The Leaders' Canvas
Where leadership meets live problem-solving
A curated gathering of senior leaders from brands, insights, marketing, innovation and technology—coming together to explore real business challenges, exchange cross-industry perspectives and turn ideas into action.
Date
12 February 2027
Friday
City
Mumbai
India
Venue
Venue to be announced
Mumbai
About
About
The Leaders Canvas
The Leaders Canvas is a forum built around meaningful conversations, diverse perspectives and practical collaboration.
Following its inaugural Gurugram edition, The Leaders Canvas comes to Mumbai with an expanded format combining leadership conversations with a live, high-pressure problem-solving experience.
The programme brings together senior decision-makers, brands, agency teams and specialists from different industries—not simply to discuss the future of business, but to work on real challenges facing businesses today.
Format
One Day. Two Distinct Experiences.
The Live Sprint
A real business challenge. An unseen brief. A solution developed against the clock.
Three participating brands or end clients will each contribute one genuine business challenge. Every challenge will be assigned to two independently selected agency teams, creating six competing teams in total.
The problem statements will remain strictly confidential and will be revealed only at the event. Neither the participating agencies nor The Leaders Canvas team will know the challenges in advance. Brands will not be informed which agencies are participating, and agencies will not know which brands have submitted the challenges.
This blind format is designed to remove preconceptions and allow each idea to be assessed entirely on the quality of the thinking behind it.
The Leadership Forum
The evening programme brings the wider leadership community into the conversation.
It will feature a curated keynote, a leadership discussion, live presentations from the Sprint teams and verdicts from a cross-industry jury. The experience concludes with networking and dinner, creating space for conversations and relationships to continue beyond the stage.
Live Sprint
How the Live Sprint Works
Three brands bring three challenges
Each participating brand or end client submits one genuine business problem for the Sprint. The challenge may relate to marketing, consumer insight, innovation, customer experience, technology, data, artificial intelligence, growth or business strategy.
Six agency teams are shortlisted
Two agency teams will independently work on each challenge. Participating teams may come from research, technology, data, strategy, innovation, design, consulting or other relevant disciplines. The emphasis is on the team's ability to understand the problem and develop a credible solution.
Challenges are revealed live
The agency teams receive their assigned problem statement only at the event. They will have a defined period in which to analyse the challenge, develop their recommendation and prepare a presentation.
Solutions are presented to the jury
Each team presents its proposed solution before a diverse panel of senior leaders. The jury will include representatives from participating brands as well as leaders from other industries, ensuring that every solution is considered from multiple business perspectives.
The strongest solution is selected
The jury will assess the solutions for clarity, relevance, originality, feasibility and potential business impact. The selected team may have the opportunity to continue the conversation with the client and explore a potential engagement. Any subsequent engagement will depend on the client's interest, procurement requirements, agreed scope, commercials and a separate agreement.
Blind Format
Why the Challenges Remain Unbranded
The Live Sprint is designed to test how teams think—not how much they already know about a particular company.
Keeping the challenges and participants undisclosed before the event helps create a fair and focused environment:
- Agencies cannot prepare solutions in advance.
- Brand reputation does not influence the direction of the solution.
- Existing agency-client relationships do not affect the evaluation.
- Teams must respond to the business problem on its own merits.
- The jury can assess the thinking with greater independence.
The result is a more authentic demonstration of strategic thinking, collaboration and problem-solving ability.
Audience
Who Will Be in the Room?
The Leaders Canvas Mumbai will bring together approximately 100 carefully selected participants, including:
Attendance is curated to create relevant conversations and meaningful connections across industries.
Participate
Ways to Join Mumbai
Bring a challenge. Solve a problem. Join the jury. Contribute to the conversation. Build relationships with leaders across industries.
Participate as a Brand or End Client
Participating brands can bring a real business challenge to the Live Sprint and receive two independently developed perspectives from shortlisted agency teams. A participating brand representative will also join the cross-industry jury, contributing to the evaluation of other challenges and solutions.
- Bringing a business challenge to the Live Sprint
- Joining the cross-industry jury without submitting a challenge
- Contributing to a leadership conversation
- Attending the Leadership Forum
- Recommending another senior leader who may bring a relevant challenge
Apply as an Agency Team
The Live Sprint is open to agencies and specialist teams capable of solving complex business problems under time pressure. Applicants will be evaluated on the relevance of their experience, the strength of their multidisciplinary thinking and their ability to develop commercially credible solutions. Agency participation is subject to shortlisting and a participation fee. The detailed format, inclusions and fee will be shared with shortlisted teams.
- Consumer and market research
- Data and analytics
- Artificial intelligence and technology
- Brand and business strategy
- Customer experience
- Innovation and product development
- Design and communications
- Consulting and transformation
Six agency teams will be selected.
Join the Jury
The cross-industry jury is central to the Live Sprint. Rather than evaluating a solution through the lens of only one sector, the jury brings together senior leaders from different industries and functions. This allows ideas to be tested from multiple perspectives and encourages a broader discussion about their relevance, practicality and potential impact. Jury members do not need to submit a business challenge to participate.
Become a Speaker
The Leadership Forum will feature a carefully curated keynote and leadership conversation addressing the questions shaping business, brands, technology and decision-making. We welcome interest from experienced leaders with a clear point of view, practical experience and ideas capable of moving the conversation forward.
Partner with The Leaders Canvas
The Leaders Canvas offers sponsors the opportunity to build meaningful visibility and relationships within a curated community of senior decision-makers. Partnerships will be shaped around relevance, credibility and genuine participation in the experience—not visibility alone. If your organisation is interested in supporting The Leaders Canvas Mumbai, we would be pleased to explore an appropriate role.
Details
Event at a Glance
Date
Friday, 12 February 2027
Location
Mumbai
Audience
Approximately 100 curated attendees
Format
Live Sprint and Leadership Forum
Brand challenges
3
Agency teams
6
Teams per challenge
2
Be Part of the Mumbai Canvas
Bring a challenge. Solve a problem. Join the jury. Contribute to the conversation. Build relationships with leaders across industries.
For enquiries, contact The Leaders Canvas team · theleaderscanvas.com
Participation in the event is subject to confirmation and availability. The Live Sprint is intended to generate independent ideas and recommendations. Any commercial engagement arising from the event will be discussed separately between the relevant brand and agency.