Registrations
- 8:30 AM - 4:00 PM
Event Host
- 9:15 AM - 9:20 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Media Host & SK
- 9:15 AM - 9:20 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
BMO Business Banking: Supporting Canadian Businesses from Day One
- 09:30 AM - 09:45 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
How to Reduce Cart Abandonment and Recover Lost Revenue
If you have an eCommerce site, you know that driving traffic is only part of the equation. The real challenge is converting visitors into buyers. With 70% of shopping carts abandoned, there’s a lot of untapped potential. This workshop will share simple, effective strategies to streamline your checkout process and reduce friction, helping you turn more visitors into customers and boost sales.
- 09:45 AM - 10:00 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Paul Gaspar has served as Director of Small Business for UPS Canada since 2011. In this role, he helps Canadian small businesses better leverage UPS tools and capabilities to accelerate growth and expand both domestically and internationally. Working alongside a team of Small Business Ambassadors, Paul supports business owners in identifying the right mix of tailored services, technology, and innovation to meet their goals. A leader and mentor within the startup community since 2015, Paul is committed to supporting entrepreneurs across Canada through practical guidance, advocacy, and partnerships that help businesses grow with confidence. Paul obtained a degree in Economics from York University.
AI for Small Business: From Adoption to Competitive Advantage
- 10:00 AM - 10:15 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
The Exit is the Entrance
- 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Chelsee Pettit builds multi-brand platforms that move revenue, create jobs, and keep ownership in community hands. Having risen from retail floors and personal debt to scaling global ecosystems, she advocates for reclaiming economic power through execution over permission. Her work and talks bridge the gap between practical business strategy and deep reflections on sovereignty and capital access across e-commerce and strategic partnerships.
The Integrated Marketing Edge: How Smart SMBs Win Customers in 2026
With over 25 years of experience in the industry, Igor Sorokin, CEO of integrated performance marketing agency One Core Media, breaks down what separates businesses that grow from those that stall in 2026 – the mistakes that quietly drain budgets and hurt performance, the shortcuts that seem smart but end up costing you the year, and where the smartest operators are focusing their time, money, and attention to acquire customers profitably.
You’ll leave with a clear understanding of what to prioritize, what to avoid, and what to walk away from before it starts costing you customers, market share, and momentum.
- 10:30 AM - 10:45 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Igor Sorokin is the CEO & Founder at OneCore Media. A successful entrepreneur and business strategist, he’s driven to find creative solutions to complex problems both inside and outside of marketing parameters.
Signal vs. Noise: Digital Marketing That Moves the Needle for Local Businesses
Every week brings a new “must-do” in digital marketing — AI this, automation that, a new platform to master. For a local business owner with one or two locations, most of it is noise.
Drawing on 20+ years of building customer acquisition programs for local and multi-location businesses, Adam and Spence cut through the hype to show what’s actually driving new customers through the door in 2026 — and what’s a distraction dressed up as a trend. You’ll leave knowing where to focus your limited time and budget, what to safely ignore, and when it’s worth bringing in outside help.
- 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Spencer Saunders,
Strategy and customer experience at
Lokum Marketing Services
Adam Green,
Digital marketing Execution at
Lokum Marketing Services
Supply Chain Talent Needs in the Age of AI
What Makes a Great Supply Chain Professional :
- 1. Traditional Technical & Soft Skills
- 2. Evolution of Logistics & Supply Chain
- 3. Digital Skills as the New Baseline
- 4. Reimagining SCM Roles in the Age of AI
- 5. Building a Future-Ready Workforce
- 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Dr. Muddassir Ahmed is a globally recognised supply chain expert with 19 years of leadership at Eaton, Bridgestone, Doncasters Group, and Volvo Cars. He holds a PhD from Lancaster University and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.
He founded SCMDOJO, building a community of 300,000+ practitioners, and created SCMDOJO SENSEI, the world’s first vertical AI supply chain consultant. Enterprise clients include LEGO, JLR, LVMH, and Novartis. He hosts The Supply Chain Show podcast and is co-authoring Cracking the Inventory Code.
Growth, Market Change, and the New Realities of SMEs: Are You Protected for What Comes Next?
