True North

As you read this, there’s a middle-aged white dude on a stage in front of a big screen somewhere, announcing the next product that’s going to change the world. (Spoiler: It won’t change the world for most people).

Humanity is a glorious scatter plot of gender, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and life experience. So, let’s define the problem. Too often, when tech companies look out at the world to decide what they are going to disrupt next, they see it from the perspective of that guy on the stage. Most of humanity is left out. Almost all of it is left out.

The good thing is that all of us are still here, ready to share our experiences and perspectives. Ready to make better tech. Ready to solve better problems. Make some room.

12:30 - The Honourable Bardish Chagger: Welcome

12:35 - Mary Pat Hinton: Go all in and commit
There are five areas Mary Pat Hinton focuses on during the hiring process. The result is that Emmetros has attracted and retained a diverse team of difference makers, which is almost 100% led by women. She calls them “Commitment & the 4 Ins.”

12:40 - SHAD Network: Deep Inclusion Panel - Moderated by Tim Jackson
Everybody’s talking about inclusion – and that’s a good thing. But if inclusion is going to be about more than photo-ops and catchphrases, we have to be real about the challenges of genuine, deep inclusion. Meaningful gender, economic, regional and philosophical diversity are easy to talk about but tough to achieve in any organization – even in entrepreneurial settings where diversity is widely known to be an engine for creativity.

SHAD is an enrichment and entrepreneurship program for high school aged youth established in 1980 and based in Waterloo, Ontario. This fireside chat session, facilitated by entrepreneur and business leader Tim Jackson, will include four SHAD Fellows - Alex Bouchard, Yesenia Cheekinew, Joseph Tafese and Steven Wang - whose stories show why it’s critical to get inclusion right.

1:10 - Michael Denham: Diversity - The best strategy for building world-class businesses
Fostering diversity is not only the right thing to do morally, it is also the best thing to do from a business perspective. There is overwhelming evidence that embracing diversity correlates with higher revenues, profits and market value.

Join Michael Denham, President and CEO of BDC – the only Canadian bank devoted exclusively to entrepreneurs – as he speaks about why we need to decisively incorporate diversity and inclusion in our businesses for the benefit of our entrepreneurs and our economy. He will highlight inspiring stories showcasing diversity, as well as what BDC is doing to foster a diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial landscape in Canada.

1:25 - Jeannette Stock and Taylor Bond: Taking Pride in Canadian Tech: LGBTQ+ Inclusion as a Global Opportunity
Canada has an opportunity to become a world leader in LGBTQ+ inclusion in tech, and make that part of our unfair advantage.  If founders and leaders make decisions with LGBTQ+ folks in mind and at the table, we’ll build better products, better teams and better companies. We also can be an example to the rest of the world in yet another way. But first, we’ve got to do the work.
Join Jeanette Stock and Taylor Bond, who lead Venture Out, an organization that connects LGBTQ+ people in tech to career opportunities, role models and each other. They’ll share lessons learned from building LGBTQ+ communities in tech and their hopes for the future of inclusion in tech.

1:40 - Mallorie Brodie (T-Minus 5): Bringing Modern Tech to Traditional Industries
T MINUS-5 is a concise, powerful crystallization of one of the themes of True North 2018 from an individual at the leading edge of the discussion.

1:45 - The Honourable Bardish Chagger: Closing remarks