True North

Communitech Hub - 7:30 am - 7:30 pm
151 Charles Street West, Suite 100, Kitchener

Deloitte - 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
195 Joseph Street, Kitchener

University of Waterloo - 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
200 University Avenue West, Waterloo

Crowne Plaza Hotel - 3:00 pm - 9:00 pm
105 King Street East, Kitchener

The Walper Hotel - 3:00 pm - 9:00 pm
20 Queen Street South Kitchener

Registration begins at 1:30 PM

Designed for senior execs, founders, investors and entrepreneurs, Beyond Impact: True North @UWaterloo offers hands-on experiences, tours and interaction with top talent. Participants will connect with cutting-edge researchers and startups in areas including AI, quantum computing, autonomous vehicles and more. Attendees will learn about the University’s unique approach to entrepreneurship, commercialization and intellectual property, as well as its Global Entrepreneurship and Disruptive Innovation (GEDI) initiative, and world-renowned cooperative education program.

The program consists of two sessions and an interactive networking experience:

Interactive Student and Research Experience
Engineering 5 Sedra Student Design Centre
Interact with student design teams and lead researchers on disruptive technologies, including autonomous vehicles, robotics, drones and Waterloop, a student team finalist in Elon Musk’s SpaceX hyperloop challenge.

Beyond Impact: UWaterloo’s role in the innovation ecosystem
Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum Nano Centre
This panel discussion will uncover what makes the University of Waterloo unique. Hear from its leaders, partners and alumni, and network with Waterloo tech startups and industry partners to share challenges and opportunities.
Attendance for this event is for True North attendees, by invitation only.

Please contact Jane Kolb for more information.

Jane Kolb
Community Relations & Events Specialist
University Relations
University of Waterloo
519-888-4567, ext. 33981

As technologies advance, governments are looking for new and creative ways to leverage data to engage citizens and deliver services more efficiently. Recently, Waterloo Region selected healthy children and youth as its focus area for the Government of Canada’s 2018 Smart Cities Challenge. Waterloo Region is proposing to build Canada’s first real time children and youth dashboard, which will require data to be shared from multiple organizations in the public, private, and not-for profit sectors. In light of recent data breaches, many are skeptical of the promises of open data in addressing social and civic issues, especially when concerning children and youth. What if the data is hacked? How can data in the hands of government be trusted? How can we more effectively engage the tech sector in these kinds of civic discussions?
 
On May 29th, from 3pm-5pm, join like-minded peers and thought leaders in the smart cities space at an exclusive roundtable to debate these issues and more. Join representatives from the Region of Waterloo, UNICEF Canada and a local leading human-centred design consulting firm to discuss the use of technology to improve child and youth wellbeing, data sharing, privacy, human-technology interaction, and meaningful engagement and inclusion of the tech sector in civic issues.

For more information or to register for this event, please email jkolb@regionofwaterloo.ca.

The Why Waterloo Tour is a choose-your-own-adventure tour of tech, science, music, art, food and drink in Waterloo Region. Join the tour at any of the event locations or the True North Bus Stations. Get on and off where you like, linger or wander. True North buses will be easy to recognize, and they will run continuously between the event locations from 5 to 8 pm.

Where are we going?

Vidyard

• Vidyard is a fast-growing local tech company offering a video platform that helps businesses transform communications and drive more revenue through the strategic use of online video.
• Join Vidyard, House of Friendship and Lutherwood for music, appetizers and a kombucha sampling bar from Kitchener’s Good Vibes Juice Company.

Catalyst 137

• Stryve, BorgWarner, SnapPea, SigmaPoint, and BDC are all residents of Kitchener-Waterloo’s new IoT campus – Catalyst137. Catalyst137 is home to some of Canada’s brightest minds and is quickly becoming an ecosystem that fosters growth and innovation.
• Pups and pints! Come on out for food, drinks and some furry friends from National Service Dogs.

Canadian Clay & Glass Museum

• The Clay & Glass is the only Canadian art gallery exclusively dedicated to exhibiting and collecting ceramic, glass, enamel and stained glass works of art.
• See clay come to life with a live wheel throwing demonstration. True North Badge Holders get 10% off the gift shop May 29-31!

