How Canva is building a global movement with creativity on wheels

“Our mission is to empower the world to design,” says Kristine Segrist, global head of consumer marketing, Canva. “We had this crazy idea – what if we could create this learning movement? What if we could train a million people in one month and upskill them in design, help them have more visual fluency?”

The month-long tour aims to do just that – taking Canva’s digital design school out into the real world, from classrooms and small businesses to festivals and community spaces. In the US, that means a coast-to-coast journey on the Canva Brandwagon, offering hands-on workshops, design challenges and creative drop-ins for everyone from teachers and entrepreneurs to marketing teams.

“We’ve created this really big tentpole moment for ourselves with Canva Create – that’s our Apple WWDC, right?” says Jimmy Knowles, global head of experiential at Canva. “What’s so special about the Canva World Tour is meeting the community where they are… getting that one-to-one interaction that you don’t necessarily get when you’re clicking through the design school platform or watching a how-to video.”

After a stop at the Texas State Fair, the team brought the Brandwagon to New York’s Herald Square, with more locations planned before the tour culminates in a live Sydney keynote on October 30, where we can expect to hear of new AI-powered products.

But beyond the spectacle, there’s a deeper story about what creativity – and marketing more broadly – looks like in an increasingly automated world.

“As AI gets more and more prevalent in our everyday lives, the human heartbeat at the center of everything we do cannot be more important,” says Knowles. “That interaction, that emotional response to what you’re doing, what you’re building, how you’re interacting – that can’t be replicated outside of an experiential event.”

Canva’s philosophy blends that humanity with accessibility. Whether it’s a student learning visual storytelling or a brand team shaping a global campaign, the goal is the same: making creativity collaborative and universal.

“Being accessible is so important to us; we truly want to involve everyone,” says Segrist. “You can use Canva anywhere in the world – whether it’s making a video using AI, bringing designs into classrooms or enabling a sales team. There’s something magical about connecting with people directly.”

That idea of connection runs through Canva’s approach to marketing, too. The team doesn’t draw a hard line between B2B and B2C – instead, it thinks in what Knowles calls B2H: business to human.

“We don’t really look through a B2C or B2B lens,” he explains. “At the end of the day, when the business person takes off their marketing executive hat, they become a B2C customer. They’re going to festivals, to the grocery store – maybe stopping by the Brandwagon after hours. We really try to make the experience as inclusive as possible.”

That inclusivity extends globally. In India, the tour focuses on supporting small businesses. In Brazil, it’s all about entrepreneurship. In London, the team is running ‘tech and tea’ afternoons.

“What does each community crave?” says Segrist. “How can we bring that to life for them – in language, in design challenges, in ways that close the loop with the people there?”

While many brands are still figuring out how to integrate AI without losing their creative soul, Canva’s approach seems to blend the two – human and machine, digital and physical – seamlessly.

“We see AI as an amplifier,” says Segrist. “There’s no replacement for human creativity – that’s the spark that ignites everything. AI allows more people to create, to bring their ideas to life. But people are at the heart – their ingenuity, their imagination, their ability to invent new things.”

And that’s a fitting line for a company that’s spent the past month reconnecting creativity with community and reminding marketers everywhere that, sometimes, the most powerful design tool isn’t necessarily on a screen.