Event: Thursday 22 October 12:30-17:00 | London
When anyone can make anything good, what makes something great?
The scariest thing a creative could face used to be a blank page. Thanks to AI, that page isn’t looking so blank any more.
When everyone can access the same tools, templates, trends and prompts, the things that set great social work apart start to look a little more human: taste. Instinct. Curiosity. Cultural fluency. Knowing how to blend human and tech, when to follow the rules, when to break them and, crucially, when an idea just isn’t it.
SocialMinds LIVE x Canva: The New Creative Toolkit brings together the people building the new social creative toolkit and the tastemakers putting it to work: brands, creative directors, social-first storytellers and the teams shaping what lands on social every day.
Hear from SocialChain’s senior experts and Canva’s marketing masterminds as we unpack what the new social creative toolkit looks like today. And because this is a SocialMinds LIVE event, you’ll share the room with the biggest and best social-first brands and creators setting new benchmarks for creativity on social.
Across a day of innovative sessions, we’ll explore how AI is changing the way ideas are executed, tested and scaled; what brilliant social creative actually looks like in 2026; and how culture, community and creators are shaping better briefs for brands.
This is where tools and taste meet.
- Date: Thursday 22nd October
- Time: 12:30-17:00
- City: London
- Venue: The Bersey Warehouse, 293 Old St, London EC1V 9LA
Sign up now to learn:
- How to combine AI-powered speed and scale with the human taste, instinct and cultural fluency that makes good work great
- How AI is reshaping what brilliant social creative looks like in 2026
- Why your community should be part of the creative process, and how comments, DMs, UGC and social listening can uncover better briefs
- How to use AI to listen, learn and respond at scale without losing the human instincts that build distinctive brands
- Why creators should be treated as a creative layer, not a media channel
You’re in good company. Take it from our past guests
Missed our last event? Watch the recap
Meet the speakers
The Lineup
Check in opens for registration
Welcome! Grab some lunch, network and get settled.
Intro to SocialMinds LIVE x Canva: The New Creative Toolkit
with Brave Bison's Chief Marketing Officer, Hannah Baker
The Kebab Test: Refined Taste vs Algorithmic Taste
In this keynote, SocialChain's ECD Tom Fenwick-Smith explores why AI is brilliant at execution but incapable of lived experience, why “on trend” and “interesting” are becoming opposites, and why the best ideas come from teams with genuinely different perspectives.
Trust the tastemakers: creators’ role in the new creative toolkit
When AI can brainstorm, script, edit, translate, resize and remix at speed, the big question for influencer marketers is this: how do you get more efficient without becoming more predictable?
This panel gets behind the post to unpack creator marketing’s place in your creative toolkit in 2026. We’ll explore the journey from the first spark of a creative idea to live on the feed, why brands should see creators as a creative layer, not a channel, and how your creator campaigns can maintain distinctiveness in an environment obsessed with effectiveness.
Expect a lesson in protecting the thing you hired a creator for in the first place: their taste, their process, their connection with their audience and a point of view that doesn’t look like everyone else’s. With DASH, Time Out, YouTube and Owen Cutts.
BREAK
The brief is in the comments: Why community sits at the core of the creative toolkit
Comments, DMs, broadcast channels, fan theories, UGC, in-jokes...the most social-first brands have long understood that community is a part of a campaign’s creative process, not an afterthought once it's gone live.
This panel brings together brands that have turned listening into innovating to explore how communities can sharpen ideas, shape content and give creative teams vital insight into what people care about. We’ll get into how AI can help teams listen and respond at scale without losing the human touch, the secrets to building a community-led brand, and whether what marketers really need is more AI literacy - or better instincts. With Canva, Innocent, Specsavers and Charlotte Tilbury.
Pin the brief: What good social creative looks like when people are deciding
In this keynote, Caspar Williamson, Director, Creative Strategy, International at Pinterest, shares how that planning mindset shapes what good social creative looks like and why it hits differently from feed-first platforms.
BREAK
Behind the campaign: ‘Open to work huns’
In this fireside chat, Holly Thomas, campaign manager at Canva shares the story behind THAT Gemma Collins campaign and the lessons for social media marketers looking to go where the brief says they shouldn't, and bring the entire internet along for the ride.
Wrap Up
Key insights and takeaways from today's session
Drinks & debrief
Wind down, grab a drink of your choice and network with our community of the best minds in social
Not to brag, but we always sell out...so get in there quick!
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