Kitchener Public Library

• Two blocks from the Walper Hotel in downtown Kitchener, the Kitchener Public Library is a stunning architectural gem.
• Meet up in the library’s historical courtyard for beer, group ukulele lessons and a rocking jam session while up-leveling your selfies in front of a green screen! Sponsored by Overlap Associates, Kitchener ON.

Perimeter Institute

• Perimeter Institute is a leading international centre for scientific research, training, and educational outreach in foundational theoretical physics – from the quantum to the cosmos. Its mission is to advance our understanding of the universe at the most fundamental level, stimulating the breakthroughs that could transform our future.
• Your visit will include exploring Perimeter’s 2,400-square-foot Power of Ideas exhibit full of hands-on experiences that share the process of science, touring Perimeter’s award-winning architecture, and watching a video on why today’s theoretical physics drives the talent and technologies of tomorrow.

Shopify

• Shopify is the leading commerce platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. Whether you sell online, on social media, in store, or out of the trunk of your car, Shopify has you covered. The first Shopify store was our own, and it’s been our mission to make commerce better for everyone ever since.
• Join us as we celebrate local entrepreneurs and businesses with food, drinks, and live music! We'll pay homage to our building's origins as the former Seagram's Distillery with a structured whisky tasting, taste natural, locally sourced ice cream, and have the opportunity to sample a variety of organic cold-pressed juices.

True North Downtown Kitchener is a one of a kind celebration of Waterloo Region in three jam-packed nights. #TNDTK is open to our conference attendees, as well as the entire Waterloo Region community.

• True North Dine Around 29 May — 31 May | @ All-day     
• Hyper Reality - Enter the Matrix 29 May @ 03:00 pm |  Mirage VR Experience Centre   
• Why Waterloo Region Tour 29 May @ 05:00 pm   
• True North Lounge - Juneyt 29 May @ 05:00 pm |  The Walper Hotel   
• Alysha Brilla & the Brilltones 29 May @ 05:00 pm |  Waterloo Public Square   
• Crowne Plaza "Chill Zone" 29 May @ 07:00 pm |  Crowne Plaza     
• Data District Deco Party 29 May @ 09:00 pm |  1 King Street North

LOT42 - 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
41 Ardelt Place, Kitchener

Communitech Hub - 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
151 Charles Street West, Suite 100, Kitchener

Crowne Plaza Hotel - 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
105 King Street East, Kitchener

The Walper Hotel - 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
20 Queen Street South Kitchener

There's no better way to get the day started than with some awesome live entertainment! Details to be announced soon.

Our host for True North, Talia Sanhewe and Communitech CEO, Iain Klugman welcome you to Waterloo Region and True North 2018.

In this talk, Pixar Animation Studios President and Co- founder Ed Catmull outlines practical, repeatable techniques and ideas on leading consistently creative organizations.

Catmull will address the hidden barriers to creativity and how to uncouple fear from failure. He will talk about the importance of hiring well to get your team right, but also establishing processes and communication structures that enable good people to make something great. And if you’ve ever created something big and amazing, you know there are always hiccups along the way, so Catmull will outline the art of preparing for unknown problems.

AI promises an exciting future. The upside is massive. It has the potential to help us solve the most obnoxious problems plaguing humanity. We could see giant leaps forward in medicine, manufacturing, transportation, biotech, agriculture, government, and on and on. No more crappy jobs. Maybe we’ll even get those flying cars we were promised.

But we have concerns.

It’s not killer robots that scare us, though that is terrifying. We’re afraid of AI nobody understands making life and death decisions for us. We’re afraid of economy-destroying, human value-displacing tech, controlled by a handful of people with all-too-human motives. We are afraid that, if there is a bug -- because there are always bugs -- we won’t be able patch it before it’s too late.

Can we take a minute to talk this through?

11:15 - Welcome - John Kelleher

11:20 - Marylin Ma: The True Story of AI is Still Being Written
Intelligence is a loaded word. It can represent different meanings to different people. Is our progress towards building intelligent robots as far along as we think? The answer depends on what you define as intelligent. This talk explores where AI development currently stands and ways we can direct our efforts in the near term to maximize benefit to mankind.

