Past sessions
Each fall, the world’s leading public servants, tech innovators, and academics gather in Canada's Capital for the annual FWD50 conference. FWD50 spans multiple days of packed content, from keynotes and workshops to breakouts and meeting rooms, as well as other community meetups we run throughout the week. Every year we tackle a different theme on the most pressing challenges in digital government and curate our content accordingly. Browse all our past sessions from over the years using our interactive agenda.
In PersonVirtual
October 10
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October 11
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October 12
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October 13
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October 14
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October 15
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October 16
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October 17
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October 18
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October 19
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October 20
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October 21
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October 22
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October 23
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October 24
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October 25
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October 26
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October 27
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October 28
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October 29
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October 30
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October 31
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November 01
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November 02
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November 03
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November 04
8:00 AM GMT-5
9:00 AM GMT-5
Welcome to our first FWD50 hybrid day!
Welcome back to day two of FWD50! Join your hosts Alistair Croll and Hillary Hartley as they take the stage live from the Aberdeen Pavillion! See More.
9:20 AM GMT-5
Accountability and recourse: the challenges of building fair systems
In the last century, humanity has achieved remarkable progress through automation and mechanization. We've reduced global poverty, doubled human lifespan, and put the power of the internet into billions of pockets. Yet the journey from physical assembly lines to complex, worldwide information processes has created new challenges alongside its triumphs. See More.
9:40 AM GMT-5
Leading Government in the Digital Space
In this digital space, as the world continues to evolve, so do the government’s priorities, opportunities, and challenges. Technologies like quantum computing and artificial intelligence are quickly transforming society in many ways. Governments must continue to lead throughout this evolution by embracing a digital-first mindset so that they stay relevant and trusted. See More.
President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Transport, Represents the riding of Oakville
Government of Canada
9:50 AM GMT-5
Unlocking the Secrets of Estonia's Digital Transformation
In conversation with Estonia's Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs, Liisa-Ly Pakosta. See More.
Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs
Republic of Estonia, Ministry of Justice
10:15 AM GMT-5
Radical transformation - Why you can, even when everyone is telling you you can’t
Transforming services and organisations, starting small and learning, being led by users needs and making data driven decisions - that’s what so many of us want to be doing. But how often have you heard someone say “yeah that all sounds great in theory, but we can’t do that”?
Anna Hirschfeld will talk about her experience of successfully delivering benefits modernisation in the UK in a truly radical way, and how the team overcame challenges everyone said they couldn't. See More.
10:40 AM GMT-5
Whatever happened to transparency?
Transparency used to be a strong value of the civic technology movement, but if it isn’t dead, it’s at least resting. See More.
11:05 AM GMT-5
Ensuring responsible procurement of AI
Government spending on artificial intelligence (AI) has reached unprecedented levels. In fiscal year 2022, the United States government awarded over $2 billion in contracts to private companies that provide services that rely on AI, and total spending on AI has increased nearly 2.5 times since 2017. See More.
11:30 AM GMT-5
Delivering digital solutions together for Canada
One of the largest IT shared services organizations in the world, Shared Services Canada (SSC) provides modern, reliable and secure technology services that enable Government of Canada organizations to deliver services to Canadians. See More.
11:55 AM GMT-5
What's in store this afternoon?
Hear about all of the amaing things we have planned for your afternoon! See More.
12:00 PM GMT-5
Break time!
It's time for a break! Take this opportunity to grab some food and catch up with, or meet your fellow attendees! See More.
1:30 PM GMT-5
Your future identity: Why who you are matters
The concept of identity is both simple and complex. In the physical world, we recognize other humans. We trust them, interact with them, respect their rights, and hold them accountable. Even as we age and change, we are still ourselves. See More.
No user left behind: Why good services are usable by everyone, equally
In this interactive session you will learn that there is no such thing as a ‘normal’ user and why designing digital services for everyone is about much more than accessibility. Discover how the services we deliver often present barriers to the people who need them and explore ways we can remove those barriers so that no user is left behind. See More.
