3rd Annual Live Partnership Conference
Tuesday, June 15th - Wednesday, June 16th, 2021
Virtual #PartnershipConference
Agenda – Tuesday, June 15th, 2021
This year’s theme is “Partnerships Reimagined”. Together with thought leaders from across the partnership spectrum, you will be challenged to rethink partnership best practices, measuring outcomes and engaging Canadians.
The agenda will continue to evolve, so keep checking back for updates.
9:00 AM Welcome and Kick off

Chris Baylis
The Sponsorship Collective
President & CEO

Brad Offman
Spire Philanthropy
CEO
9:15 AM Opening Plenary

Phil Haid
Public inc.
CEO
Purpose beyond the pandemic: what the future holds
The pandemic has accelerated the shift to stakeholder capitalism, forcing corporate, nonprofit and government leaders to confront the interplay between social and environmental issues, politics and increased consumer, employee and citizen demands. Navigating this accelerated “purposeful world” is not easy. The first step is understanding the trends and how to best engage. Phillip will lay out key trends in the “new normal” and what organizations can do to lean in effectively to grow their impact and bottom line.
Companies and nonprofits ignore it at their peril. The shift has been underway for some time and has accelerated over the past 3 years with proof points such as Blackrock annual letters, Business Roundtable, growth of BCorp movement, carbon neutrality, rise of circularity.
Pandemic has accelerated it as leaders are forced
09:45 AM Workshops
Sponsorship Stream

Audience Data: Why it Matters and How to Use it to Grow Your Corporate Partnership Program
Participants will learn…
• How does Audience Data apply to your charity and sponsorship programs?
• Whether or not your team is maximizing corporate partnerships opportunities?
• How to show ROI of your sponsorship program.
Learning Objectives:
1. Better understand how Audience Data can be used to support sponsorship programs.
2. Learn how to maximize your data base, regardless of if it’s in good or rough shape.
3. How you can use data to help you get more of the right sponsors and show a ROI.
Social Impact Stream

Bruce MacDonald
Imagine Canada
President & CEO of Imagine Canada
Innovative Funding Practices Emerging from the Global Pandemic
Join Imagine Canada’s President & CEO, Bruce MacDonald, for a candid conversation about the adaptations and innovations made to corporate funding practices in response to supporting causes during Covid-19. Hear from your CSR and Community Investment colleagues about the changes they’ve made to their partnerships with charitable and nonprofit organizations. This open and interactive discussion will explore the trend of ‘unrestricting’ funds previously earmarked for particular programs.
10:15 AM Workshops
Social Impact Stream

Gaurav Gupta
National Social Impact – KPMG Canada
Senior Manager
Virtual program, real impact: Pivoting in the middle of a pandemic
Gaurav will share how KPMG worked with one of its national alliances to pivot an in-person community volunteering program to one that was fully virtual, and how the program was scaled to multiple locations. The case study will also dive into details of innovating and operationalizing the program, creating employee engagement, challenges faced—and the impact on an underserved community disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
10:45 AM Break
11:00 AM Rapid Fire

Coming soon…
11:30 AM Workshops
Sponsorship Stream


Cause Sponsorships: Getting Clear on the Impact
According to Imagine Canada, the most effective companies measure the benefits of their community investment strategy. But where to begin? A theory of change model can help to break down how an intervention can ultimately lead to a desired result or impact. Getting clear on your theory of change will lay a foundation for your organization’s social impact strategy and can ultimately serve to ensure you are designing powerful cause sponsorship programs that intentionally and deliberately maximize impact.
Social Impact Stream

Top 5 Valuation and Prospecting Tips to Land Your Next Big Corporate Partnership in 2021!
The rules of the game have changed in 2021. Now is the time to revitalize and reposition your organization’s value to ensure you are putting your best foot forward and landing valuable partners. Join Accelerist, the leader in corporate partnership technology, to learn the top 5 must-do tips when it comes to positioning your organization’s refreshed value and prospecting right-fit corporate partners. All participants will receive a 2021 Corporate Partnership Roadmap to help you and your team implement and take action. We can’t wait to see you there!
12:00 PM Workshops
Sponsorship Stream

Building the plane as you fly it
The sponsorship model has evolved over time and to be successful you have to change with it. Gone away are the days of cookie cutter packages and more than ever is taking the time to discover and truly get to know what brings the most return to your sponsor. For many of you, you are either planning an event or you are selling sponsorships to an event. When/How can you make the time to prepare to sell the right way, preparing audience data, creating the avatars, defining your offerings when you already have to dive into the conversations?
Social Impact Stream