Growth changes everything, including the protection needs most entrepreneurs don’t see coming.
This keynote is designed for business owners focused on growing their company, building momentum, and pursuing new opportunities. Insurance is rarely part of the conversation, and that’s completely normal. But as your business evolves, so do its protection needs, often faster than expected.
This presentation explores how today’s market is changing and what that can mean for your business. Through concrete examples, it highlights how different growth decisions can introduce new exposures that many business owners don’t anticipate. Key themes include:
Climate‑related disruptions and their impact on operations
Cybersecurity, technology, automation, and AI redefining responsibility and liability
Growth milestones that quietly reshape protection needs
The presentation also explores what smart, growth‑oriented SMEs tend to do differently. Not complex strategies, but practical habits. For example: reviewing protection when your business changes, ensuring coverage reflects how your business operates today, and asking forward‑looking questions aligned with future growth.
Desjardins Insurance understands the realities of growing businesses, helping entrepreneurs anticipate change, adapt protection, and make informed decisions as their business evolves.
Join the conversation, focused entirely on your reality, your growth, and what comes next.
- 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Frankie brings over 20 years of leadership experience in engineering, strategy consulting, and operations across the Americas, Europe, and Africa. He currently serves as Vice-President, Growth, Development and Performance, Commercial Lines at Desjardins Insurance.
He holds an MBA in Finance and Strategy from McGill University and a Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering from Concordia University.
He began his career as a software engineer in the telecommunications industry, delivering integration and consulting services for wireless and media technologies across multiple continents. During this time, he also led efforts to recover from global network outages.
Frankie went on to spend 12 years in strategy consulting, including six years as Managing Partner of KPMG Québec’s Strategy Consulting practice. His work focused on strategic planning, growth strategy, business planning, operations, and mergers and acquisitions. He advised clients ranging from startups to multinationals across most major economic sectors in Québec, including financial services and insurance.
In parallel, he developed KPMG’s Deal Strategy practice, serving institutional investors, private equity firms, and venture capital funds.
HR Without the Overhead: How Outsourced HR Helps Growing SMBs
Designed for business owners and managers to unpack common HR myths, uncover the truth, and gain meaningful strategies to strengthen your people practices.
As businesses grow, managing people becomes increasingly complex. From hiring and onboarding to compliance, performance management, and workplace culture, HR responsibilities can quickly overwhelm founders and small leadership teams.
In this session, we’ll explore how outsourced HR services can help small and mid-sized businesses access experienced HR expertise without the cost of building a full internal department. Learn how the right HR support can improve hiring practices, reduce risk, strengthen employee engagement, and create the policies and processes needed to support growth.
Join us to discover practical strategies for building a stronger workforce while allowing your leadership team to stay focused on running and growing the business.
- 10:45 AM - 11:15 AM
- Room 104D, Level 100
Hali is a member of MNP’s Consulting Services team in Toronto. Hali works closely with executives and their leadership groups to set direction, gain alignment, add structure to decision-making processes, and strengthen engagement within their teams. With a focus on human resource management, organizational development, and business strategy, she helps businesses implement best practices to enhance interpersonal relations and understanding among shareholders, partners, managers, and staff.
With over 20 years of experience in human resource management, Hali delivers tailored one-on-one consultations as well as group seminars. She has worked with many family businesses and privately-owned companies in all stages of the business life cycle to support their growth and sustainability. Hali holds the Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) and Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) designations, earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Western University in 1995, a Human Resources Certificate from Fanshawe College in 2008, and a Professional Certificate in Conflict Management, Alternative Dispute Resolution from Western University in 2014.
The SMB Playbook: Scaling Without Breaking Your Business
Many businesses hit a growth ceiling and what worked in the early days often becomes the biggest obstacle to scaling. In this session, we’ll share the operational, financial, and leadership shifts that growing companies need to successfully move from founder-driven businesses to scalable organizations. Learn the most common bottlenecks that stall growth, the metrics high-performing companies track, and how to build systems that support expansion without sacrificing profitability.
If you’re planning your next stage of growth, this workshop will provide practical insights on how to scale with confidence.
