On April 21, 2026, close to 200 loyalty professionals gathered at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto for Canada’s first-ever The BIG Handshake Loyalty™ (TBH Loyalty) Toronto event (supported by CORA Loyalty). The event also marked the public launch of NALA™, the North American Loyalty Association, announced for the first time on that stage and closing the day with close to 100 new members. Brand-side membership is free, and it is the only way to access future TBH Loyalty events at no cost.
The room was electric from the first handshake activity to the final cocktail. What made it remarkable was not just the calibre of the agenda, but the spirit of the people in it.
It felt, as more than one person put it, like a reunion. And like any good reunion, people said the things they had been meaning to say. About simplicity. About trust. About what members actually need in a high-cost-of-living economy. About whether loyalty has drifted too far from the human connection it was always meant to create.
And the conversations were good.
The day’s sponsors brought some of the sharpest thinking on the agenda. Beth McCoy of CORA Loyalty, joined by Jason Beales of BMO AIR MILES, opened the content day with a frank conversation about why loyalty is becoming quieter, more situational, and harder to see in traditional metrics, and why the programmes that will win are the ones members trust. That conversation set up a lively panel on the future of personalized offers (moderated by Joel Percy of Eagle Eye), where Christine Yuen of Loblaw, Susana Donaldson Farrell of Indigo, and Elizabeth McNeil of RBC pushed back on the idea that personalization and simplicity are in conflict. Their argument: personalization is the work brands do behind the scenes; simplicity is what the customer experiences. The panel was candid about the infrastructure barriers slowing the industry down, and equally optimistic about what AI makes possible when the strategy and data foundations are already in place.
Len Covello of Engage People made a pointed economic case for why “earn now, redeem someday” is losing ground to value people can feel in the moment, introducing the 10-second window in which loyalty either influences a decision or misses it entirely.
Shoshana Fruitman of CAA Club Group and Daniel Shearer of Maple brought the room an unexpected story about healthcare as a loyalty benefit, backed by data showing that simply being aware of the benefit increases member renewal intent by 14%. And Sean Claessen and Michelle Sequeira Yee of Bond Brand Loyalty closed the day with an early preview of The Loyalty Report 2026, making the case that loyalty has peaked as a program metric, and that the brands pulling ahead are the ones running it as a growth engine across the entire organization.
The brand speakers matched that energy. Rachel MacAdam of Skip shared how a challenger brand, third to market in subscription loyalty, treated that timing as an advantage, building emotional loyalty through live experiences, purposeful partnerships, and a proprietary points currency, driving real behaviour change. Josh Meyer of Canadian Tire took the room behind the scenes of Triangle Rewards’ partnership journey, from the long game of deal-making to the 250 people it takes to bring a single partnership to life, and why cultural fit matters as much as commercial fit. Steve McClelland of WestJet walked through every hard decision in a two-year programme rebuild, including the ones that cost millions and still needed to be made. Amanda Mitchell of Petro-Canada described betting on a 30-year-old platform to launch Canada’s first tiered frequent fueller program, and the early results that proved the instinct right.
Trinh Tham, now CEO of Chatime after a career built in loyalty marketing, said plainly what many in the room had felt but rarely voiced: that loyalty teams often speak a language leadership cannot act on, and that the real work is translating great programmes into outcomes the business can see. And Jennifer Bryl of Home Hardware stood on stage without slides or notes and asked the question that stayed with people long after lunch: Have we lost the human connection in loyalty?
What made TBH Loyalty Toronto different is that none of this felt like a keynote. It felt like a conversation among people who genuinely care about getting it right, and who were willing to be honest about where the work is still hard. That is exactly what NALATM, the North American Loyalty Association, was built to sustain year-round. Not just a day of insight, but a community where loyalty professionals can keep learning from each other, stay connected between events, and bring their best thinking forward.
If you were in the room in Toronto and felt it, you already know. If you were not, TBH Loyalty Chicago is your moment.
TBH Loyalty Chicago is coming on November 10, 2026. The same format. The same candour. A new city, a new room, and more of the conversations this industry deserves to have.
Become a NALA member today and join a growing community of loyalty practitioners across North America. Joining is free for brand-side professionals, and members are the only ones who attend TBH Loyalty events complimentary.
Register for TBH Loyalty Chicago and be part of what comes next.
