What to know
- BLAXPO Toronto takes over Steam Whistle Brewing Oct. 16–17.
- Melyssa Ford headlines a lineup spanning business, money, AI, identity, career growth and entrepreneurship.
- Expect food trucks, cocktails, DJs, live podcasts, curated activations, wellness, professional headshots and a few surprises still under wraps.
- BLAXPO Toronto is presented in partnership with FACE Coalition and will also host the MELAMOON Finals, where five of Canada’s top Black entrepreneurs will pitch live for non-dilutive funding to help take their businesses to the next level.
- Behind the experience is a serious goal: helping Black professionals and founders leave with more access, knowledge, relationships and opportunities than they walked in with.
What if a business conference actually felt like somewhere you wanted to be?
Not fluorescent lights, lukewarm coffee and eight hours of being told to “believe in yourself.”
Think Melyssa Ford. Food trucks. Cocktails. DJs. Live podcasts. Beautiful, Instagrammable spaces. Conversations about money, careers, AI, business and reinvention that you actually want to sit through. Plus a few experiences BLAXPO isn’t revealing just yet.
That’s the energy BLAXPO is bringing to Toronto when it takes over Steam Whistle Brewing on Oct. 16 and 17.
But underneath the fun is something much more intentional.
BLAXPO is built around a simple idea: if you put the right people, information, resources and opportunities in the same room — and make it easier for them to actually find one another — something can happen.
And BLAXPO wants something to happen.
Come for the experience. Leave with something.
The goal isn’t to send attendees home with another tote bag and a few inspirational quotes.
BLAXPO wants notebooks filled to the brim.
New contacts in your phone.
A founder meeting an investor. A professional discovering their next career move. Someone finally understanding how to position their brand, use AI in their business, think differently about wealth or navigate their next chapter.
That’s why the programming moves beyond surface-level “you can do it” conversations.
Across two days, attendees can move between workshops, panels, roundtables, live podcasts, founder programming and speed networking covering everything from accessing capital and building generational wealth to career advancement, brand building, AI and reinvention.
Toronto-born media personality Melyssa Ford headlines Saturday with Been That Girl, a conversation about reinvention and what happens when the version of you everyone knows is no longer the version you’re becoming.
On Friday, business strategist Edwina McKinnon explores how professionals and entrepreneurs can actually leverage AI rather than simply talk about it.
And at the Melamoon finals, five Black entrepreneurs will pitch live for the opportunity to receive non-dilutive funding to grow their businesses.
Networking without the awkward part
BLAXPO is also trying to solve one of the biggest problems with conferences: you can have hundreds of interesting people in one building and still leave without meeting the person you needed to meet.
Its event app puts more of that power in attendees’ hands.
Participants can explore who’s attending, identify people they want to connect with, navigate programming and be more intentional about how they spend their time.
Instead of hoping you happen to stand beside the right person in the coffee line, the infrastructure is designed to make connection easier.
Because networking isn’t the outcome.
What happens after the introduction is.
And yes, it’s going to look good
BLAXPO isn’t asking people to choose between substance and experience.
Steam Whistle will be transformed into a curated environment with visually designed spaces, brand experiences, professional headshots, wellness moments and plenty worth pulling your phone out for.
There will be food trucks. There will be music. There will be cocktails, including experiences with Ray & Nephew and Appleton. And there are still a few surprises being kept under wraps until closer to the event.
The point isn’t to make business less serious.
It’s to recognize that culture, joy and economic opportunity don’t have to live in separate rooms.
Presented in partnership with FACE Coalition, BLAXPO brings employers, investors, founders, professionals and community partners into the same ecosystem, with organizations including RBC, Air Canada, The Globe and Mail and others participating across the experience.
BLAXPO describes its broader mission as building economic infrastructure through culture.
In Toronto, that looks less like another conference and more like a destination.
Come for the energy. Leave with the information, relationships and opportunities to make your next move.
BLAXPO Toronto 2026 takes place Oct. 16–17 at Steam Whistle Brewing, 255 Bremner Blvd. Tickets start at $40.
