Designing CivicAction’s Summit brand and experience strategy for over 300 of Toronto’s leaders
CivicAction’s 2023 Summit: Changemakers Needed convened over 300 leaders across the public, private, and social sectors in the Greater Toronto Area to develop solutions around the region’s most urgent challenges: prosperity, affordability, and trust.
As Lead Brand Designer, I created the brand system that shaped the delegate experience, turning complex policy content into an event focused on connection, contribution, and action.
Deliverables
Event Design
Timeline
3 months
Role
Defined the end-to-end Summit experience strategy.
Presented the creative territories to the board, securing executive alignment.
Owned the brand system and creative direction.
Enabled internal teams with scalable tools and guidelines.
Challenge
The Summit brand design needed to operate at a strategic and experiential level:
Translate policy-heavy, jargon-dense content into a clear and compelling narrative.
Engage a range of audiences, from early-career aspiring city builders to CEOs of large corporations.
Drive measurable action and strengthen CivicAction’s position as a key city builder in the region long-term.
Scale across a lean internal team and multiple touchpoints.
Results
Summit 2023 strengthened CivicAction's reputation as a key city builder in the GTA.
We received 46.6M impressions from 21 media mentions and were covered by 8 media outlets. Social media activity was strong, with 26.5M impressions across Summit activities.
The Summit fundraised over $750,000 to support CivicAction’s continued growth.
300
25%
$750k
47M
Summit Changemakers Needed microsite; mobile and desktop view
Summit Changemakers Needed final and shortlisted logos
Process
Aligned leadership through creative strategy:
Developed and presented several creative concepts to CivicAction’s board, using interviews with senior leaders to turn the organization’s history and initiatives into a clear, engaging visual story for different audiences.
Designed a scalable brand system:
Created a bold, action-focused brand system adaptable across digital, print, and spatial environments, enabling consistent brand application across event touchpoints.
Reframed the Summit as a behavior-driven journey:
Designed pre-event touchpoints such as leadership dialogs to prime engagement.
Day-of-Summit collateral encouraged networking and accountability, such as the Changemakers puzzle, digital studio and venue signage.
Post-Summit creative strategy included leveraging video content to emphasize CivicAction’s impact, establish stakeholder credibility and encourage community support.
Turned jargon-heavy content into tangible engagement:
Collaborated with SMEs to distill complex themes into clear, accessible content across materials like the Summit microsite.
Designed interactive moments such as the Commitment Wall to make action visible and shared
Summit brand identity.
Rob MacIsaac, CivicAction Chair, delivers the closing remarks.
Conclusion
The Summit established CivicAction’s 5-year strategic direction and reinforced its role as a convening force in the GTA. This work demonstrates how brand systems can move beyond awareness; driving alignment, participation, and measurable action across complex stakeholder groups.
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