FLAGSHIP ANNUAL EVENT CAMPAIGN | Ongoing

State of Canada’s Cities Summit

Each December, the Canadian Urban Institute brings together 400+ urban professionals, policymakers, business leaders, community advocates, and academics at the State of Canada’s Cities Summit to assess the strength of our cities and shape their future. This flagship event spans three days and includes a Leadership Dinner, panels and lightning talks, workshops, field trips, networking, and more.

Discover the Summit
Discover the Summit

Campaign Goals

  • Drive attendance for in-person participants across diverse stakeholders to have as interdisciplinary a convening as possible with individuals from varied industries, geographies and from diverse identities and backgrounds.

  • Strengthen CUI’s position as a thought leader and convener focussed on place across all urban issues, resulting in CUI, speakers, partners, and sponsors as the go-to thought leaders in urban development and policy in Canada oriented to ‘place’.

  • Build partnerships and sponsorships: Attract potential event sponsors and partners and strengthen existing partnerships and collaborations to support the Summit.

Key Messages

  • The Summit brings together Canada’s lead urban thinkers, doers and decision-makers to talk about Canada’s most important asset our places.

  • The Summit is about setting the stage to take action by exchanging ideas, research, and best practices to address the nation's most pressing challenges, rooted in place.

  • The Summit empowers participants to co-create a collective narrative about the future of cities, rooted in ‘place’

  • The Summit is where Canada’s foremost decision-makers and leading practitioners from across the country can convene, share their stories, and generate solutions.

Examples

  • Federal, Provincial & Municipal Government

  • Academic Institutions

  • Policy Leaders & Think Tanks

  • Indigenous Authorities

  • Commercial & Industrial Real Estate Developers

  • Planners & Architects

  • Business Improvement Associations

  • Economic Development Organizations

Stakeholders & Audiences

Individuals and organizations who can:

  • Contribute their expertise or lived experience to foster a greater understanding of the challenges facing urban communities. 

  • Share real-world examples of solutions that are being developed, piloted, or are underway. 

  • Report ideas, findings, and approaches back to broader teams, communities, or groups working for positive change across Canada. 

Channels & Content Strategy

  • Goal: Create a digital platform for all-things Summit including the agenda, speakers, and registration.

    Tools: Wordpress (2023), CraftCMS (2024), Pheeloop (2025 - to be used going forward).

  • Goal: Raise awareness of the Summit as a leadership activity for CUI

    • Event previews and recaps

    • Highlighting agenda topics

    • Speaker showcases and speaker-driven communications using speaker comms package

    • Day 2 activity features

    • Leveraging Summit partner networks using dedicated partner comms package

    Tools: Canva, Buffer, LinkTree, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook

  • Goal: Drive registrations for the Summit

    • Feature key messages around building professional networks, knowledge exchange, and exclusivity

    • Early exclusive access to discounts and details

    Tools: GetResponse

  • Goal: Generate media coverage about Summit reports being launched at the event.

    • Op-eds featuring CUI’s CEO and key speakers

    • Media advisory of event to local journalists featuring free attendance

    • Media release of report including photos from event

  • Goal: Ensure CUI’s network of partners receive personalized invitations to the Summit with exclusive bundle offers for teams.

    • Written invitations with graphics

    • Curated contact lists with CEO

    Tools: HubSpot

Outcomes & KPIs

    • 90+ Local and National Leaders on Stage  

    • 360 Attendees at the Rogers Centre Ottawa

    • 100+ Leadership Dinner Attendees

    • 20% of attendees had Chief of, President, or Executive Director in their title 

    • 44+municipalities from across the country were represented 

    • Top sectors represented:  Academic and Research , Government - Local , Government - Federal, Industry, Trade and Professional Associations, Non-Profit, Advocacy and Community Services 

    • 19 corporate partners, many of which were repeat supporters 

    • 210 organizations were represented in-person at the Summit 

    • Summit e-blasts were read by nearly 30K people due to a strong 56% open rate and an 18% Click Rate. This is a 43% improvement over 2024. 

    • On social media, our Summit campaign generated 45,000+ impressions and a 9% engagement rate, which drastically outperforms the standard on LinkedIn and Instagram. 

    • The Summit was re-shared by 20+ organizations expanded our potential reach to an audience of at least 160K+ on top of CUI’s audience. These groups included HousingNowTO, Shorefast, the Aboriginal Housing Management Association, the Canadian Alliance for Transit-Connected Housing, and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. 

On-Site Digital & Print Materials

Post-Event Recordings & Highlights

Previous

Climate Ready Infrastructure Service (CRIS)
Next

Measuring Main Streets