11:25 - Joseph Fung: Working Among the Machines
A whopping 80% of companies plan to use automated service technologies by 2020 — how do we do this in a way that machines help us, not replace us? AI and Machine Learning technology can be leveraged for continuous learning and developing a higher skill set to reach our full potential. Performing faster, more efficient, and better. The future of work requires changing the focus of your work.  Make AI work for (not against) you and become better at being human.

11:45 - Suzanne Gildert: Ultra-Human-Like Robots - Bringing Science Fiction to Life
Throughout the entirety of human history, we have always dreamed about - and been captivated by - the idea of creating machines that are like us. Human-like robots have appeared in endless science fiction movies, in both utopian and - more often - dystopian narratives.

Recent advancements in hardware technologies such as improved sensors, batteries, actuators and 3D printing are allowing us to realise the dream of building human-like robots. Meanwhile, advancements in machine learning and AI are enabling the minds of such robots to become increasingly human-like.

Over the next couple of decades we will have to begin considering the rights and responsibilities of highly intelligent, sentient robot life. In this talk, Suzanne Gildert, Founder and CEO of Sanctuary.ai and SingularityU Canada Faculty describes how machines that look, move, feel and think like us may soon emerge, and what the social, economic and ethical implications of these breakthroughs might be.

12:20 - Ali Asaria: The Role of Human Workers in a Post Automation, Post AI World
In this talk, Tulip CEO Ali Asaria will discuss how the rise of automation and AI will disrupt labour on scale and pace unlike any productive technology in history. He will discuss the challenges for the economy, but also the opportunities for humanity. Ali will also outline practical considerations for technologists and leaders to ensure that the use of automation and AI in the workforce helps human values rise to the top.

12:35 - Marcel O'Gorman: AI Beyond Ethics
Discussions about the ethics of Artificial Intelligence can only go so far, given that it is impossible to predict the outcomes of AI applications. O'Gorman will discuss why it is necessary to integrate other non-technical disciplines besides ethics at the R&D level of AI, not only to mitigate risk, but also to ensure that AI is applied in ways that have a positive impact on the human condition and on the planet that sustains us.

12:50  - Francois Gand: Unlocking Communication with AI
What happens when a human being loses the ability to communicate or even compute on a daily basis? What can AI do to assist? What are the benefits, implications and consequences of AI playing a stronger role in the healthcare industry?  This session will explore very concept of human limitations and where the machine potentially becomes essential to one's life.

12:55 - Closing Remarks - John Kelleher

Here’s where we stop talking about how tech has gone wrong and start getting specific about how to do things right. The Declaration session is a hand-on workshop that will engage participants in exploring what Tech for Good really means.

In this workshop, we’ll work together to develop key attributes that organizations should follow as they align their organization toward Tech for Good. We’ll have some open, pointed discussions, hear from business leaders who have created organizations worth emulating and examine national and international data from research conducted by Deloitte and IPSOS.

The goal of the workshop is to produce something real. Something concrete. Ok, probably a PDF, but it will be a set of clear directives, a declaration from True North attendees as to guiding principles that all aspiring organizations can follow on their way to Tech for Good.

The convergence of the industrial internet of things, together with advances in energy storage are enabling a 21st century energy revolution. Africa is uniquely positioned to lead the sustainable energy age by providing an ideal test bed for these emerging technologies. Hear Siyabulela Xuza, the founder and Managing Director of Galactic Energy Ventures, tell the story of his quest to create an African tech renaissance with distributed energy.

We’ve all got a supercomputer in our pockets, yet so many business and government processes are impeded by entrenched, obsolete technologies and administrative models. At the same time, some tech has moved ahead of our society’s ability to integrate it with our values and ideals.

How is ‘fake news’ even a thing? Trust and truth are in short supply. Faith in institutions is low. Government can’t keep up, but where else do we look for solutions when market outcomes don’t reflect our values?

The good news is that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We don’t have a tech problem, we have an implementation problem. A people problem. We have the tech to energize old institutions and give them a much-needed shot of transparency. The truth still matters; big tech just needs a reminder. Let’s give it to them.

