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Hey Thomas - we use Wordpress but we can customize it any way we like. I would guess the fix is plateform-agnostic though.
Indeed it would be easier to have CTAs on the homepage but that's not an option.
As far as rel=canonical, I wouldn't be comfortable instructing search engines that the homepage's canonical URL is an event's page, or instructing that an event's canonical URL is the homepage, because it isn't. Rel=canonical doesn't "fit" the temporary nature of the structure.
Yes we're OK with that.
Hey Dave - we have a fair amount, enough to justify having distinct pages.
There is only 1 domain (say www.site.com). I am looking to redirect pages within that domain, either from the homepage to an event page (www.site.com/my-event-1/), or from the event page to the homepage.
Redirecting seems like the right thing to do because I want to make sure each event has its own URL (maybe saying URI or slug is more correct).
I can't have 4 pages (1 per event) and the homepage with duplicate content. I don't think rel=canonical can help here, so my best bet is most likely redirections.
Does that clear it up a bit? I wish I could show an example but I can't, it's on a dev server.
Edit: Here's a simplified version of this issue and how I have fixed it thus far.
On AmbitionSnowskates.com, there is a video section. There is no content on this page, it 302 redirects to the newest video. If you access ambitionsnowskates.com/video/, you are redirected to ambitionsnowskates.com/video/safari-time/.
The original post (OP) was about a site with recurring events. There is a cycle between to which subpage the homepage should redirect. For this reason, I was wondering if I should redirect mysite.com to mysite.com/active-subpage/ or the other way around (and have the content directly on the homepage).
I was also wondering how this will affect the result in SERPs. It turns out Google shows the title and description of the destination page, but shows the URL of the original URL (the homepage).
Knowing this, I can tailor my meta descriptions to be about both the company and the current event; a mix of the two means I won't have to switch or duplicate meta descriptions between active events.
I do appreciate the real solution though: in my opinion there should be unique content on the homepage with according CTA. I'm trying to push this as the best fix, with redirections being an alternative, but albeit more complex, solution.
Again sorry for being so unclear. I wish I had had an example from the beginning. 
I'm leaving this opened in case someone wants to chime in.
Ben
Hey guys, I need a hand on this one
We have a website with 3 events and we want the homepage to show the upcoming event.
These events are recurrent year after year.
Currently the homepage shows the content of event 1 at the root level (site.com/) . The other events have a unique URL (site.com/event-2, site.com/event-3).
Later in the year, after event 1 is over, we change the homepage content to event 2 and move event 1 to its own URL. In other words...
Current structure
Today:
In March:
And so on.
I want to make sure each event has its own URL and is properly indexed.
Option A
I can redirect the homepage to the right event: site.com -> 302 -> site.com/event-1.
If that's the way to go, what will be the SEO impact, i.e. what content will show up in SERPs? The destination page's content/meta description and title?
Option B
What I could also do is keep the current structure (content moved to the root), but redirect temporarily the event's unique URL to the homepage:
Today:
In March:
And so on.
Again, if that's the way to go, how will this impact SERPs, which title and description will I see for the homepage and individual events?
If you have other options, I'm all ears!
Thanks a lot! (I mean it)
-Ben