Executive Cohort 2024

Online introduction October 18th, in-person sessions October 24th and 25th.

Where Canada’s leaders converge to learn, connect, and recharge.

In late 2022, following our annual event in Ottawa, we met with training representatives from five of the biggest departments in the Federal Government, as well as a number of CIOs and CDOs. Their unequivocal feedback was that they need our help teaching existing leaders to think digitally. As candid conversations leak into the world through AI and livestreams, we recognize the value in curating a safe, exclusive space for senior folks in government to speak freely, and learn fast. You can expect the Executive Cohort to be candid and authentic discussions on digital government's most pressing topics.

Learn more about the program and speakers below.

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Eligibility Criteria

Hold a senior executive position in a government department or agency: For the Canadian Federal government, this typically means EX-1 level or one level below. Other tiers of government are evaluated based on organizational size and role seniority.

Have purchased an in-person ticket to FWD50 2024 before applying for admission to the Executive Cohort.

Complete the application form below before October 1st.

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Fill in the application form below by October 1st.  

Since the cohort is offered at no additional price to qualifying attendees, you must first purchase a ticket before applying for admission. We cannot pre-approve admission to the cohort prior to ticket purchase.

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Program

The program kicks off with an online introduction on October 18th, followed by intensive in-person sessions on October 24th and 25th. 

Senior folks in government had asked us to put together a track focused on their unique challenges, and put them face-to-face with experts and their peers. We expect executives to learn about:

  • Accountability: The author Dan Davies warns that many of the systems we've created to scale society become so complex and impersonal that nobody's responsible for them. As a result, they turn into accountability sinks. Any system must begin with rules for how to update it, but giving everyone recourse to appeal an automated decision will undermine the system. How do we make systems accountable to those they serve in effective, but fair, ways?
  • Resiliency: Digital systems must withstand three kinds of disaster: External accidents, such as a forest fire or Internet outage; intentional harm, including cyberattacks from foreign adversaries; and internal mistakes, from bad processes to clumsy employees. Since there's no such thing as a perfect system, how do we build reliable digital systems efficiently?
  • Generative AI: There's no doubt that AI advances will upend the nature of work in a few short years. But before those wholesale shifts, there are plenty of immediate consequences to consider. For example, the ease with which non-coders can build software will give rise to a Shadow IT unseen since the dawn of SaaS. Since AI makes some hard things (like content creation) easy and some easy things (like knowing what to trust) hard, any process that relies on those things needs to be adjusted for this new world.

For each of these topics, we’ll bring in experts, letting them share their ideas and answer questions in a candid setting. Time for network and one on one discussions will also be carved out in a structured way.

Speakers

Ryan Androsoff

CEO & Founder, Think Digital

Dr. Wafa Snaineh

President, Gov. Design Academy
Board Member, The International Foundation for Customer Experience in Government

Kristel Van Der Elst

Director General, Policy Horizons Canada

Shingai Manjengwa

Head of AI Education, ChainML

Erica Vezeau

Director General, Digital Academy and GC Data Community, Canada School of Public Service (CSPS)

Vanessa Thomas

Senior Advisor, Technology Review, Government of Canada

Silvana Santos Gomes

Instructor and PhD Candidate in Public Administration , University of Ottawa

André Côté

Director, Policy and Research, The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University

Tanya Coyle

Director of Communications, The Dais at Toronto Metropolitan University

Liam Whittington

Senior Program Manager, Forum of Federations
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