Session focus:
- Operational bottlenecks that stall SMB growth
- Building scalable financial and operating models
- When founders should bring in senior leadership
- Metrics investors and lenders actually care about
- 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
- Room 104D, Level 100
Taming the Payroll Beast: From Headache to Hassle-Free Pay Runs
As soon as you finish one pay run, it’s time for the next. Payroll is one of the most important parts of running a business and yet, it can one of the most frustrating. You only hear about payroll when something has gone wrong and while it’s important to everyone’s job, no one sings accolades for the person taking on the role of payroll administrator.
In this session, we’ll break down why payroll becomes a slog as businesses scale and grow: manual processes, compliance complexity, nation-wide hiring, and disconnected systems. More importantly, we’ll show practical ways to simplify it through saving time, reducing errors, and giving you better visibility into your workforce. Designed for business owners, operators, HR professionals, and others who are wearing the payroll hat and tired of payroll taking more effort than it should.
Rahul Nirula, Head of Product, will engage the audience on the magic of automation, expertise, and technical capabilities combine to cure this back office headache.
- 12:15 PM - 12:45 PM
- Room 104D, Level 100
Small Business, Big Pressure: Why Your Business Runs the Way It Does
- 01:00 PM - 01:30 PM
- Room 104D, Level 100
Sukaina Nathoo is the Clinical Director and Founder of Purposeful Change Psychotherapy and a Registered Psychotherapist with over 20 years of experience in mental health. Her career spans public healthcare systems in both the United Kingdom and Canada, where she worked across community, hospital, and outpatient settings supporting individuals at every stage of their mental health journey.
In 2019, Sukaina founded Purposeful Change Psychotherapy and established The Purposeful Change Framework™. Central to this framework is Customized Psychotherapy, a term she coined that blends multiple evidence-based therapies tailored to each person’s attachment history, lived experience, and current capacity for change. Treatment begins with a Blueprinting process, a personalized exploration of a client’s story that shapes every step of the work ahead. She specializes in working with professionals, individuals, couples, and families, helping them navigate mental health, life transitions, work pressures, and relationships, and empowering them to make purposeful changes that are felt across every aspect of life.
Managed Intelligence: How AI Can Benefit the SMB
- 02:00 PM - 02:30 PM
- Room 104D, Level 100
Michael Sirota is the Chief Executive Officer of Rational Business Solutions, a leading IT services firm based in Markham, Ontario. With over two decades of experience in technology leadership, Michael has built a reputation for delivering innovative, secure, and scalable solutions to small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.
Under Michael’s leadership, Rational Business Solutions has evolved into a trusted partner for organizations seeking to modernize their infrastructure, enhance cybersecurity, and embrace digital transformation. His strategic vision has guided the company’s expansion into managed services, cloud solutions, and AI-powered productivity platforms, including Microsoft 365 and Copilot.
Michael’s career spans multiple industries, including software development, retail operations, and IT consulting. Prior to becoming CEO, he served as Director of Sales & Service at Rational, where he led client engagement and service delivery for over 15 years.
As a presenter, Michael brings clarity, insight, and real-world experience to discussions about the future of work. He is passionate about helping businesses unlock the full potential of AI and automation, and his workshops are known for their practical takeaways and strategic depth.
Michael holds a strong belief that technology should empower—not overwhelm—businesses. His mission is to simplify IT, reduce risk, and enable growth through thoughtful, personalized solutions.
The Future is Hybrid: How SMEs can scale by combining human judgment with AI execution.
- 02:45 PM - 03:15 PM
- Room 104D, Level 100
From "Busy" to Operationally Efficient: Using AI to Reclaim Time and Capacity
Growing businesses often reach a point where the founder and team spend more time reacting than leading. Important work gets buried under constant interruptions, manual processes, disconnected systems, repetitive administrative tasks, and day-to-day firefighting. In many businesses, teams lose 20–30% of their time simply moving information between systems, searching for answers, updating spreadsheets, recreating documents, and managing inefficient workflows. The result is operational chaos, limited financial visibility, team frustration, slower decision-making, and increasing founder burnout.
