The One Club Brings Professional Development and DEI Events to Toronto

Apr. 01, 2025

The One Club for Creativity, the world’s foremost nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the global creative community, brings its celebrated professional development and diversity programming to Canada for the first time with a pair of events scheduled for Toronto.

The club's Master Class in Creativity-Toronto, hosted in partnership with Cossette, takes place on April 22, 2025. Designed as an evening of connections, collaboration, and inspiration, the event will elevate the talents within the ad community through dynamic, short-form sessions featuring conversations with industry leaders on creator economy, typography, creative excellence, diversity, and more. 

Master Class in Creativity-Toronto includes a special session with Judy John, global CCO at Edelman and member of The One Club Board of Directors, in conversation with Anthony Chelvanathan, Edelman’s first-ever global creative partner, CCO (Canada).

Other confirmed speakers include:

• Driscoll Reid, CCO, Cossette
• Faryal Ali, marketing solutions strategist, TikTok
• Milica Kovacevic, creative strategist, TikTok Creative Lab
• Sabaa Quao, president, PlusCo Venture Studio, and Plus Company Canada
• Taylor Ferri, strategic leader
• Donald Zhu, graphic designer
• Vic Bath and Dan Cummings, creative directors, Zulu Alpha Kilo.

The following evening, the club will hold its Where Are All The People of Colour event at EY Toronto.  

The evening is an extension of The One Club’s long-running Where Are All The Black People (WAATBP), advertising’s largest diversity conference and career development initiative held annually in New York.  Since 2011, WAATBP has helped Black talent upskill, network, and secure jobs, and successfully expanded to Atlanta and Los Angeles last year.

WAATBP was created to champion Black talent in advertising. In Toronto, the conversation will expand to reflect the city’s unique cultural tapestry and history, while staying rooted in the event’s mission of fostering opportunity and inclusion.  Presentations and panels will be a call to action for the industry — across creative, strategy, account, media, and beyond — to engage in important conversations, mingle, and enjoy music.

Confirmed “Where Are All The People of Colour” speakers include:

• Lindsay Swanson, Canadian leader, ESG Services, Supplier Diversity & Inclusion, EY
• Stephen Megitt, partner, EY Design Studio
• Shannae Ingleton-Smith, president, CEO, Kensington Grey
• Gavin Barrett, Founder, CEO & CCO of Barrett and Welsh
• Jefferson Darrell, founder, CEO, Breakfast Culture Inc.
• Jennifer Taback, co-CCO, Design de Plume Inc. 
• Adrienne Lucas, global head, DEI & strategic partnerships, The One Club for Creativity

As context for the two events, a 2023 study by People of Colour in Advertising & Marketing (POCAM) found only 14% of BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) respondents believed race relations in Canada were good; down 4% from the previous year; and 65% of white Canadians believed race relations in Canada were good. In terms of discrimination, specifically ABR, AIR, AAR (Anti-Black, Anti-Indigenous, Anti-Asian) racism, 87% of respondents in each group believed these specific forms of discrimination existed in Canada.  POCAM’s updated 2024 findings will be released on April 8, 2025.

For details and to register, please visit the Master Class in Creativity in Toronto and Where Are All The People of Colour web pages.