Following Collision’s decision to move the tech conference online over precautions amid COVID-19, the organizers have announced the first 250 speakers to be featured in the now-online event.
Collision from Home attendees will be able to participate by live streaming talks.
The major North American tech conference that was set to be held in Toronto for its second year, before the in-person portion was cancelled and this year’s conference was rebranded to Collision from Home. The new list includes some speakers that were set to participate at the in-person event, including Uber CTO Thuan Pham.
However, others that were announced in the first wave of speakers released in January, such as Tobias Lütke of Shopify and CEO of Mailchimp Ben Chestnut, now do not appear on the list for Collision from Home.
New speakers include Toronto Mayor John Tory, PayPal CTO Sri Shivananda, co-founder and CEO of Element AI Jean-François Gagné, and Monica Drake, who is the managing editor of the New York Times.
Collision from Home attendees will be able to participate by live streaming talks from leaders in business, tech, and politics. Participants can also chat and connect with each other through the Collision from Home app.
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The annual tech conference, which brings in tens of thousands of attendees from across the globe, began its three-year stint in Toronto last year. The conference is currently offering refunds for anyone who had already bought tickets or offering to have tickets automatically transferred to Collision 2021.
Collision is one of the many Canadian tech conferences that have cancelled the in-person portion of their events amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Shopify Unite, True North, and Startupfest have all announced plans to scale down their events in an effort to help curb the outbreak.
The Government of Canada’s public health bulletin states mass gatherings can have the potential for “serious public health consequences” if they are not planned and executed carefully, as they can increase the spread of infectious diseases.
There have been examples of COVID-19 transmission during mass gatherings, and the federal government advises that decisions about whether to proceed with, restrict, cancel, or postpone a mass-gathering event be based on thorough risk assessment undertaken by event organizers.
Image source Collision/Web Summit