2:00 PM GMT-5
Abu Dhabi customer experience : Transforming one-stop-shops through collaborative CX spaces.
This talk will explore the pioneering CX Spaces Program initiated by Abu Dhabi, which focuses on creating forward-looking CX spaces. See More.
Customer Insight & Analytics Director - Customer Experience Sector
Department of Government Enablement, Abu Dhabi
President
Gov. Design Academy
Board Member
The International Foundation for Customer Experience in Government
2:30 PM GMT-5
AI Advantage (Express edition): Boosting productivity in the public service
AI is transforming how we work, but the productivity promise won’t happen organically. Leveraging the full potential of AI requires critical reflection on what this technology can and cannot do, and where AI tools can best be applied within our workflows. See More.
3:00 PM GMT-5
Musical networking break!
It's time for a break! Take this opportunity to catch up with, or meet your fellow attendees! For our online audience this is a chance to join our speed networking! See More.
3:30 PM GMT-5
Participatory futures: By the people, for the people
In an increasingly polarized society, how might we engage in dialogue and create a shared vision of the future together? See More.
Design Strategist, Futurist, and White House Presidential Innovation Fellow
What I wish my boss knew about digital
What does it take to be an effective public service leader in today’s digital world? How have your own experiences shaped what you see as the leadership gaps when it comes to understanding how the digital world works? What do you wish your boss knew about Digital? What do you wish you knew? See More.
4:00 PM GMT-5
Avoiding the headlines
The challenges with procurement and a better path forward. See More.
Director General
Chief Client Experience Office, Canadian Digital Service, Service Canada
4:30 PM GMT-5
Lessons on digital leadership— How to fight Rorschoch language, digital myths, and legislative logjams
Digital policy is hard--and getting harder. The Internet, the Cloud, and Machine Learning affect almost everything governments (and each of us) do. But often agencies disagree about what we should (and should not) do with the power they provide. What happens when different agencies (or different constituencies) disagree?
See More.
5:00 PM GMT-5
The Canadian radical how mixer
Following on from the release this year of The Radical How in the UK, the team at Public Digital have been working on framing the learnings and approach for the Canadian public sector. See More.
November 05
8:00 AM GMT-5
9:00 AM GMT-5
Welcome back!
Join your hosts as they kick off another amazing day of content! See More.
9:10 AM GMT-5
Riding the hype cycle
Every five years, the technology industry goes through a Hype Cycle. See More.
9:30 AM GMT-5
Driving data cultures through ecosystem building
Maryland's Governor Wes Moore has been leading a “Data-Driven, Heart Led” transformation of the state, directing his State’s agencies to use data to make Maryland safer, more affordable, and more competitive. See More.
9:55 AM GMT-5
Can't we all just get along? Balancing competing interests in service delivery
In this talk, Cale will draw upon his experience in both the private and public sector working on enterprise/licensed products to share with attendees in similar spaces how to effectively balance competing interests among groups when their program is developing a service. See More.
10:20 AM GMT-5
The formula for creating trust in digital government
Estonia, along with several other Nordic countries, are consistently ranked as no1 in delivering digital public services to its citizen with high public approval and trust. See More.
10:45 AM GMT-5
When your software absolutely cannot fail
"Software" is a broad category. The calculator on your phone operates very differently from global, complex systems like online maps, cloud computing, or malware defense. If the calculator stops working, or gives a wrong result, it's unlikely to spell disaster or cost lives; yet many modern systems are not only complex, but central civilization as we know it. See More.
11:10 AM GMT-5
Raising the bar: The six beta digital competencies for all public servants
Berlin’s CDO Martina Klement announced the city’s “Digital Competence Check”, inspired by the European Union’s Digital Competence Framework. This underscores a pressing need: in the latest FWD50 Content Survey, it asked “should government employees be required to pass a digital literacy test?”. 71% of respondents checked “yes”. See More.
