Leadership and Judgment Lead the Conversation at CEMA Summit 2026

A Main Stage Power Panel explored leadership across teams, cultures, and continents. Photo courtesy PCMA CEMA Summit 2026.

The CEMA Summit 2026, held in Toronto from Aug. 8–11, drew a record attendance, bringing together more than 850 corporate event marketers and industry professionals from 19 countries for practitioner-led education, case studies, and peer-to-peer learning. The event marked the largest gathering in the organization’s 27-year history and welcomed 383 first-time participants. More than 40 practitioner-led education sessions complemented Main Stage conversations exploring leadership, artificial intelligence, audience engagement, measurement, and the evolving role of event strategists. Across sessions, one theme surfaced repeatedly: Event leaders are being asked to operate with greater strategic clarity than ever before.

Former Salesforce executive Ebony Beckwith opened the Summit with a keynote that set the tone for the event’s leadership-focused programming. Beckwith, an executive coach and founder of Framework, spent more than a decade at Salesforce, including serving as chief of staff to Marc Benioff. Drawing on those experiences — including her insider perspective on Dreamforce — she delivered a message that challenged attendees to rethink how they communicate their impact at work and to build what she called a personal board of directors: people who challenge them, open doors, and help them stay grounded as they move through their career path. “Managers care, but they cannot fully understand the depth of your contribution unless you help them see it,” she said. She urged the audience to consider who would sit on their board and what conversations those individuals might have with them today.

Ebony Beckwith explored influence, visibility, and career growth strategies. Photo courtesy PCMA CEMA Summit 2026.

Beckwith’s keynote established a foundation for a theme that surfaced throughout the Summit: Leadership matters. While her talk focused on professional development and communicating one’s impact, it also set up an overarching narrative that carried through the event — that as marketers gain access to more data and intelligence through advancing AI, the ability to apply sound judgment becomes essential.

The View From the Top

A Main Stage panel featuring leaders from global organizations explored the realities of managing teams and events that span countries, cultures, and continents. Moderated by Brian Mason, vice president of strategy and operations at CEMA, the panel included Deborah Caldwell, senior vice president and Asia Pacific head of events who serves on the PCMA Global Board and is a trustee of the PCMA Foundation; Dan Preiss, vice president of global experiential events marketing and sponsorships at Dell Technologies; and Sarah Reed, an industry veteran with 16 years of experience leading global events and experiences, most recently at Procore and Zendesk.

In this behind-the-scenes look at global event operations, Caldwell noted that “diversity doesn’t automatically produce strength,” adding that leaders must invest in building shared foundations before they can build resilience. Preiss emphasized the importance of clarity in decision-making, especially when teams are distributed across time zones. “You can’t afford ambiguity,” he said. “People need to know who owns what, how decisions get made, and what success looks like.” Reed added a perspective shaped by her years overseeing international programs, noting that global events require consistent alignment and shared frameworks to keep teams moving in the same direction. The conversation reflected a broader industry shift: Event leaders are increasingly responsible not only for delivering experiences, but for shaping the organizational structures that support them.

Courageously Candid

As part of the CEMA Summit 2026’s practitionerled programming, the event featured case studies from major events, including a candid Main Stage session from ServiceNow Knowledge 2026 — held May 5–7 in Las Vegas and drawing more than 20,000 attendees. This panel brought together Kelly Simon, senior director of strategic events; Suzy Matus, senior director of brand and event experiences; and Taylor Czech, director of strategic events, who provided the audience with a candid case study on this year’s event and walked through several plans that looked great on paper but didn’t play out as intended onsite. The trio shared the challenges they encountered and, perhaps most importantly, how they bounced back. The panelists discussed how they balanced innovation with operational realities and managed attendee and stakeholder expectations while maintaining strategic alignment. They emphasized the importance of having a clear strategic throughline — a single guiding idea that keeps teams aligned as they plan. They noted that when teams understand the core strategy from the outset, it becomes easier to stay on track, collaborate effectively, and pivot when needed. Establishing that “north star” early helps ensure that every creative and experiential decision supports the intended message and shapes how attendees ultimately experience the event.

The Power of Judgment

The Summit’s closing keynote from Opus Intelligence founder and former Beats by Dre CMO Omar Johnson expanded the conversation from operational resilience to the deeper leadership qualities required in an AI-accelerated era. Johnson described the industry’s current state as one defined by artificial intelligence — a landscape in which human judgment is becoming the real differentiator. He framed this shift as the beginning of a “judgment era,” where discernment becomes a new asset class in business. Johnson also emphasized that event leaders are increasingly functioning as designers of community, responsible for shaping trust, belonging, and the human connections that turn audiences into engaged networks.

Attendees celebrated Canadian culture during a networking experience in Toronto. Photo courtesy PCMA CEMA Summit 2026.

Looking Ahead

CEMA Summit organizers announced that expanded member benefits are underway. New initiatives include executive focused programming, enhanced opportunities for global engagement, and the development of an event marketing ROI benchmarking model and toolkit aimed at improving how event value is measured.

“The strength of the CEMA community has never been measured solely by attendance. It’s measured by the willingness of practitioners to share their successes, challenges, and lessons learned,” said Sherrif Karamat, CAE, President and CEO of PCMA and CEMA. “As this community continues to expand globally, that spirit of collaboration becomes even more valuable, helping event strategists advance their organizations, develop their teams, and create meaningful impact through events.”

If the Summit revealed anything, it’s that event leaders are entering a moment where judgment, clarity, and community design matter as much as creativity. The next CEMA Summit will take place in Denver, Colorado, June 25–27, 2027.

Gabrielle Weiss is Convene‘s editor in chief.