In this session, you’ll learn 5 practical ways to use AI and Automation to streamline operations, improve workflow efficiency, strengthen financial visibility, reduce bottlenecks, and reclaim valuable time and capacity across your business. We’ll explore practical, real-world use cases that help founders and teams focus less on low-value busyness and more on the work that drives growth, profitability, better client experiences, and long-term scalability. Whether you are just beginning to explore AI or looking for operational improvements you can implement quickly, this session will provide actionable ideas you can take back and apply immediately.
- 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
- Room 104D, Level 100
Susan Goebel is a Strategic Advisor who helps business leaders simplify operations, improve margins, and scale without adding complexity. She works with growth-stage companies to bring clarity to how the business runs, from financial visibility to team execution.
Her approach to AI and automation is practical and business-first. Instead of focusing on tools, she shows how to apply AI directly inside core functions like finance, operations, and marketing to save time and improve consistency.
Susan collaborates with founder communities and accelerator programs across Canada, helping leaders turn AI from an experiment into something that actually drives results.
Mastering Your Business Finances in 30 Minutes
For many small business owners, bookkeeping is a daunting task that often takes a backseat to daily operations. However, accurate books are the backbone of smart business decisions and tax readiness. In this high-impact, 30-minute workshop, we’ll break down the essentials of financial management. This session is designed to transform bookkeeping from a “shoebox of receipts” into a managed, low-cost system that works on the go.
Key Takeaways:
1. The 6-Step Workflow: A clear roadmap to completing your books, from connecting bank statements and reconciling accounts to running payroll and conducting year-end reviews.
2. Fundamental Accounting Concepts: Simplifying complex topics like Accrual vs. Cash basis, managing Accounts Receivable/Payable, and understanding Depreciation.
3. Decoding Financial Reports: Learn how to read your Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement to evaluate business health and plan future investments.
4. Bookkeeping Best Practices: Critical tips for entrepreneurs, including the necessity of separating business and personal expenses and the benefits of cloud-based automation.
5. Wave Features Deep-Dive: Discover the full power of Wave Invoicing, Payments, and Payroll to streamline your operations.
Participants will leave this session with a tactical understanding of how to keep their books up-to-date and tax-ready, allowing them to focus less on the numbers and more on pursuing their passion.
- 10:45 AM - 11:15 AM
- Area A
As VP Customer Experience, Lawrence oversees the teams that service Wave’s 300,000+ small business customers. This includes Customer Success and Wave Advisors, an in-house group of experts who provide personalized bookkeeping and accounting coaching to small business owners.
Lawrence is a customer-obsessed people-first executive with 20 years of multinational commercial experience across geographies, Enterprise/B2B/B2C cultures and industries. As a change agent CCO/CXO, he has driven top and bottom-line growth through leadership in P&L, Product, RevOps, GTM, Sales, Marketing, Partnerships, Strategic Development, Customer Support and CX, in Startup, Fortune 100, Fortune 500 & Forbes Global 2000 companies.
A Certified Customer Experience Professional (CCXP), Master of Applied Science & Management, Professional Biologist and Mastering Design Thinking alum from MIT Sloan, Lawrence is the outgoing President & Chair of CXPA Toronto, and has sat on advisory Boards for CSPN & Corinium Global Intelligence. He was previously President & Chair of the Alberta Society of Professional Biologists (ASPB).
Lawrence has spoken at and facilitated hundreds of tech forums, workshops, advisory and networking events in FinTech, SaaS, Retail, CPG, Banking, Energy, Infrastructure, Environmental and Agri-Food industries.
He is passionate about building innovative award-winning teams and empowering entrepreneurs to reach objectives that exceed themselves.
AI in Finance: A Practical Guide for Small Business Owners
- 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM
- Area A
Jaime Trujillo-Ramirez is a seasoned Fractional CFO who helps growth-oriented businesses achieve financial excellence and sustainable growth. With more than 15 years of experience across real estate, renewable energy, cannabis, and technology (SaaS), he specializes in strategy, financial planning and analysis, reporting, and execution.
He works with founders and leadership teams to refine strategy, strengthen financial models, execute major transactions, and build high-performance teams. Jaime also brings firsthand entrepreneurial experience, having helped scale a start-up from inception to more than 100 employees while supporting international expansion.