1:30 - Marianne Harrison: Welcome

1:35 - Scott Totzke: Breaking (and Strengthening) Digital Trust: Quantum’s Effect on Cybersecurity
The quantum race is on. Tech giants and nation-states are investing billions of dollars in developing the world’s first large-scale quantum computer with the expectation that they’ll be able to solve some of today’s most pressing problems.
But with great possibilities comes an even more significant threat: A powerful enough quantum computer can break the very foundation of digital trust that we rely on every day to securely connect; whether that’s between people or between devices, such as in the Internet of Things (IoT) and connected cars.
In this T-Minus 5 presentation, cybersecurity expert Scott Totzke, CEO & Co-founder of ISARA Corporation, explores quantum’s effect on current security measures, the quantum-safe solution that’s ready today and how Canada's Quantum Valley is leading the way to create technologies that will seamlessly transition and strengthen the security ecosystem before the threat is realized.

1:40 - Hillary Hartley: Tech for Public Good
Digital makes government more accessible, bends the cost curve and creates better outcomes for individuals, organizations and society at large. Join Ontario's first Chief Digital Officer, Hillary Hartley, as she shares her reflections on designing and delivering simpler, faster, better services with people, across a people-first public organization, serving an increasingly diverse and digital population of almost 14 million individuals across the province.

Key topics covered will include recruiting talented, creative technologists and designers to serve the public good, and introducing user-centred design practices, open standards and digital leadership skills to bring about positive change for the public sector and the people of Ontario.
 
2:00 - Ted Livingston and  Russell Verbeeten: How cryptocurrency can help our inequality problem, Moderated by Rita Trichur
In today’s digital world, we have an online economy where people provide value to each other, but they aren’t compensated for it. Ordinary folks generate thousands of likes, retweets and vast data troves from browsing and searching, and yet all the money goes to deep-pocketed third parties.

Decentralization can solve this problem because cryptocurrency is about more than the Bitcoin bubble. Cryptocurrency can facilitate the exchange of value in the digital world, while bringing together a broad group of participants to create an ecosystem of digital services that prioritizes consumer experience and choice. The session is a dialogue between Kik CEO Ted Livingston, who recently launch the cryptocurrency, Kin, and cryptocurrency expert, Russell Verbeeten.

2:20 - Craig Silverman: The Golden Age of Media Manipulation
Every digital product or service can be gamed or exploited, and this is especially true of today’s media and information.

Whether it’s Russian trolls trying to create division in a democracy, marketers scheming to get the best reviews for their product, or criminals using a self-publishing platform to launder money, our media environment is more open to manipulation than ever before.

Craig Silverman, the reporter who brought fake news to the world’s attention, exposes the secrets of how this manipulation is being done online, and why entrepreneurs and technologists must plan for how their products could be used and abused.

2:50 - Neil Desai and Jad Saliba: Coding Alone – The Erosion of Social Capital Online and How We Can Revive It
The Internet has been a force for so much good for so many.  But it has also been a conduit for crime and despair. Money misappropriated through cybercrime makes headlines. We’re starting to learn more about how our trust is eroding online. What about the loss of innocence, is that next?
Jad Saliba and Neil Desai of Magnet Forensics will highlight how the perverse use of online platforms, marketplaces and other technologies have inadvertently contributed to the harm of vulnerable populations like children, immigrants, seniors and those suffering from mental illness.  They will provide their analysis on the erosion of social capital online and how its destabilizing our fundamental democratic values, specifically the rule of law, leaving lawmakers with little choice in the future but to lay down innovation-stifling digital red tape.        

Not to worry, they are glass half-full types and have ideas as to how leaders of technology companies can contribute to safer communities online while building-up their own social capital.

