Toronto Tech Week has announced the headlining acts for its mainstage event alongside the official program calendar as the weeklong citywide tech initiative prepares for its return in May.
Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst and Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke are two of the many local tech execs who will take the stage at Homecoming on May 27 at the event’s new venue, History. They’ll be joined by several other homegrown Canadian tech leaders, including Andrew Macdonald, president and COO of Uber, Andrew Chau, co-founder of Neo Financial, Emily Hosie, CEO of Rebel, and Alex Danco, Editor-at-Large at Andreessen Horowitz.
Toronto Tech Week’s headline event will feature Cohere’s Nick Frosst, Rebel’s Emily Hosie, Uber’s Andrew Macdonald, and Shopify’s Tobi Lütke.
“The vibe is ambitious but grounded,” Mell Truong, a Toronto Tech Week founding organizer, told BetaKit. “The program focuses on some of the big questions facing the Canadian tech ecosystem right now: what it means to build in Canada, how companies balance Canada-first versus global strategies.”
Homecoming is just one of over 150 events already added to the Toronto Tech Week calendar, running from May 25-29. Organizers expect to reach more than 300 events and 15,000 attendees for the week, matching last year’s numbers, which made the non-profit venture the largest grassroots tech gathering in the country.
Led by a volunteer-run, non-profit organization, Toronto Tech Week has received new financial backing from Osler, Bell, and Ada this year, alongside founding sponsors Shopify, Google for Startups, and the City of Toronto. BetaKit is a founding partner of Toronto Tech Week.
BetaKit Most Ambitious: Town Hall will once again be the marquee opening event of Toronto Tech Week, hosting over 500 tech leaders at the iconic TIFF Lightbox on May 25 for meaningful conversations about strengthening the nation’s autonomy, security, and prosperity. Coinciding with the release of the BetaKit Most Ambitious annual print issue, BetaKit Most Ambitious: Town Hall will feature Waabi’s Raquel Urtasun, Xanadu’s Christian Weedbrook, CCI’s Jim Balsillie, and Minister of AI Evan Solomon as headline speakers.
“The city has become one of the most exciting places in the world for technology, with researchers, founders, and investors all contributing to a vibrant innovation ecosystem that is increasingly showcasing Canadian talent and innovation on a global stage,” Weedbrook told BetaKit. “Toronto Tech Week is a great reminder of that energy.”
The Toronto Tech Week lineup of programming includes a blend of global companies and grassroots organizers, including League of Innovators (LOI), Sagard, Robinhood, Carta, CDL, and ALL IN.
“Last year, Toronto Tech Week was new and people didn’t fully know what to expect, but they still showed up in a big way,” said founding organizer Julia (Baird) Konefal. “This year, we’re seeing companies and organizations build real strategies around the week, hosting multiple events for different audiences.”
Data shared with BetaKit by Toronto Tech Week indicated that over 70 percent of the events currently listed on the agenda are either free or contain some sort of free access or accessibility pricing. Toronto Tech Week events run the gamut from networking and panels, to workshops and experiential activities. The most popular event themes so far this year are once again AI, B2B, engineering, and fundraising, with FinTech joining the top five.
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Toronto Tech Week organizers were keen to note that interested parties can still submit to host an event, and doubly keen to see more hackathons and morning-focused events.
“The ecosystem is made up of thousands of people across different roles and stages of their careers,” said Konefal. “We need events for founders and investors, but also for operators across engineering, AI, finance, marketing, and HR. Toronto Tech Week is a platform for the entire ecosystem.”
Attendees this year can manage their Toronto Tech Week agenda with a new schedule planner built by Lazer Technologies. Those requiring extra help throughout the week can take advantage of an AI agent powered by local Toronto tech company Ada to discover programming, get recommendations, and receive other 24/7 support.
Disclosure: BetaKit majority owner Good Future is the family office of two former Shopify leaders, Arati Sharma and Satish Kanwar.
Feature image courtesy the Vector Institute. Photo by Evelyn Bray Photography.