Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session 1A - Festival & Event Sponsorship Trends, Tips and Tricks
Speaker: Victoria Mahoney
Join Victoria for an insider’s look at the latest trends, tips, and tricks in festival and event sponsorship. With experience driving award-winning campaigns and securing over $900,000 in sponsorship revenue in a single year, Victoria will share proven strategies for blending traditional sponsorship with high-impact experiential marketing.
Learn how to maximize event spaces, create irresistible activations, leverage data for stronger pitches, and stay ahead of emerging trends like large-scale installations, sustainability, and AI personalization. This session is packed with practical inspiration to help you attract and retain partners while elevating the audience experience.
Breakout Session 1B - Sponsors are from Mars, Properties are from Venus: Bridging the Sponsorship Galaxy
Speaker:
Ever feel like sponsors and sponsorship seekers are speaking completely different languages? You’re not imagining it—they’re practically from different planets. Brands are chasing measurable ROI, scalable activations, and alignment with their strategic priorities. Properties are seeking passionate partners, shared values, and the resources to bring big visions to life.
In this lively, insightful session, we’ll decode the interplanetary signals and explore how to bridge the cosmic gap. You’ll learn:
What each side really means when they talk about “value”
How to align expectations before your rocket leaves the launch pad
Common misunderstandings that can lead to meteoric crashes (and how to avoid them)
Practical tools to turn alien encounters into long-term partnerships
Whether you’re a brand looking to invest wisely or a property hoping to land that dream sponsor, you’ll leave with a clear flight path to better communication, stronger relationships, and out-of-this-world results.
Breakout Session 1C - 10 Hidden Numbers - Free, easy to find and use metrics right under your nose.
Speaker: Sarah Hillifer
Sponsors want to know that you can deliver their dream audience but finding the right numbers to prove alignment can be expensive, overwhelming, and often feels like pulling teeth. What if you didn’t have to look too far to find valuable insights – what if sponsor gold was hiding in your parking lot? Your concession lines? Your ticket sales?
You’ll walk away with new places to go digging (for free!) for data nuggets that will have sponsors asking when they can sign on the dotted line.
Breakout Session 2A - Integrating Sponsorship Into Your Philanthropic World
Speaker: Sarah Fedirko
In today’s evolving fundraising landscape, the line between sponsorship and philanthropy is becoming increasingly blurred, and that’s a good thing. This workshop explores how strategic sponsorship can complement and enhance your philanthropic goals, helping you build stronger relationships, unlock new revenue streams, and deliver deeper impact for both your organization and its supporters.
Join Sarah Fedirko, Director of Alumni and Donor Engagement at Saskatchewan Polytechnic, as she breaks down how sponsorships can be more than just “event donations.” Learn how to integrate sponsorship thinking into your broader fundraising strategy, position opportunities for mutual value, and communicate with sponsors in ways that inspire long-term investment. Whether you’re in education, non-profit, or municipal sectors, this session will offer practical insights, real-world examples, and tools you can immediately put into practice.
Breakout Session 2B - Beyond The Big Markets: Winning Sponsorship Where Loyalty Lives
Speaker: Chrystal Robery – Macey
Selling sponsorship is challenging in any market — and when you’re operating outside Canada’s largest urban centres, the rules change. Each market has its own rhythm, values, and deeply rooted sense of loyalty. Understanding that loyalty — and knowing how to activate it — is where real sponsorship value is created.
In some cases, being in a major market can actually be a disadvantage for sponsors trying to connect authentically with audiences elsewhere. Properties that understand their community can bridge that gap, helping sponsors move beyond assumptions about population size and head offices to focus on what truly drives return: relevance, connection, and trust.
In this workshop, you’ll learn how to help sponsors tap into the passion and loyalty of your audience — whether you’re working with a local business seeking fresh ideas or a major brand looking to grow its presence in mid sized or smaller markets. The principles apply regardless of market size.
And if you think this session is only for properties, think again. Your next high-impact sponsorship opportunity might be closer than you think — and waiting just beyond the highway.
