAKT, the editors and producers of the SocialPacific 2025 series.