His background spans strategic planning, budgeting, feasibility assessment, operational improvement, and performance measurement. By helping businesses set practical budgets, evaluate plans for viability, and establish clear objectives and key results, Jaime provides decision-ready insight that helps clients solve complex problems and move forward with confidence.
The Owner Dependence Trap: How to Build a Scalable, Transferable Business
Many business owners become the very bottleneck limiting their company’s growth. This session reveals how owner dependence slows scale-up growth, creates operational risk, and reduces exit value.
Attendees will learn the warning signs, the hidden costs to growth and freedom, and how to build a more scalable, transferable, and marketable business. This session is designed for business owners who want to grow with less friction & burnout, strengthen the foundations of their company, and increase the value of what they have built.
- 12:15 PM - 12 45 PM
- Area A
Joe Graci is a 3x Business Owner/Operator known for professionalizing SMBs, eliminating owner dependence, and engineering scale-ready, marketable companies. He built a $100M revenue business before architecting a double exit – first to a private equity buyer and subsequently to a strategic acquirer – showcasing his ability to address key-person and concentration risks to increase enterprise value. A builder at the intersection of operations, go-to-market, and technology, Joe works with Business Owners as a trusted advisor & coach to create owner-independent businesses that are re-wired for scale-up growth or exit.
Paid Media's New Frontier for SMBs: 5 Shifts Reshaping Paid Marketing and 5 AI Prompts You'll Want To Use Monday Morning
The way SMBs run paid media has changed more in 18 months than in the previous five years. AI-first platforms are default. Creative has replaced targeting. And the cross-channel halo between social, search, and email is finally measurable.
In this 30-minute session, we’ll break down five major shifts every SMB owner should understand, then give you five practical AI prompts you can use in your own business the very next day to stay ahead of the competition.
- 01:30 PM - 02:00 PM
- Area A
I turn marketing experiments into consistent wins using data, creativity, and a dash of caffeine. With over 14 years of growth hacking under my belt, I’ve thrived in startups and agencies where “winging it” wasn’t an option. My secret weapons? A bias for action (thanks to my Gallup “Activator” and “Achiever” strengths) and a knack for slicing through analytics like a hot knife through butter.
From crafting scroll-stopping mobile-first creative strategies to coaching performance teams and optimizing omni-channel campaigns (budgets north of $5M/year—no biggie), I know how to balance big-picture thinking with in-the-weeds execution.
Verticals I’ve played in include retail, travel, CPG, fintech, sports, media and entertainment and more, delivering paid media strategies tailored to unique business needs. Along the way, I’ve shaped not just results but company cultures—because inspired and motivated teams ship great work.
The Search Shift: How to Get Found on Google, ChatGPT, and AI in 2026
Search in 2026 isn’t just about SEO anymore; it’s about “Answer Engine Optimization.” Your customers are no longer just Googling; they’re asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others for recommendations, searching for the most reputable businesses and shortlisting vendors before they ever visit a website.
Mike Zhmudikov, SEO Director at SeoLogist with 20 years of experience, is a certified GEO/AI Search professional who has spent the last year navigating this shift for his clients. He’ll move past the “AI is coming” hype to show you:
• How to make sure you don’t lose SEO presence.
• How to make sure you are on top of the recommendations of major LLM platforms: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, etc.
• How to make sure both SEO and GEO work as a well-oiled engine.
Join us to learn how to start showing up where it actually matters.
- 02:15 PM - 02:45 PM
- Area A
Gennady Liakhter : I’m a revenue leader who builds scalable growth engines, with over 15 years of experience in tech and digital marketing services. Over the years, I’ve designed GTM motions and sales enablement systems that help businesses grow more predictably. I’ve also grown new lines of business from 0 to over $1.5M ARR, and materially expanded margins through smarter packaging, pricing, and delivery.
On the marketing side, I operate at scale across SEO/AI-search, paid media, web, and email. I’m comfortable in the details (attribution, reporting, automation flows) and equally at home setting narrative, priorities, and cadence for the leadership team. Practical, system-minded, and obsessed with doing what actually moves the needle.
