.png)
Agenda
Partners × Platforms × Performance
.png)
May 12, 2027 Hilton Toronto
9:00 AM
THE $100 BILLION CHANNEL NOBODY TALKS ABOUT
Affiliate grew up. Did marketers notice?
For years affiliate marketing sat quietly behind search, social and display. That's changing. Creators want performance compensation. Publishers need new revenue. Retailers want efficient customer acquisition. Brands want measurable marketing. Consumers increasingly rely on recommendations, reviews and communities before buying.
Welcome to the new partnership economy. A data-driven opening on how performance partnerships are changing commerce and where the next wave of growth will come from.
9:30 AM
WOULD YOU PAY FOR THE SALE INSTEAD OF THE CLICK?
Marketing has spent decades buying impressions, clicks, reach and attention. Affiliate asks a much simpler question: what if I paid you when something actually happened?
Brand and performance leaders debate whether outcome-based marketing is about to take a much bigger share of the marketing budget.
Topics: affiliate vs. paid social, customer acquisition costs, incrementality, attribution, brand vs. performance, commission economics, lifetime value.
10:15 AM
SHOW ME THE MONEY
What does a great affiliate program actually make? No vague percentages. No vanity metrics.
Take one real affiliate program apart. How much does the brand spend? Who gets paid? What's the commission? What's the average order value? What percentage of customers are new? Which partners actually drive incremental revenue? What does the brand make after everyone gets paid?
One company. Real numbers. Real economics.
10:40 AM
NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK
11:10 AM
THE CREATOR ECONOMY FIRESIDE
DID THE CREATOR KILL THE AFFILIATE?
Creators used to want flat fees. Affiliates wanted commissions. Now those worlds are colliding.
Should creators be paid a flat fee for a post or a share of every sale they generate? A brand, a creator, a network leader and a talent-agency executive talk through where compensation is actually heading.
11:50 AM
THE PUBLISHER PANEL
WHO GETS PAID FOR THE RECOMMENDATION?
Google changes its algorithm. Social platforms change their feeds. AI summarizes articles without sending the click. Publishers still influence billions of dollars in consumer decisions. So who pays them?
The future of commerce content, product reviews, comparison sites, newsletters and recommendation businesses.
12:30 PM
NETWORKING LUNCH
1:25 PM
RAPID CASE STUDIES
5 PARTNERSHIPS THAT MADE MONEY
Five partnerships. Seven minutes each. No panels. No theory.
Each company answers four questions: What was the partnership? Why did you do it? How did everyone get paid? Did it work?
Categories: creator × retailer, publisher × financial institution, brand × brand, loyalty program × retailer, technology platform × merchant.
2:00 PM
THE LOYALTY ECONOMY
YOUR POINTS ARE AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM
Aeroplan. Scene+. PC Optimum. Rakuten. Credit-card rewards. Cashback. These businesses influence where Canadians shop and what they buy every day. But marketers rarely discuss loyalty, rewards and affiliate marketing as part of the same ecosystem. They should.
How rewards, cashback and loyalty are becoming some of Canada's most powerful performance-marketing channels.
2:40 PM
TECHNOLOGY
THE LINK IS DEAD
What replaces the affiliate link? Cookies are disappearing. Consumers move between apps, devices and physical stores. Creators sell through video. AI increasingly sits between discovery and purchase. So how will businesses know who influenced the sale and who deserves to get paid?
A practical look at the next generation of tracking, identity, attribution and commerce infrastructure.
3:10 PM
NETWORKING COFFEE BREAK
3:30 PM
LIVE NEGOTIATION
WHAT'S THIS CUSTOMER WORTH?
Brand vs. affiliate. Negotiate the deal live. A brand wants customers. A publisher has an audience. Now negotiate: commission rate, new vs. existing customers, cookie window, placement, exclusivity, returns, bonuses, incrementality.
One brand. One affiliate. One moderator. Twenty minutes to make the deal. The audience votes: who got the better deal?
4:00 PM
THE FUTURE
WHEN YOUR BEST SALESPERSON ISN'T HUMAN
AI assistants increasingly help consumers research products, compare prices and make decisions. If an AI recommends your hotel, credit card, running shoe or television: who gets paid for the referral? Could AI agents become the largest affiliates in the world? And what happens to publishers, creators and traditional affiliates if they do?
4:30 PM
CLOSING - EVERYONE IS AN AFFILIATE NOW
A creator recommends a product. A publisher reviews it. A customer refers a friend. A credit card offers cashback. A loyalty program offers points. A brand recommends another brand. They're all doing essentially the same thing: influencing a transaction.
The next generation of marketing won't simply be about buying audiences. It will be about building ecosystems where everyone wins when the customer buys.
4:45 PM
NETWORKING RECEPTION