Since 2017, thousands of public sector innovators have made FWD50 the place they come to connect, learn, and recharge. For a global community of policymakers, technologists, and civic innovators, the conference is a vital part of their year, and an opportunity to share hard-won wisdom working on some of society's hardest problems.
Why attend?
FWD50 asks one fundamental question: How do we use technology to make society better for all?
FWD50 needs you.
We meet to build a better future. You should join us.
In addition to virtual events throughout the year like book clubs and interviews, thousands of attendees come to Canada's national capital with many more joining our livestream and event platform remotely. We hope you'll join us.
What's included
On our main stage, you'll find keynotes from bestselling authors, public sector leaders, academics, and agitators, alongside thoughtfully curated panels and debates. We run a series of workshops both online and in person, and develop custom tools to provoke conversations and encourage networking among attendees. Our venue and schedule are carefully structured to let participants meet with experts, mentors, and one another throughout the event.
If you're attending online, we run a dedicated platform with realtime captioning and translation, interactive Q&A, messaging, video meetings, and many more functions to help you get the most out of the event regardless of your location.
What's more, all recorded sessions from the conference are available as online recordings shortly after the conference wraps, so you can catch the talk you missed or revisit a relevant topic with your team later in the year.
How to make your case
For public servants
If you're like most public servants, you need to give your manager a reason to invest training resources in your attendance.
- Perhaps you have a performance plan that includes training budget; if so, remember to include FWD50 in that budget.
- Let your department training lead know about the conference, and suggest that they contact us about bulk or departmental tickets.
- Contact us if you need help building your business case. We've got hundreds of glowing testimonials from past attendees, and many other resources to help you justify participating.
For industry partners
FWD50 isn't like other government tech conferences. There's no expo hall, and we're not a media company. What we are is the best way to join genuine conversations about digital transformation, with the people making it happen.
For the sponsors and partners who make it possible for us to run the event, we're a trusted platform for executives to share their ideas. FWD50 is a place to run breakouts that showcase the latest industry innovations and to run workshops that demonstrate real value to public servants.
For academics and civic tech organizations
Change, while necessary, is often uncomfortable. We work closely with foundations, civic tech organizations, and academics around the world who tackle some of society's most thorny problems.
On our stages you'll find leading thinkers on ethics, governance, security, culture, and psychology, all working to put resilient, human-centered design at the core of the public service. FWD50 isn't just a place to discuss the future, but also to shape it into what it can become with a global faculty of thinkers and activists.
Ways to attend
Individual tickets
Whether you work in government or the private sector, you can buy individual tickets right now for both in-person and online attendance.
Departmental passes
Want to share FWD50 with hundreds or even thousands of your peers? If you want to send more than 50 people in person along with 150 or more virtual attendees, a departmental pass makes the most sense.
We want everyone who cares about technology and the public sector to be a part of our growing community. With that in mind, there are plenty of other ways to participate. We offer pairs of free tickets to every regional government in the world, as well as opportunities to speak and volunteer with the conference. Got more questions?