Michael Zhmudikov : As the esteemed SEO Director, Mike stands at the forefront of digital marketing excellence, showcasing a remarkable journey that has not only earned him the admiration and respect of his colleagues but also the unquestioned trust of numerous clients. With a robust career spanning nearly two decades in search engine optimization and digital marketing, Mike’s expertise is simply unparalleled. His knowledge and application of Applied Linguistics, Marketing, Project Management, E-commerce Management, and UX/UI design principles have been instrumental in preparing strategies that propel businesses to the zenith of online visibility and engagement.
Only Humans Do This: Your Unfair Advantage in the Age of AI
This is a fast-moving, high-impact masterclass for business owners and entrepreneurs who want to understand where AI should amplify their business and where human insight still matters most. In just 20 minutes, participants are guided through a powerful framework that separates what can be automated from what should remain uniquely human, helping them identify their true competitive edge in an AI-driven world.
This session blends urgency, reflection, and practical application. Attendees will explore the shift from current state of the world’s response to AI to its new business reality, complete a simple live exercise to distinguish between “Human Genius to Machine Edge”, and learn a six-dimension framework for protecting the human elements that create trust, creativity, leadership, and growth. The session also includes a live demo of the Metaforge IQ platform, showing how its intelligence platforms uncover blind spots, and generate a clear action plan wherever you are in your AI journey.
By the end of the masterclass, attendees will walk away with a sharper understanding of their own unfair advantage, a practical lens for deciding what to automate, and a clearer roadmap for using AI without losing the human strengths that make their business distinctive.
What attendees will gain:
- 1. A clear view of what should be automated versus what should stay human.
- 2. A practical framework for identifying their business’s unfair advantage.
- 3. Insight into the six dimensions that shape AI Intelligence and human value.
- 4. A live demonstration of how Metaforge IQ works and highlights blind spots.
- 5. A stronger sense of how to lead confidently in the age of AI.
Best for
This session is ideal for business owners, founders, consultants and entrepreneurial leaders who are navigating AI adoption and want to avoid losing the human qualities that drive trust, creativity, and strategic leadership. It is especially relevant for audiences looking for both inspiration and practical direction. Customer obsession is part of our DNA at Metaforge-AI, and woven into every detail of our culture and platform.
- 03:00 PM - 03:30 PM
- Area A
Dr. Sandra Weppler doesn’t do buzzwords. She delivers results. As Founder and Chief AI Transformation Officer at Metaforge-AI, Sandra brings 20+ years of experience helping organizations move beyond the conversation and actually transform. A Harvard and Wharton alumna, Google Woman in Tech Ambassador, keynote speaker, and two-time Amazon bestselling author, she has driven AI transformation across North America, impacting over 35 million customers in the process. Dr. Sandra created Metaforge IQ, an AI Intelligence SaaS platform that meets organizations exactly where they are on their AI journey, helping them implement AI with the customer at the centre of every decision.
In this session you will:
→ Discover your unfair advantage the 12 human skills AI can never replace and why they are your greatest competitive edge right now
→ Identify exactly which parts of your business to automate and which to protect using a live framework you complete in the room
→ Learn the 90/10 formula: how to run 90% of your business on AI while spending 100% of your time on the work only you can do
→ Walk away with a 30-resource free AI toolkit worth $500+ and know exactly what to do with it in the next 90 days
“The decisions you make in the next 90 days define the next decade.”
Cashflow, Clients & Chaos: Why You’re Working Too Hard for Too Little
Most entrepreneurs are exhausted. Not because they are lazy or unmotivated, but because they are trying to grow a business that only pays them one way. More clients often means more pressure, more chasing, more late nights, and more chaos.
At the CanadianSME Small Business Show 2026, Dr. Natasha Bridgmohan is pulling back the curtain on why so many business owners stay stuck in the hustle cycle, even though they are talented and working nonstop.
This high-energy, interactive workshop is designed for entrepreneurs, consultants, and business owners like yourself, who are tired of grinding harder just to make the same money. Through real-world examples, audience participation, live exercises, and prize giveaways, Dr. Bridgmohan will show attendees how to stop leaving opportunities on the table and start leveraging the relationships and connections they already have.
The session explores how entrepreneurs can immediately plug into an existing business ecosystem that creates additional revenue opportunities, stronger client retention, and expanded service value without dramatically increasing workload or overhead. Attendees will discover how one client can lead to multiple opportunities, multiple referrals, and multiple streams of income when the right structure is in place.
