Elevate Festival’s featured speakers this year include top Canadian tech executives and alumni from global heavy-hitters, while the revamped content tracks will place greater emphasis on scaleups and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The seventh annual Elevate Festival says it’s expecting to attract 10,000 attendees from across the global tech community to downtown Toronto between Oct. 7-9 with its more than 250 speakers across eight specialized content tracks.
Shopify president Harley Finkelstein is among this year’s featured speakers, accompanied by a crop of Silicon Valley vets, including the Canadian co-founder and CEO of autonomous trucking company Aurora, Chris Urmson, former Google leader and Sierra co-founder, Clay Bavor, and former Airbnb general manager Dorothy Kilroy.
Following up on previous year’s heavy hitting speakers–which have included former First Lady Michelle Obama, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and award-winning tech journalist Kara Swisher–this year’s slate will discuss how to responsibly navigate the next phase of tech transformation following the rapid acceleration of AI.
“We’re living through one of the most transformative periods in tech history,” Elevate co-founder and CEO Lisa Zarzeczny said in a statement. “It’s an honour to welcome leaders who are not just navigating this change, but shaping the future at its very edge.”
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Other scheduled speakers include former Barstool Sports CEO Erika Ayers Badan, Raven Indigenous Capital Partners general partner Althea Wishloff, Super.com co-founder Hussein Fazal, and Femtech Assembly director Ida Tin, co-founder of the period-tracking app Clue, who is credited with coining the term “femtech.” Elevate says there are still additional speakers to be announced.
As usual, the conference is set to feature a diverse range of tech-focused content tracks, but the most popular ones, AI and Scale Up, are moving to the main stage this year, which Elevate says will enable over 2,000 people to join each session. Other content tracks include Moonshots, FinTech, the product-focused Shop Talk, Future Focus for all the talk on disruptive technologies, and specialized programming for investors and Women+ in tech.
Early Bird tickets for Elevate Festival, taking place at Meridian Hall and the St. Lawrence Centre, are now available until June 30.
Feature image courtesy Elevate via X.