Schedule & App
Our lineup of incredible thinkers and builders will challenge consensus thinking on topics like AI, education and digital detox.
Here are the highlights of the 2019 program (*subject to change). Full schedule details are available on the True North event app. Subscribe and stay updated on the latest True North Conference and Festival news.
Featured Tracks
Living Digital
From your toothbrush in the morning, to your ride home at night, tech is everywhere. And it’s so great that we have gadgets, scads of information and binge watching! Right? Yes. Sort of. Technology can help make us safer and healthier.
Age of Re-Learning
Fast, faster, fastest: that’s the pace of change in technology. It’s hard to keep up to all the new products, services and opportunities. It’s hard to know what star to harness. How to “level up.” Because really, everything could be radically different next week.
Building Bridges, Not Walls
True North examines our responsibilities and interdependencies as creators of tech and as global citizens. What futures we can imagine, and how to choose (or invent) the right path. Our obligations to the planet, to the village, to each other.
Schedule Highlights
Living Digital
Age of Re-Learning
Building Bridges, Not Walls
Wednesday
June 19
Iain Klugman
Stage A
9:15 AM – 9:30 AM
Thank You for Being Late
Stage A
9:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Deloitte – The Tech for Good Ethos Studio
Stage C
10:45 AM – 12:30 PM
Being Digitally Exhausted: Saying No To The 24 / 7 Digital Lifestyle
Stage B
10:55 AM – 11:15 AM
Transforming to Make Decisions Easier, and Lives Better
Stage A
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Building literate, responsible machines
Stage B
11:15 AM – 11:35 AM
Trust: The Currency of the Digital Future
Stage B
11:35 AM – 11:55 AM
TVO: Transforming Digital Learning
Stage A
11:40 AM – 12:15 PM
Rethinking Quantum Industrialization
Stage B
11:55 AM – 12:20 PM
Skirt The Thin Line: The Amazing Potential of Digital Healthcare vs. The Scary Risks of Not Carefully Managing Data Privacy
Stage B
1:25 PM – 1:40 PM
Manulife – Future of Work & Learning
Stage C
1:30 PM – 3:15 PM
The Rise of Social Enterprise – Shad Canada Panel
Stage B
1:40 PM – 2:05 PM
Privacy By Design
Stage A
1:45 PM – 2:10 PM
Disruptive Innovation Securing Africa’s Sustainable Energy Future
Stage B
2:05 PM – 2:30 PM
Fighting Human Trafficking with Data
Stage A
2:10 PM – 2:40 PM
Project Ploughshares
It’s Time to Talk About Killer Robots
Stage B
2:30 PM – 3:00 PM
Data Warriors for Indigenous Data Sovereignty
Stage A
2:45 PM – 3:05 PM
Leaders Prize Announcement
Stage A
3:30 PM – 3:45 PM
No More Excuses. Let’s Fix This Thing.
Stage A
3:45 PM – 4:45 PM
Happy Hour
Sponsored by OpenText
4:45 PM – 6:00 PM
True North Festival
Campfire Night – featuring Great Lake Swimmers & more!
UpTown Waterloo
Thursday
June 20
Stronger Together: Hiring Skilled Refugees
Stage A
9:20 AM – 9:30 AM
The Power of Billions
Stage A
9:30 AM – 10:00 AM
Aaron Snow, Hillary Hartley, Megan Smith
All Together Now: Solving Global Problems Across Sectors
Stage A
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM
University of Waterloo – All Hands on Deck for a Security Incident
Stage C
10:45 AM – 12:30 PM
The future is here: the Education Revolution that is going to reshape the world
Stage B
10:55 AM – 11:10 AM
Tobi Lütke moderated by Rosemary Barton
The New Era of Entrepreneurship
Stage A
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Becoming FutureFit: Unlocking Human Potential in the Age of AI
Stage B
11:10 AM – 11:30 AM
Humans in the Future of Work
Stage B
11:30 AM – 11:50 AM
Elevate vs. Automate: Take responsibility to help users achieve full potential and reduce job displacement
Stage B
11:50 AM – 12:15 PM
Building the Killer App for Financial Confidence
Stage A
11:30 AM – 11:55 AM
The Challenge of Lighting
Stage A
12:00 PM – 12:30 PM
How to Prepare for a Future of Continuous Workplace Learning and Unconventional Career Paths
Stage B
12:15 PM – 12:35 PM
TD – Waterloo Region: Canada’s First Carbon-neutral Region?
Stage C
1:00 PM – 2:45 PM
Recoding Representation: Converting Children From Consumers to Creators
Stage A
1:15 PM – 1:30 PM
Stage A
1:30 PM – 2:15 PM
Building a Smart City with a Purpose
Stage A
2:15 PM – 2:30 PM
Decentralizing the Web and Empowering Users
Stage A
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Closing Reception
Sponsored by Lazaridis Institute
4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
True North Festival
Free concert featuring Frank Walker & more!
Carl Zehr Square, Kitchener
* Subject to change.
Download the True North Conference App
Make the most out of your time at the conference and festival with the True North 2019 mobile app. Personalise your profile and connect with other delegates throughout the conference and festival. The app makes it easy for you to check out our speakers, participate in Q&As, build your own schedule and to be alerted of reminders and in-the-moment notifications.
Emerging Technologies Showcase
Experience life in the digital fast lane.
Artificial intelligence, emotion and facial recognition, risk sensing, robots and bikes!
Through seven interactive zones, you will embark on a digital journey to discover how you embrace innovation and how new technologies can be used for good to improve businesses, help find the work-life balance and make us better humans.
Focals by North
Focals by North are smart glasses that let the wearer send and receive messages, see turn-by-turn directions, call an Uber or talk to Alexa — all in their line of sight. North is bringing their trailer to the True North conference to showcase the Focals product to conference delegates.
Giving at True North
Reception House is our designated philanthropic partner for True North 2019, located in the Waterloo Tech Cafe. TipTapPay will be onsite with their giving units, so delegates can scan their credit card or tap their phone to donate.