Inspiring Employee Action through Community
As we look towards a digital future, inspiring our employees to remain active in our communities will continue to evolve. This is where virtual volunteering, innovative skills and ideas, and giving back in meaningful will become an opportunity not only to re-build our communities, but inspire us to change the way we live our everyday lives. Discussion:
- Engaging your internal stakeholders – how to effectively engage with C-Suite, HR, Brand, Communications and your ESG teams so each of you have a hand in inspiring employees. (i.e.: engagement surveys, skills workshops, ERG’s)
- Localizing your impact – how to collaborate with your employees to create localized impact in the communities they live, work, and play in! (expanding the landscape of causes, understanding what your employees do outside of the organization)
- Story Listening & Telling – Tracking stories along the way, and inspiring employee action by featuring success stories
12:30 PM Lunch Break
1:00 PM Workshops
Sponsorship Stream

Cristin Christopher
Nipissing University
Director of External Relations
The Hero’s Journey: How to triumph over adversity
Getting your team on board is hard work! In this thought provoking and engaging session, Cristin will use the Hero’s Journey to describe steps to overcome silos, create buy in, and ‘sell’ your idea to your team and leadership. This session will include tactics on how to shift internal mindset from resistance to acceptance, cultivate a culture of collaboration and communication and lead the journey into a new era of corporate partnerships for your organization.
Social Impact Stream


Innovative Partnership Towards Circular Outcomes
Keurig Dr Pepper Canada found in Lavergne, a Montreal-based producer of high quality recycled plastics, the perfect partner to support its journey towards circular business and manufacturing practices. During this session, the leaders from those two organizations will draw a portrait of their unique partnership based on innovation, forward-thinking, collaboration and mutual trust.
1:30 PM Workshops
Sponsorship Stream

How to get “buy-in” from the team on your sponsorship program!
As sponsorship experts, we know the value of partnership and how it can deliver on your organizational goals, but sometimes your coworkers see it as a necessary evil. In this 30 minute session, we will break down sponsorship benefits and the importance of rallying your team behind your sponsor from the beginning.
I am thinking that I will talk about the importance of:
- Looping in all departments from the beginning – they will all likely have deliverables for the sponsor
- A shared tracker of benefits for all departments to view and work off of
- The sponsorship person may be the sales person and all sponsors want more “thought leadership” so this means looping in educational team.
- I might actually list out some benefits that I have in my agreements and break down what I do.
- Fulfillment is the job of everyone.
- thinking of a sponsor not as an ATM, but as someone that can help you deliver value to your organization. They likely have more money and resources than you do- tap into them.
- I will think of some other stuff around this.
2:00 PM Break
2:15 PM Rapid Fire

The Age of Generosity: Business 2.0
A case for making generosity the fundamental practice of an organization. Bhaskar Goswami, the founder of the CBC award winning non-profit called ‘daana’ will explore the lessons learnt from the front line of an organization dedicated to cultivating generosity as a practice. It’s a radical shift from ‘business as usual’, with profound implications.
2:30 PM Workshops
Sponsorship Stream

The Discovery Meeting: How to make the most out of an excellent opportunity
Congratulations on securing your first discovery meeting with a new corporate prospect!
Your discovery meeting can be the gateway to significant funds, but you need to know what you are looking for. It is common for the conversation to automatically head down the corporate philanthropy path, which can be excellent for your organization, but you could be missing an opportunity to raise significantly more unrestricted funds through sponsorship. In this session we’ll talk about how you can make the most of the meeting to open up new funding streams that helps you to meet your revenue goals.
Social Impact Stream


Time for bold action to realize a net zero future
Aviva is taking bold steps to help tackle the climate crisis, as demonstrated through its 2040 Net Zero plan announcement in March. This presentation will touch on the action plan in progress towards a Net Zero ambition by 2040 and address some tough questions. How do companies make these decision and why? What is the business rationale? What departments were involved in the process? How are Aviva departments coming together to have tough conversations and overcome interdepartmental challenges?
3:00 PM Workshops
3:30 PM Closing speaker

Retired Social Entrepreneur
Surprising lessons from the implosion of a supernova venture
Five counterintuitive lessons from a spectacular business failure
4:00 PM Closing Remarks

Chris Baylis
The Sponsorship Collective
President & CEO

Brad Offman
Spire Philanthropy
CEO
Agenda – Wednesday, June 16th, 2021
9:00 AM Welcome and Day Kick off
9:10 AM Opening Plenary

9:40 AM Workshops
10:10 AM Workshops
Sponsorship Stream

Christopher Norwood
Dusk Music Festival
Director of Marketing & Partnerships, Co-Owner
Coming soon…
Social Impact Stream



Corporate employee community engagement in the pandemic and the “after times”
Panel with Rachel Dick & Gina Jordan
Presenters will share adaptations in their approach to employee volunteerism and other employee community engagement activities as a result of the pandemic, lessons learned, and their forecast for post-pandemic implications for companies and their relationship with non-profits.
10:40 AM Break
10:50 AM Rapid Fire

Coming soon…
11:20 AM Workshops
11:50 AM Final Closing Remarks

Chris Baylis
The Sponsorship Collective
President & CEO

Brad Offman
Spire Philanthropy
CEO