Welcome to September! The summer’s over, and the government is back in session. Technology and government is changing at breakneck speed. That’s why we decided to run quarterly events this year, and switch to a perpetual Call for Papers. It’s allowed us to focus on specific topics like government-as-product and applied AI throughout the year.
But it may have you wondering: What’s happening with FWD50 this fall? Well, wonder no further: it’s time to dive deep into the second half of 2025.
First, in September, we tackle design and communication. The two are inextricably linked because they're both about language. Great design unearths deep truths about how something works, then conveys those truths so elegantly they become obvious in hindsight. It's more than the thing itself—it's how that thing is understood, shared, and adopted.
Digital government needs more than design language; it also needs great messaging. Many well-designed services languish in obscurity because the communications realm has changed completely, and the public sector is still living in the past. This event focuses on what it takes to conceive of a thing, make it flow intuitively, and effectively communicate its value.
You can check out the whole agenda but here’s a short version:
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Common knowledge (Alistair Croll)
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Presenting Narratives (Malka Older)
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Built-In, Not Bolted On (Maigen Thomas)
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Improving the Lives of Marginalized Communities (Dorothy Eng, Hossein Shafeghati)
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Comms that Get Shared (Hillary Hartley, Mitch Joel)
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Narrative Spotting Workshop (Global Voices)
Then, in November, we return to Ottawa for an in-person event. We’re not in our usual location, since renovation uncertainty made us move from our beloved home in the Aberdeen Pavillion. But we’re packing our temporary home at the Rogers Center with plenty of unexpected activations to keep you on your toes.
Here are just some of the topics and speakers we’ll hear from in November:
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Goodhart's Law versus the One Metric that Matters (Alistair Croll)
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How procurement policy blocks citizen outcomes (Dan Murphy)
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Scaling Public Services Through Collaborative Standards (Honey Dacanay)
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Technology is the Spinal Cord of Government (Emily Tavoulareas)
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Embracing a Test-and-Learn Approach for Policy and Service Delivery (Lara Sampson)
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What’s the role of serious games in policy-making? (Antonia Mochan)
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Building a Strategy Stack (Katy Lalonde, Katherine Benjamin)
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Smart Teams, Simple Rules: How Multidisciplinary teams contribute to Lean Policy Design (Anna Hirschfeld)
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The Best of all Possible Worlds (Alistair Croll)
The event is more than just talks, though. With the help of some innovative tech tools—many of them born right here in Canada—we’ll be giving you new ways to connect with your peers. That includes:
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Braindates: This incredible networking platform brings pairs and groups together for scheduled conversations around hot topics. Launched over a decade ago at Startupfest, our sister event, the tool has been used by companies like nVidia, AirBnB, Adobe, and Calendly, as well as conferences and festivals around the world.
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Boardly: This Canadian AI startup that acts as a coach and recruiter also offers matchmaking introductions that are as simple as a chat thread. FWD50 participants will be among the first in the world to test out this new approach to connecting.
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Moonshine: Small-AI pioneer Useful Sensors’ Moonshine is a lightning-fast translation and captioning tool five times as fast as OpenAI’s Whisper, that runs on an entirely self-contained device.
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DTPR (Digital Trust for Places and Routines): You may have heard about Jackie Lu’s Helpful Places initiative at past events. It’s a set of standards to let us understand the often invisible world around us. We’ve got some … creative ways to help you understand the importance of this technology.
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And of course we’ll continue to use Access, our community platform, throughout the in-person event to chat, comment, share slides and content, and message one another.
We’re embracing our new venue by taking advantage of classroom seating, equipping all attendees with workbooks. You’ll be able to follow along with instructors and speakers, then bring your work back to your desk and apply it immediately.
The lineup includes workshops, keynotes, and networking sessions, as well as a dedicated interaction space where you’ll be able to dive deeper into speakers’ sessions once they leave the stage and meet your colleagues during the breaks.
And mark your calendars for our November 3 game night. We’ve got some games specifically designed for public servants that will challenge you to tackle familiar crises and new challenges.
But wait… there’s more: we can’t reveal all the details yet, but let’s just say November won’t be the last event we run this year. Stay tuned for an extra day, free to all annual pass holders, packed with even more government modernization lessons from around the world.