Mayor John Tory is set to be a keynote speaker at South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual film, music, and tech festival taking place in Texas.
Tory’s speech, titled ‘Toronto’s Tech Sector: Not Just Bros and IPOs’ will look at Toronto’s tech scene and how the city is “doing innovation differently.”
“We’re modest about the innovation ecosystem we now have, and a lot of people don’t know what we’ve got going for us.”
“Toronto has always invested in its people,” said Tory. “Thanks to these investments our people are making a positive impact in the world by solving big societal challenges and creating an environment where everyone can succeed.”
Tory has spoken on tech innovation in Toronto before, heavily advocating Canada to Web Summit attendees in preparation for Collision’s first appearance in Toronto.
“We’re modest about the innovation ecosystem we now have, we’re modest about our tech ecosystem, and a lot of people don’t know what we’ve got going for us,” Tory told BetaKit. “We have to be here to say ‘come on over to Toronto, you’ll have a great time in 2019,’ but underlying that from our standpoint is we’re going to showcase our ability as a country and ability as a city to lead.”
Tory said that he hopes Collision attendees will see why Toronto is different, and why Canada is different. Last April, he led a delegation of 23 companies to Los Angeles in order to pitch to companies, media, and streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon.
This year, two Canadian companies were named finalists in SXSW’s Pitch Competition, which features 50 interactive technology companies pitching to a live audience and a panel of judges.
SXSW 2019 takes place from March 8 to 17 in Austin, Texas. Tory will be speaking on March 10 starting at 11 am at the Hilton Austin Downtown Salon C. SXSW attendees may register for Tory’s speech here.
Featured image courtesy SXSW.