3:10 - Marianne Harrison: Closing Remarks

Tech startups don’t start up intending to create a brogrammer culture, but it seems to be a common occurrence in the market when a bunch of people get together and spend long hours building companies together. While working fast to push your company forward is always top of mind, creating an inclusive corporate culture is something that needs to be intentional from the start.
Vidyard’s Co-founder and CEO, Michael Litt, made a quick discovery when a female engineer pointed out that the company’s parental leave policy was, let’s say, optimized for a company where no one had kids. Since this discovery, Vidyard has put the focus back on making the company a more inclusive and diverse place, and it makes a positive impact on their products, too. Today, every aspect of the company, whether it’s the team building events, HR policies and programs, hiring practices, training and mentoring, all now reflect the needs of a modern, inclusive company. The changes were simple enough for anyone to implement.

Here’s where we stop talking about how tech has gone wrong and start getting specific about how to do things right. The Declaration session is a hand-on workshop that will engage participants in exploring what Tech for Good really means.

In this workshop, we’ll work together to develop key attributes that organizations should follow as they align their organization toward Tech for Good. We’ll have some open, pointed discussions, hear from business leaders who have created organizations worth emulating and examine national and international data from research conducted by Deloitte and IPSOS.

The goal of the workshop is to produce something real. Something concrete. Ok, probably a PDF, but it will be a set of clear directives, a declaration from True North attendees as to guiding principles that all aspiring organizations can follow on their way to Tech for Good.

It isn’t your imagination and it isn’t just the media harping on it: Tech has become more toxic, more unethical, and more unapologetic of these things in the unicorn, bro era. In this keynote, renowned sunlight and shade-thrower Sarah Lacy will explain three major cultural headwinds that created this toxic stew, and three ways we can make sure the next generation of startups can do way better, without sacrificing returns.
 
Lacy is an award winning investigative journalist and a serial entrepreneur. She is the founder of Pando.com, a site that became known for exposing dangers of the bro economy years before it became a mainstream media story. Her new company, Chairman Mom, is a subscription-based platform with the goal of making working motherhood a badass aspirational brand.

It’s natural for people to interact with technology (or animals, plants, inanimate objects) the way we interact with other humans. It’s our way: perceptual, conversational, emotional, social, relational. As more and more advanced AI systems and robots interact with humans, they will require social and emotional intelligence, not just computing power. Any AI system that interacts with humans will have to meet us on these terms. Look us in the face.

This session will include a live demo of Affectiva’s Emotion Recognition technology as well as the massive data sets and core technology that enables the recognition of facial expressions. Affectiva co-founder and CEO, Dr. Rana el Kaliouby will discuss use cases for this eye-popping tech, from advertising research, recruitment, mental health and education to the future of mobility and autonomous vehicles. Oh yeah, the moral and ethical implications of this technology will also be discussed.

As tech companies grow and create wealth in their communities, how can we ensure that we mitigate any potential negative effects of that growth? This is a moderated discussion is about transit and transportation, housing and affordability, culture and fun, and community building. Participants from Waterloo Region government, arts communities, social services sectors, education, business and tech will chart a path toward managing economic growth with clear plan. Seize this opportunity to have your voice heard!

Wrap up of the day with our host Talia Sanhewe.

Wind down the day with some refreshments and great conversations.

True North Downtown Kitchener is a one of a kind celebration of Waterloo Region in three jam-packed nights. #TNDTK is open to our conference attendees, as well as the entire Waterloo Region community.

• $7 Wednesdays 30 May @ 10:00 am |  THEMUSEUM     
• Hyper Reality - Enter the Matrix 30 May @ 03:00 pm |  Mirage VR Experience Centre   
• True North Lounge - Joni NehRita 30 May @ 05:00 pm |  The Walper Hotel   
• Live Mural Painting 30 May @ 05:00 pm |  Young & King Street   
• Human Recharge Station 30 May @ 05:00 pm |  Goudies Lane   
• MAKERS CO Podcast Launch Party 30 May @ 05:00 pm |  Rhapsody Barrel Bar   
• Resistor Case with The Critical Media Lab 30 May @ 06:00 pm |  44 Gaukel   
• Night\Shift Farewell Party 30 May @ 06:00 pm |  Kitchener Market   
• Market Mash Up featuring Maker Expo and TWB 30 May @ 06:00 pm |  Kitchener Market   
• Doing Good “Flourishing Business Canvas” 30 May @ 06:00 pm |  Kitchener City Hall - 1st Floor  
• Hacking Health Café 30 May @ 06:30 pm |  Kitchener City Hall - City View Lounge (10th Floor) 
• #TNDTK Concert 30 May @ 07:00 pm |  Carl Zehr Square   
• Golden Hour Yoga 30 May @ 07:30 pm |  Victoria Park

On Thursday, May 31, more than 50 of the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor's best and most investment worthy seed to series-A ready startups will be pitching in Waterloo in a no-frills, fast-paced, investor-only event.

