The stories we tell.
The place we share.
Victoria Conference Centre
April 22-23, 2026
A gathering of creative minds from across the Pacific Northwest, from award-winning authors and photographers to design innovators and visual storytellers. Over two days, workshops, panels, conversations, exhibitions, and performances bring the region’s creative community together to share ideas, build relationships, and imagine what comes next.
Join us for one day or both—and be part of the Summit finale celebration, the Better Together Gala x Fashion Show.
Whether you’re a #CanLit lover, an amateur photographer, an emerging writer, a designer building your portfolio, or simply curious about the creative world around you, there’s a place for you here.
Featured Speakers and Sessions
Monique Gray Smith
Opening Keynote: April 23
An award-winning, best-selling author, storyteller, and sought-after consultant, Monique is Cree and Scottish and has been deeply committed to healing, resilience, and community for over 34 years. Through her books and her presence, Monique shares wisdom, generosity, and hope across generations, inviting us to listen more deeply, care more intentionally, and lead with love.
Danny Ramadan
Speaker: April 23
Danny is a Syrian-Canadian author, storyteller, and LGBTQ+ refugees’ advocate whose work explores identity, migration, queerness, and belonging with honesty, compassion, and humour. From award-winning novels and memoir to beloved children’s books, his writing spans genres while staying deeply rooted in lived experience.
Esi Edugyan
In Conversation with Megan Stuart: April 23
Two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize winner, two-time Man Booker finalist, and the brilliant mind behind Washington Black and Half-Blood Blues. Esi has a gift for uncovering untold stories from history’s margins and bringing them to vivid life. Based right here in Victoria, Esi will be joining us at the Summit to share insights on storytelling, craft, and the power of centring voices that history tried to sideline.
Susan Pi
Workshop Presenter: April 22
Susan Pi is the founder and publisher of Rebel Goose Books, a children’s publishing house on Vancouver Island. Bringing 15 years of experience across trade, nonprofit, and digital publishing, her work focuses on connecting story and community from the earliest stages of a project to extend a book’s impact beyond launch.
Workshop: Beyond the Book Launch
Kristopher Grunert
Workshop Presenter: April 22
Kristopher Grunert is a Canadian photographer, artist, and creator of Photography as Meditation, a framework that uses the camera as a gateway to mindfulness and embodied awareness. Through workshops and talks, he guides participants into deeper presence, curiosity, and creative flow by transforming the act of seeing into a practice of meditation.
Workshop: Photography as Meditation
Casey Milone
Keynote Speaker: April 22
Casey Milone is an author and creative director who has spent his career at the intersection of technology and human communication. Today, he’s the founder and CEO of Numonic — an organization and compliance tool for AI creators and AI agents. Numonic’s mission centers around building trust to the AI industry and bringing memory to computer imagination.