The Best Thing I Learned at Canva Create 2026

In April, about 5,000 people and I went to SoFi Stadium to hear the Canva co-founders release new apps and updates at Canva Create 2026. My favorite part of this presentation was the live orchestra playing intros for each segment. The rest of the keynote was short dives for each release. You can see it here but if you are a Canva power user, you probably can speed it up.

New Tool: Flourish

The BEST thing I learned was that they acquired Flourish. This is a data visualization software that gives you data presentation more oomph and a dynamic feel.

I think Flourish is going to make presentations about data so much more interesting. I already report on progress of Meta ads - so if I could load this data into Flourish and into presentation, it can show daily, weekly, monthly without me having to duplicate tables and graphs. Load the data once, label, and go. You can also use their Canva AI 2.0 to help storytell but I think y'all are storytellers already.

In general, I liked that there was a large area (Design Lab) filled with multiple tents and hundreds of laptops for you to do hands-on learning. I thought that was the most valuable sessions at the event, even though they filled up fast.

The Canva-esque activations and social media opps were fun. Like the slide! ​

There were activations, the app marketplace with software that linked to Canva like LinkedIn Ads (whom I did talk to about minimum spends - no straight answer), and swag. I picked up a tote bag and an insulated water bottle. In hindsight, I should have just picked up the water bottle. I did bring my own fan which helped a lot; most of the event was outdoors in the bright sun.

The Canva Create features I was meh about:

1. The food options were dismal. There were two food areas up in the 300/400 level. The lines moved fast but a bean/rice/cheese burrito was $18. Come on, man. I don't remember what SoFi charged for a cheeseburger but I'm sure it was around the same price. The food was fine but I wish there were other options - like food trucks, small booths that offered snacks/protein bars/fruit. Being an Old, I do think SoFi likely forced Canva to use their food & bev team.

2. Celebrity guests. Maybe it is because I'm production-adjacent and I'm an LA Native, but I'm not interested in hearing celebrities speak at a Canva conference. Save the money on celebs, and spend it on food. I would like more Canva experts teaching though - more workshops multiple times. But, I get it.

3. Back to food - there were two beverage stations (coffee & tea). I was told one was free and one was paid. Come on, man. You gotta give us more stations for drinks. There WERE SoFi vending machines but they serve Pepsi. 😩

Would I go again?

I don't think so.

But if I did go again,

here are the things I would have done differently as an attendee:

1. Sit in the back of the theater so I could exit without disturbing other attendees.

2. Either get there by 8am to get through badge collection and security or get there at 10am while the keynote is going on.

3. Bring lunch.

4. Bring a list of technical questions so they can get answered by Canva staff.

What about you? Are you planning to attend Canva Create 2027?