From AI disruption to the future of media brands the Darwin CX Evolve Toronto conference brought together leaders from media, technology, and publishing to tackle one question: how do media companies modernize without losing what makes them valuable in the first place?
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Conferences usually follow a predictable rhythm.
Coffee. Keynote. Slide deck. Networking. Repeat.
Everyone nods thoughtfully. A few people take photos of slides they will never look at again. And by the time the tote bags appear, the only thing anyone remembers is the pastry table.
evolve Toronto was… not that.
Instead, it felt like a collision of ideas from people who have spent decades building companies, commanding armies, launching magazines, and occasionally buying Marilyn Monroe’s television at auction.
If you missed it, here are the ideas that had people scribbling notes and quietly rethinking their strategies before the first coffee break was over.
(Spoiler: they won’t.)
Major General David Fraser, one of Canada’s most decorated military leaders, opened with a story about battlefield strategy.
An officer once came to him with a problem:
“Sir, the Taliban aren’t doing what we want them to do.”
Fraser paused.
“Well… we’re trying to kill them. Most sane people are going to zig when we zag.”
The room laughed, but the lesson stuck.
Corporate strategy often assumes competitors will behave logically, predictably, and most importantly politely.
They won’t.
The real strategic question, Fraser said, is simple:
Who is responding to whom?
If your company is constantly reacting to competitors, you’re already behind.
If they’re responding to you, you’re leading.
Leave it to Tom Jenkins, Chairman of Darwin CX and CEO of OpenText, to deliver the line that made half the audience sit up straighter.
“You won’t lose your job to a bot. You’ll lose your job to another person using a bot.”
That’s the real AI disruption.
Not automation.
Adoption.
The companies experimenting today, integrating AI into workflows, customer insights, and content operations, aren’t just improving efficiency.
They’re widening the competitive gap.
And Jenkins added an important reality check.
Despite what the internet might make you believe, Google and ChatGPT don’t contain the world’s knowledge.
Most of it lives inside companies, behind firewalls and proprietary data systems.
Which means the real AI opportunity isn’t public information.
It’s the insights hiding in your own data.
Darwin CX co-founder Michael Smith illustrated this with an unexpected story about competitive eating.
During lunch with investment bankers, a bet broke out over who held the world record for hot-dog eating.
Phones came out. Search results appeared. And nearly every site told a slightly different story.
It was a small example of a much larger issue.
The internet is becoming increasingly difficult to trust.
AI-generated content, algorithmic amplification, and outright misinformation have turned the open web into a noisy place.
But here’s the twist.
That chaos might actually be good news for publishers.
Because when trust becomes scarce, trusted brands become valuable.
And suddenly the idea of paying for reliable journalism doesn’t feel so radical.
Darwin CX CEO Liam Lynch framed the transformation happening across the industry.
Ten years ago, media companies largely sold a single product.
A magazine.
A subscription.
Maybe a website.
Today that model looks almost quaint.
Modern media organizations build entire ecosystems around their audiences:
And the technology that supports those ecosystems must evolve with it.
Migration, Lynch said, isn’t the finish line.
It’s the foundation.
Modernizing infrastructure isn’t about replacing old software.
It’s about unlocking new ways to engage audiences.
They read them for identity.
Greg Baugh, COO of Hoffman Media, put it beautifully:
“It’s not about who our readers are. It’s about who our readers want to be.”
Magazines about Southern hospitality attract readers far beyond the American South.
Why?
Because audiences don’t just consume content.
They consume aspiration.
The same idea surfaced again when Seema Bilmoria described the appeal of heritage titles about Britain and Scotland.
Readers treat them almost like souvenirs—glimpses into a world they want to experience.
Great media brands don’t just inform.
They transport.
One of the highlights of the day was a surprise conversation with Canadian media legend Moses Zneimer.
If you’ve spent any time in media, you’ve likely encountered something he built — Citytv, MuchMusic, ZoomerMedia. Entire generations grew up on platforms he helped create.
So when he was asked what insight led him to launch so many successful ventures, his answer was refreshingly blunt.
“I was pissed off.”
Not exactly the answer you expect at a polished industry conference.
But it might be the most honest explanation of innovation anyone gave all day.
Zneimer explained that many of his ideas started from noticing something the industry had overlooked.
Take ZoomerMedia. For decades, media companies obsessed over youth audiences while quietly ignoring the largest generation in history as they aged.
Zneimer saw the blind spot.
People don’t stop being curious, engaged, or influential just because they turn fifty.
So while the rest of the industry chased younger audiences, he built a company focused on the one everyone else forgot.
Sometimes the most innovative thing you can do in media is simply notice what everyone else is ignoring.
It’s about momentum.
The companies that will win the next decade of media aren’t the ones with the most software.
They’re the ones willing to experiment faster.
To rethink their relationships with audiences.
To treat data as an asset.
And to embrace the uncomfortable reality that the industry is changing again.
If there was a single thread running through Evolve Toronto, it was this:
Modern media companies must learn to anticipate change instead of reacting to it.
A few lessons stood out:
Or, as General Fraser might say:
Make sure your competition is responding to you.
Not the other way around
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