The purpose is to create efficiency for both start-ups and investors. Companies will make three-minute pitches with time allotted for 1:1 discussion and follow-up throughout the event.

This event is limited to investors who are prepared to fund seed or series-A rounds.

LOT42 - 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
41 Ardelt Place, Kitchener

Our host for True North, Talia Sanhewe kicks off day two of True North 2018.  The Right Honourable David Johnston speaks about the Tech for Good declaration.

No matter where in the Fortune 500 she holds an executive position, Bozoma Saint John quickly rises the ranks as a “badass” executive, creating breakthrough marketing campaigns and earning a multitude of awards and honours. At the age of five Boz moved from Ghana to the U.S. and later attended Wesleyan University. Since then, she has become one of the tech industry’s brightest stars, with successful stints at PepsiCo, Beats, Apple and currently, Uber.

While Bozoma continues to make her mark with marketing, she has become an outspoken proponent of inclusion and diversity in the tech industry. As Chief Brand Officer at Uber she brings her unique backstory and bold personality to one of the most storied companies in Silicon Valley.

We’ve now reached the feel good part of the story. The dragons have been slayed, and peace has returned to the world. Ok, that’s not true, but there is good news.

There are engineers and entrepreneurs who are using their fancy credentials, big brains and creative energy to, you know, help people. Solve some important problems. Stop needless suffering. Maybe there were enough people working on tracking everything you do online so someone can sell you more stuff. Anyway, there are people who saw some real human problems and said, ‘Somebody should do something about that.’ Then they got to work. These are their stories.

10:45 - Carol Leaman: Welcome

10:50 - Mallory Greene: T-Minus 5
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

10:55 - Loren Padelford: How Technology is making entrepreneurship accessible to everyone
Entrepreneurs are the engine that drives our economy and our society. But for the past 10 years entrepreneurship has been in decline. Today, technology is leading a resurgence in entrepreneurship by levelling the playing field, providing everyone the tools, access and economics once reserved only for the largest companies in the world.  For anyone who thought they couldn’t start their own business,  Shopify is bending the learning and cost curve down, making it easier than ever to start and grow you a business. From helping to source products, to setting up an online store to sell them, Shopify and technology has made the complex simple and cost effective.

11:15 - Anne Connelly and Sonny Kohli: Abundance for All: When and How? - Moderated by Krista Pawley 
Tech is changing every aspect of society, including how we tackle some of our most persistent problems: food security, water, shelter, access to energy, education, healthcare. How can we recognize the practical possibilities for revolutionary technologies to drive meaningful impacts for billions of people around the world?

Blockchain consultant Anne Connelly and Dr. Sonny Kohli, physician and founder of medtech innovator, Cloud DX, will explore the ways that transformational technologies can be used to tackle the world's biggest challenges today, and create abundance for all in the future. This inspiring discussion will be moderated by Krista Pawley from SingularityU.

11:45 - Richard Yim: The Battle of Tech for Social Good
When Demine Robotics CEO Richard Yim ventured into the world of landmine clearance, he met with some resistance to his tech solution for this global social problem. NGOs and governments are the main players in this space, and investment in technology is not their traditional choice for solving long-term core issues. Sometimes, donors also place restrictions on the use of their contributions, preferring solutions that produce quick, clear results.

Today, Demine Robotics is officially endorsed and supported by the governments of Cambodia and Canada as well as a number of landmine clearance NGOs. Richard will share his journey to change the hearts and minds of leaders in the NGO and government world.

