Guelph Artisans Expo 2026

Kristy Lynn Miller is the Founder and CEO of The Scented Market, an award winning Canadian candle and lifestyle brand known for its clean burning soy candles and elevated gifting experience. What began in her kitchen in 2018 has grown into a multi location retail business with a strong wholesale presence across North America. Kristy is a passionate entrepreneur and small business mentor, dedicated to helping others scale with confidence, build strong brands, and create meaningful customer experiences that drive lasting growth. 

  Kendall Kent is a brand, event and web designer and the founder of It’s Okay Design Studio in Guelph, ON—a creative studio for businesses that kick ass and make a difference while doing so. With over 13 years of experience (and a healthy disregard for boring design), she builds bold, personality-packed brands, events and websites that actually work. Her approach blends strategy, creativity, and a no-BS mindset to help businesses grow in a way that feels aligned—and unapologetically them. 

 Leigh Mitchell is a leadership brand strategist, founder of Women in Biz Network and host of the ChangeMaker Leader Podcast. Based in Toronto, she helps purpose-driven entrepreneurs align their brand, business growth, and well-being with meaningful change.  She is the creator of the Own Your Imprint™ framework, a proven approach to personal branding that helps leaders define, align, and amplify their unique imprint. She frequently hosts future-proof tech skills training and ChangeMaker Outdoor Leadership Retreats. Leigh has guided thousands of professional women and collaborated with brands including Microsoft Canada, TELUS, and TD Canada Trust. Her expertise has been featured in CBC, The Globe and Mail, and The Wall Street Journal. She studied Marketing Leadership at Sprott School of Business and teaches at York University, YEDI, and the University of Guelph-Humber. A vocal advocate for mental health and inner leadership, Leigh champions mentorship as a pathway to resilience and positive change.

Leigh is also a Forbes Impact Top 10 recipient and a Women of Microsoft award winner. Statistics Canada recognizes her as an EDI Gender subject matter expert. When she isn’t coaching leaders or teaching Business and Digital Marketing, she mentors the next generation of innovators at B-Local Ontario, Rise, YSpace, and The Prosperity Project. Connect with Leigh across social media at ChangeMaker Leader and on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchellleigh/. 

 Lauren Martin is the founder of Cool Aunt Creatives, a Guelph-based events company focused on bringing play, creativity, and connection back into adult life. With a background in landscape architecture and experience designing public spaces, Lauren recognized a gap in opportunities for adults to engage in creative, social experiences and built a business around solving it.

Through workshops, markets, and large-scale events, she has worked with hundreds of artists and makers, gaining a deep understanding of what actually helps creative entrepreneurs succeed. Her approach focuses on practical, accessible strategies that help artists turn their skills into sustainable income streams that keep up with the ever changing trends without losing the joy of their craft.

Maggie Riley is a hobby photographer located in Guelph. She has been capturing wildlife, couples, products, and pets with her camera for almost 2 years. Her favourite thing to capture is authenticity and the realness of the world around her. Check out maggie.riley.photo on Instagram to see her work. When she's not taking photos, she is either spending time working full-time as a social worker or snuggling her ragdoll cat, Elio 

 Myra Freeman, a locally raised Guelph-based creative & University of Guelph Fine Arts graduate, is a multi-media artist with a present focus in print-making. Part of an artist duo & new business From Inside The Rabbit, they work on up-cycled, second-hand clothing & paper. Aesthetically skewed lovingly towards the weird & wonderful, they make active scenes with a variety of creatures, whimsical & celestial motifs, leaning into strangeness, the obscure & liminal. 

With experience teaching various artistic mediums to both children & adults alike, Myra is an outgoing teacher and wants to share the beauty & accessibility of print-making with their community.