A new annual Toronto event initiative led by local tech leaders has launched to fill the gap left by Collision’s departure to Vancouver.
Toronto Tech Week will take place from June 23-27 and feature a variety of partner-hosted and community events designed to cement the city’s reputation as a global tech powerhouse.
Led by a new volunteer-run, non-profit organization, Toronto Tech Week has received financial backing from presenting sponsors Shopify, Google Cloud, and the City of Toronto. The inaugural event is also supported by over 40 community partners, including Golden Ventures, Wealthsimple, Cohere, Elevate, the University of Toronto, DMZ, and BetaKit, the official media partner for the week.
The second annual BetaKit Town Hall will take place as a Toronto Tech Week anchor event on Monday, June 23. This year will be more ambitious.
“Toronto Tech Week is a pivotal moment for the tech ecosystem,” said Toronto Tech Week organizer and BetaKit board chair Satish Kanwar. “By bringing together the brightest minds and most promising ideas, we are positioning Toronto as a city where anything is possible to achieve.”
Toronto Tech Week noticeably falls into Collision’s old spot in the city’s event calendar. Hosted in Toronto since 2019, organizer Web Summit announced last year that the event would relocate to Vancouver for 2025 under new branding.
Fellow Tech Week organizer and Golden Ventures general partner Ameet Shah told BetaKit that the idea took shape last summer following “honest conversations between community leaders across the tech ecosystem on improving the city’s connectedness and standing globally.”
Toronto Tech Week will feature a variety of community-run events, as well as anchor events and experiences from established partner hosts. Featured events are intended to accommodate higher attendance numbers and will follow an overlap-free schedule throughout the week. Shah noted that some community partners will align existing events to the week, while others will create brand-new and bespoke events for Tech Week.
“By unifying all these initiatives and organizers under one banner, we created a larger local initiative to channel the ecosystem’s energy into a single impactful week,” Shah said. The hope is that Toronto Tech Week becomes an opportunity to engage Canadian expats and global investors alongside the local tech ecosystem.
(Mauricio J Calero for BetaKit)
The second annual BetaKit Town Hall will take place as a Toronto Tech Week anchor event on Monday, June 23. BetaKit will also release the inaugural issue of BetaKit’s Most Ambitious, released in digital and print formats, to highlight inspiring tech efforts from across the country. A BetaKit’s Most Ambitious evening event will also be held on Monday night.
“This event is a terrific opportunity to showcase Toronto’s vibrant tech sector, shape the future, and drive our city’s economic growth for years to come,” said Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow in a statement.
Toronto Tech Week will launch a centralized events platform and calendar this Spring to organize and promote the full list of partners and events. Shah told BetaKit that the grass-roots programming will lead to a more tactical and valuable experience for attendees, with panels and fireside chats mixing with product demos, hackathons, and open houses.
“Being led by builders from the community, the focus is on substance: real insights, real discussions, and real experiences that move the ecosystem forward,” he said. “We’re all stewards of this ecosystem, and it’s incumbent on us to help it achieve its true potential.”
Disclosure: BetaKit majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.
Feature image courtesy Toronto Tech Week.