12:00 - Closing Remarks

The U.S. and Canadian economies need more entrepreneurs and more leaders to create businesses based on exciting advances in technology. To leverage the widest possible range of ideas and creativity, we must tap into the entire population in all its diversity.   Great progress has been made in that regard in the U.S. and Canada with women’s representation in STEM having dramatically improved over the past 25 years.  Now we must continue that momentum.
Join Linamar CEO Linda Hasenfratz, Canadian Chair of the Canada-United States Council for Advancement of Women Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders as she explores issues of diversity, inclusion and the future role of women at the highest levels of the public and private sectors. She will discuss the Council’s work particularly as pertains to further increasing the number of women in STEM, a key area of recommendation of the Council.

The news is full of stories about the impact tech companies have on the economies of the communities where they're based. From building teams that are representative of the local community to building platforms that create true economic benefit for more people, the tech sector is facing many challenges in building equitable businesses. Nowhere is this challenge more stark than in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. In this session we'll discuss the civic and economic context in which the tech industry is growing, how the sector is creating (or not) broadbased opportunity for more local residents, and what other cities can learn from our mistakes.

Robyn Doolittle will discuss her award-winning Unfounded series published in the Globe and Mail — an investigation that has sparked unprecedented policy and social change. Doolittle spent 20 months uncovering how police services handle sexual assault cases through more than 250 freedom of information requests and hundreds of interviews. What she uncovered was that Canadian law enforcement has been disproportionately dismissing rape cases as baseless. Part of what made the series so compelling is that the Globe built a national database that enabled anyone in the country to look up the rate of dismissed cases for their own local police service.

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

Beyond the post-truth culture war where the veracity of a story depends on what side you’re on, there’s still an audience for traditional, fact-checked news and investigative reporting. But with the news audience’s attention scattered across traditional news organizations, social media, blogs and niche websites, there’s a lot of room for misinformation and deliberate hoaxes to spread.

This session will explore the toolkit for building a trustworthy and sustainable news ecosystem in an age when false content gets more shares and ad dollars have disappeared from traditional news outlets. Can fake-news purveyors be held publicly accountable through legal or regulatory means? Could a certification system be implemented for news outlets and their sources?

Globe & Mail CEO & Publisher, Phillip Crawley and Ground CEO Harleen Kaur will discuss the roles that media companies, journalists, governments and technologists can play in ensuring that news still serves the fact-based community.

A lot of the tech we use everyday was fiction before it was fact: satellite communication, cell phones, electronic newspapers and robots all appeared in science fiction stories before they became commonplace in our lives. Writers and filmmakers have typically imagined the future created by tech as being either utopian or dystopian. During periods of rapid tech advancement -- the industrial revolution, the nuclear age, the Internet age -- storytellers seem to create more of the darker stuff. Change is scary.

At the same time, real-world tech is fuelling increasing concerns about privacy, democracy and even human survival. Is the entertainment industry leading us to a dystopian view of the future of tech, or merely holding up a mirror to reflect a reality that’s already unfolding? Does the drama inherent in apocalyptic visions, the projection of our existing fears, just make for more compelling content right now? Or will these visions and fears provide an impetus to create the future of tech as a force for good?

Iain Klugman and Talia Sanhewe close out True North 2018.

Wind down the day with some refreshments and great conversations.

True North Downtown Kitchener is a one of a kind celebration of Waterloo Region in three jam-packed nights. #TNDTK is open to our conference attendees, as well as the entire Waterloo Region community.

• Hyper Reality - Enter the Matrix 31 May @ 03:00 pm |  Mirage VR Experience Centre     
• 'Dream Girl' Screening & Panel 31 May @ 04:30 pm |  Apollo Cinema   
• True North Lounge - Great Canadian Dueling Pianos 31 May @ 05:00 pm |  The Walper Hotel 
• Night at THEMUSEUM 31 May @ 07:00 pm |  THEMUSEUM   
• BlackBerry KEYone Social 31 May @ 07:00 pm |  Rhapsody Barrel Bar     
• Spring Awakening - KWMP 31 May — 09 Jun | @ 07:30 pm |  The Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts     
• Kitchener Panthers vs Barrie Baycats 31 May @ 07:30 pm |  Jack Couch Park at the Aud