Breakout Session 2C -
Business the NHL Way: Sponsorship Strategies Inspired by the Fastest Game on Ice
Speaker: Dr. Norm O’Reilly
Drawing on compelling lessons from Business the NHL Way, Norm will bring the energy of the NHL locker room to the sponsorship arena. Inspired by stories of leadership, innovation, and adaptability—from navigating crises like COVID-19 to embracing inclusion and creative activation—this session will unpack:
- Strategic Agility: How the NHL’s nimble responses to global disruptions offer a playbook for sponsorship agility and resilience.
- Creative Brand Building: What “brand-new offerings with creativity” and hockey-style marketing teach us about effective sponsorship storytelling.
- Activation Over Rights: Lessons from hockey’s “give-and-go” mentality—moving beyond sponsorship rights fees toward genuine activation that drives value.
- Inclusion & Identity: How the NHL’s approach to inclusion—such as women’s pro hockey and diversity stories—can inform more inclusive, impactful sponsorship strategies.
Join Dr. O’Reilly to explore how hockey’s most dynamic business plays can elevate your sponsorship playbook—with strategic insight, a dash of sport, and a whole lot of inspiration.
Breakout Session 3A - The Human Architecture of Sponsorship
Speaker: Nowshad Ali, On Purpose Events
Where Partnerships Begin: People, Purpose, and Performance an exploration of What High-Impact Leaders Do Differently to assure sponsorship excellence.
Objectives:
Participants will leave with:
✔ A people-alignment lens for sponsorship
✔ A purpose-based value narrative
✔ A practical co-creation model grounded in behavior, motivators, and EQ
In a crowded sponsorship marketplace, most strategies focus on assets, activation, and ROI. But the partnerships that truly last—and deliver meaningful impact—goes beyond those and are built on something deeper: people.
In this session, leadership strategist and founder of On Purpose Leadership, Nowshad Ali, reveals why sponsorship success is less about what you sell and more about who you are in the relationship. Drawing on real-world leadership practice and data-backed human insight, participants will explore how behavior, motivation, and emotional intelligence shape trust, alignment, and long-term value.
This session elevates sponsorship from transactions to transformational partnerships – helping you design relationships that perform, endure, and create purpose-driven impact for both brands and communities.
Breakout Session 3B - Getting Higher Than Market Value for Your Sponsorship: How Purpose, Impact, and Relationships Create Stronger Partnerships
Presenter: Don Gorsalitz, DCG Philanthropic Services
As sponsorship continues to evolve, organizations are discovering that traditional approaches focused solely on visibility no longer unlock the highest levels of support. In this session, Don Gorsalitz explores how sponsorship can evolve beyond transactional models to become purpose-driven, impact-focused partnerships that generate greater value for both sponsors and the communities they support.
Drawing on real-world examples from community, municipal, and capital campaign environments, this presentation will examine how relationship-building, trust, and confidence play a central role in securing higher-level sponsorship. Participants will gain practical insight into how sponsorship increasingly mirrors philanthropic decision-making and how aligning sponsorship with community impact, organizational values, and meaningful engagement can lead to deeper, longer-term support.
Attendees will leave with a clear framework and practical questions they can apply to elevate sponsorship conversations and unlock stronger, more sustainable partnerships.
Breakout Session 3C - Activating the Full Potential of Sport Sponsorship
Speaker: Nick Mazurak, Saskatchewan Roughriders
Nick will explore the unique role sport sponsorship plays in today’s business landscape and why brands choose to invest in partnerships with sports properties. Drawing on real examples from the Roughriders’ business, as well as his prior experience on the brand side, Nick will highlight how effective sponsorships go far beyond logo placement to create authentic fan engagement and deliver meaningful value for partners. The session will showcase partnership programs from the club and share practical insights on how teams and brands can work together to maximize value and fully activate the potential of sport sponsorship.
Bio:
Nick Mazurak is the Director of Corporate Partnerships for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, where he leads the club’s partnership strategy and oversees a team responsible for managing a diverse portfolio of more than 65 corporate partners across private, government, and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining the Roughriders in 2020, Nick spent nearly a decade with Molson Coors Canada, where he held several leadership roles across the Prairie region. Known for his relationship-driven approach and passion for growing the business of sport, Nick specializes in building meaningful partnerships that elevate the fan experience, strengthen brands, and deliver measurable value for partners.