And this will not be a sit-back-and-watch kind of workshop.
Yes, there will be live giveaways.
Yes, you may be pulled into the spotlight.
And yes, you will leave thinking very differently about how your business actually makes money.
Expect fast-paced energy, practical insights, mindset shifts, and strategies that can be implemented immediately.
If you have ever felt like:
• You are working harder than ever but not seeing the income reflect it
• You are constantly chasing the next customer or contract
• Your clients need more services than you currently provide
• You are surrounded by opportunity but unsure how to monetize it
• You are doing all the work while someone else profits from the referral
Then this workshop was built for you.
If you are ready to create smarter cashflow, stronger client relationships, and less business chaos, this is one session you do not want to miss.
- 03:45 PM - 4:15 PM
- Area A
Dr. Natasha Bridgmohan is a nationally recognized mortgage broker, Founder, Entrepreneur, Innovator and Philanthropist with over 23 years of experience in Canada’s financial services industry. As the Founder and President of The BridgGroup of Companies (TBGOC), she has built one of Canada’s most comprehensive financial service networks through her signature MIRACLE™ Model: Mortgages, Investments, Real Estate, Aid, Consulting/Connecting, Legal/Lending, and Education. Natasha has helped thousands of clients secure their financial futures.
Her impact is far-reaching. In 2024, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Malaysia South India Chamber of Commerce, recognizing her contributions to financial literacy, economic empowerment, and community leadership. The same year, she launched the Canadian Changing Lives Foundation (registration in progress), a national charity focused on financial education, empowerment, and support for underserved communities including women, youth, and seniors.
Natasha serves as Vice President of EchosTV, a global streaming platform that uniquely combines entertainment with personal development and income-generating opportunities.
Her leadership has earned her multiple accolades including the TITAN Woman Leadership of the Year Award, Top Choice Financial Advisor, and recognized as one of Canada’s top 50 women influencing the mortgage industry with a cover story in CM Magazine.
A passionate advocate for legacy-building, financial literacy, and community impact, Dr. Bridgmohan continues to lead with purpose, shaping the future of financial services while inspiring a new generation of leaders.
Exclusive Panel Discussions
The Intelligent SME: Integrating AI, Hardware, and Connectivity for Peak Performance
- 10:45 AM - 11:30 AM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Founder of Small Business AI Educator & Strategist
Erika Lang,
Director of Local Sales at
Cineplex Media
AVP Digital at Co-operators.
VP of Digital Strategy at Search Engine People
Founder & CEO of B2BeeMatch
Artificial Intelligence offers massive potential for small business growth, but you cannot run a smart business on outdated infrastructure. This panel connects the dots between having the right devices, the fastest networks, and the smartest software to create a truly integrated digital ecosystem.
Industry leaders will discuss how to build a “tech stack” that scales with you—from upgrading connectivity and hardware to implementing cloud solutions and practical AI tools. Learn how to secure your digital assets while using technology to automate workflows, empower a hybrid workforce, and drive immediate productivity gains.
Financial Fortitude: Smart Capital Strategies for Profitability and Resilience
- 12:15 PM - 01:00 PM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Senior Vice President, Revenue and Customer Marketing at FreshBooks
Director of Small Business at Meridian
In an economic landscape defined by fluctuating costs and competitive markets, financial health is the ultimate competitive advantage. This session goes beyond basic accounting to explore strategic financial management for 2026.
Our experts will examine the new rules of funding, guiding you through the mix of traditional loans, government grants, and alternative financing available to Canadian SMEs. The discussion will pivot to profitability, offering actionable strategies to manage high operating costs, optimize cash flow, and use financial planning and insurance to “recession-proof” your business against future risks.
Innovation in Action: Evolving Strategies for Market Expansion and Sustainable Growth
- 02:30 PM- 03:15 PM
- Conference Hall, Room 107 - Constitutional Halls (North Building, MTCC)
Vice-president, Growth, Development and Performance Commercial Lines at
Desjardins Insurance
Marlina Ramchandran,
ELLA Program Lead & Special Projects Manager at
YSpace, York University
True innovation is not just about adopting new technology; it’s about rethinking how you do business to stay relevant and competitive. This panel explores the strategic pivots necessary for long-term survival and success in 2026.
