The second announced theme, ‘Bridges, Not Walls’, will look at ways technology can be used to impact digital democracy, create new medical technologies, and connect global citizens. The program will include a smart city plan that puts people ahead of tech, the ongoing fight against killer robots, the rise of social enterprise and ideas for strengthening democracy with tech.
Bridges, Not Walls speakers include:
Kara Swisher, Editor-at-large of Recode, host of the Recode Decode podcast and executive producer of the Code Conference. As Silicon Valley’s most feared and well-liked journalist, Swisher shines a light on the Web’s major players and the Internet policy issues that both unite and divide us.
Tobi Lütke, Founder and CEO of Shopify. Lutke has changed the way ecommerce works. He’s an advocate for computer literacy and education as the great leveller. Plus, he has big ideas for bringing commercialization opportunities to the developing world.
Balaji Gopalan, Co-Founder and CEO, MedStack. We give away all of our demographic information without knowing it. How about our DNA? Gopalan is working on a platform to protect our most sensitive personal information: our health.
Hillary Hartley, Chief Digital Officer and Deputy Minister, Consumer Services, Province of Ontario. Hartley focuses on the end-to-end customer experience of government to deliver simpler, faster, better government services for the people and businesses of Ontario. She’s an expert in helping state and local governments embrace new technologies necessary for government modernization.
Komal Singh, Engineering Program Manager, Google. During her day job, Singh works on tech that impacts billions of people around the globe. As her side hustle, she wrote the bestseller “Ara The Star Engineer” to inspire kids and minorities to explore the magic of STEM by featuring real-life engineering leaders.
Maria Cynthia Goh, Professor, Impact Centre, University of Toronto. Goh is a professor of chemistry whose research impacts on nanotechnology, biomaterials and biodiagnostics. Having co-founded eight companies with her students, she specializes in transforming scientific discoveries into real technology that impacts people and problems.
The True North conference takes place June 19 and 20 at the LOT42 Global Flex Campus in Kitchener. More than 2,500 attendees will come together to hear from leading thinkers on topics like quantum computing, AI, data privacy and digital addiction.
Ticket prices for True North increase May 1, 2019. For more about living digital and True North, please visit www.truenorthwaterloo.com.
About Communitech
Communitech was founded in 1997 by a group of entrepreneurs committed to making Waterloo Region a global innovation leader. At the time it was crazy talk, but somehow this community managed to pull it off. Today, Communitech is a public-private innovation hub that supports a community of more than 1400 companies — from startups to scale-ups to large global players.
Communitech is a member of the Ontario Network of Entrepreneurs and helps tech companies start, grow and succeed in three distinct ways.
Communitech is a place – the center of gravity for entrepreneurs and innovators. A clubhouse for building cool tech and great companies.
Communitech delivers programs – helping companies at all stages with access to capital, customers and talent. We are here to help them grow and innovate.
Communitech partners in building a world-leading ecosystem – making sure we have all the ingredients (and the brand) to go from a small startup to a global giant.