How Canva Brings a Digital Brand to Life | Part 1

Canva is one of the world’s most recognizable digital platforms. Jimmy Knowles is responsible for making it something people can walk into, explore, and feel.In Part 1 of this Event Planner Confessions conversation, Ashley Currin sits down with Jimmy Knowles, Global Head of Experiential at Canva, to explore how creative careers are built and how digital-first brands can create meaningful real-world experiences.Jimmy shares the unconventional story of being offered his first events job from a commencement stage in front of approximately 11,000 people. That opportunity led him to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Fox, Civic Entertainment Group, Airbnb, and eventually Canva.He takes listeners behind the scenes of Airbnb Open, which grew from approximately 1,000 attendees into a 20,000-person experience spanning seven venues in downtown Los Angeles. Jimmy explains how that work shaped his approach to community building, audience connection, and designing experiences at scale.At Canva, the goal is not simply to place logos and brand colors inside a venue. Jimmy and his team want every physical experience to feel colorful, playful, inclusive, and unmistakably Canva.That philosophy helped shape Canva Create as an “un-conference conference” built around how audiences should feel, not only what the program needs to communicate. Jimmy explains why the strongest experiential marketing should create something audiences could not imagine coming from another brand.The conversation also explores how Jimmy’s theater background continues to influence his work. From collaboration and improvisation to reading the room and recovering in real time, he explains why the skills learned onstage remain essential to event planning and experiential leadership.Finally, Jimmy shares what is ahead for Canva’s experiential portfolio, including the continued evolution of Canva Create, Canva Originals, the Canva World Tour, and new opportunities to expand Canva’s creative ecosystem.In this episode, you will learn:How Jimmy Knowles built his career in experiential marketingWhat Airbnb Open taught him about community and scaleHow Canva transforms a digital-first brand into a physical experienceWhy Canva Create was built as an “un-conference conference”Why curiosity remains one of Jimmy’s most important creative toolsWhat Canva is building next through events, content, and communityPart 1 explores how Jimmy learned to build experiences people can feel. Part 2 continues with AI, trust, industry recognition, leadership, and his Event Planner Confessions.