Industry leaders will discuss how to evolve traditional business models, break into new markets (both local and global), and leverage ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) as a key differentiator. From redefining your value proposition to optimizing operations for a circular economy, learn how to future-proof your strategy and capture new opportunities in a changing world.
From cloud waste to business value
- 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM
- Exhibitors Hall - Room 105/106
Strengthen Workplace Safety with CCOHS Resources
- 12:15 PM - 12:30 PM
- Exhibitors Hall - Room 105/106
Karen Cassidy is the Director of Business Development Solutions at the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) where she leads the development of new and innovative health and safety-related products and resources. A compassionate people leader, she brings to CCOHS a wealth of expertise in leadership, business development, and operations from her work in the private and public sectors.
She is passionate about building relationships and collaborating with partners on projects that help advance workplace safety in Canada.
Karen has a background in occupational health and safety, environmental management systems, regulatory affairs, marketing, and business development across a variety of industries.
Disrupt. Revolutionize. Fractional CFO & TaaS in Action
- 12:30 PM - 12:45 PM
- Exhibitors Hall - Room 105/106
What if your business could access a world-class CFO, a fully credentialed finance team, and a strategic finance back-office partner — all within your existing budget? That is exactly what MacMillan Consulting delivers, and this demo will show you how.
MacMillan Consulting is disrupting the finance back-office industry through two game-changing models: Fractional CFO and Talent-as-a-Service.
For too long, growing businesses have been forced to choose between the talent they need and the budget they have. They either overpay for a full-time CFO they cannot fully utilize, or settle for bookkeeping that leaves strategy entirely off the table. MacMillan was built to close that gap — permanently.
In this live demo, Zahid Junejo will walk you through exactly how MacMillan’s Fractional CFO model gives businesses C-suite finance back-office leadership on a flexible, part-time basis — covering strategic planning, audit preparation, finance team architecture, and growth-stage roadmaps. No overhead. No compromise.
You will also see how Talent-as-a-Service works in practice — a fully configured, professionally credentialed finance back-office team including Accountants, Controllers, FP&A Analysts, and CFO-level oversight, managed entirely by MacMillan and delivered at a fraction of the cost of building internally.
The result? Companies no longer have to sacrifice skill, strategy, or talent because of budget constraints. You get the right resources, highly skilled and equipped, matched precisely to your business goals.
This is not just outsourcing. This is a smarter way to build. Come see how MacMillan is changing the game.
Zahid Junejo is a senior business development leader with over three decades of experience delivering financial services, cash management, and strategic advisory solutions to entrepreneurs, SME owners, and commercial clients across North America, the Middle East, and South Asia. As Director of Business Development at MacMillan Consulting, he partners with growing businesses to connect them with the firm’s fractional CFO, controllership, bookkeeping, ERP implementation, and Talent as a Service (TaaS) offerings — the financial and operational infrastructure that turns scaling companies into sustainable ones.
Zahid’s career reads as a single, consistent thread: find the owner, understand the business, solve the real problem. Leading corporate and SME financial services teams for global banking and payments institutions, he grew geographical footprint, revenues, deposits, and customer base, and launched proprietary cash management products across 15+ countries. From growing a transaction banking mandate across four Middle East markets to leading FX and cross-border payments in Canada, he closed $1.8B+ in corporate contracts and surpassed targets by 100%+. Across every role, the work has been the same: diagnosing financial and operational gaps and delivering bundled solutions that create long-term client relationships.
That is precisely the mandate he brings to MacMillan Consulting. For 26 years, MacMillan has served entrepreneurs and growing companies across Canada and the United States with the expertise they need at the stage they need it — fractional CFO support, controllership, day-to-day bookkeeping, ERP systems implementation, and Talent as a Service (TaaS) across finance, operations, HR, and IT. Zahid’s role is to extend that reach: to introduce MacMillan’s services to the SME owners, operators, CFOs, and trusted advisors who will benefit most, and to cultivate the referral relationships, strategic partnerships, and industry presence that sustain long-term growth for the firm and its clients.
Our Past & Present Partners and Sponsors