11:35 AM GMT-5
Taking the right risks: How to be a digital government leader
When it comes to championing famously complicated digital transformation projects at the federal level, there are few incentives for public service leaders to do things differently. See More.
12:00 PM GMT-5
Break time!
It's time for a break! Take this opportunity to grab some food and catch up with, or meet your fellow attendees! See More.
1:30 PM GMT-5
Building trust in public digital services
Building off his morning keynote, join Andres Raieste as he pulls together an incredible panel discussion looking at best practices in building trust in public digital services in Estonia and Canada. See More.
Director, Digital Product Delivery, Canadian Digital Service
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)
A Sexy Page-Turner about Bureaucracy: How Governments Can Go Big & Save the Day
While “bureaucrat” is sort of a bad word, public servants are the force that run governments – often extremely well. This talk looks at the often-overlooked narrative of government effectiveness, especially when citizens need it most: in times of crisis. By exploring how governments showed up and saved the day during some of the most complex crises of our time, this talk looks at the themes and patterns underlying these successful government interventions and how these lessons might equip future public officials for the crises to come.
See More.
Professor of Professional Practice & Program Director, MS in Technologies
Columbia University
2:00 PM GMT-5
User-Centered Procurement: Transforming Tech Acquisitions for Better Outcomes
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, user experience should be a driving force behind technology acquisitions. See More.
2:30 PM GMT-5
Musical networking break!
It's time for a break! Take this opportunity to catch up with, or meet your fellow attendees! For our online audience this is a chance to join our speed networking! Just click on the "Networking" icon on the left hand side of your screen. See More.
3:00 PM GMT-5
Digital nation takeover: innovation's dirty secret: Just Do It
There's plenty written about cultivating an innovation mindset, building a culture of change, and becoming an Intrapreneur. But if you want to see real change, the answer's simple: Start. See More.
Unpacking digital dogma
Does Agile work… for all projects? …with a team that’s not used to working that way? See More.
3:45 PM GMT-5
Public digital takeover: The radical how - Canadian edition
Last year, Public Digital wrote the Radical How, a guide for leaders who find themselves in environments that expect them to plan all aspects of delivery upfront but who know that this approach is the riskiest. See More.
4:30 PM GMT-5
FWD50 - Where do we go from here?
FWD50 is in its seventh year. What started as a technology conference has transformed into a global community that tackles culture, transformation, and service delivery. See More.
5:00 PM GMT-5
The FWD50 US election viewing party!
On the night of one of the most consequential elections in modern memory, we'll take in all the perspectives—literally and politically from left to right—as we watch the results come in. See More.
November 06
10:00 AM GMT-5
Welcome to FWD50's exclusively in-person day!
We're known for our unusual formats and out of the box thinking and we've brought that into the design of our first post-pandemic, fully in person day. Join your hosts, Hillary and Alistair as they explain what's in store. See More.
10:30 AM GMT-5
Change my mind
While we think we’re rational creatures, science shows that our emotions are in charge of most decisions. It’s easy to change someone’s mind—as long as they agree with you. Fortunately, there are techniques such as Deep Canvassing that can help you see another perspective, and even find common ground with your opponents. See More.
11:15 AM GMT-5
Oxford debate: Digital government is just government
Recent months have seen the dissolution of Digital Service departments in some jurisdictions, and larger departments absorbing others. Is the era of the standalone digital service department over? See More.
12:15 PM GMT-5
Lunchtime!
It's time for a break! Take this opportunity to grab some food and catch up with, or meet your fellow attendees! See More.
1:30 PM GMT-5
Hive Mind
This interactive session puts our faculty in the hotseat. We crowdsource questions, upvote the best ones, and let the audience answer. Then some of FWD50's speakers riff on those responses as they scroll past across the screen. See More.
Speaker, Consultant, Author
Red-teaming for the future: How well can your team defend against a cyber attack?
Cyber attacks are on the rise worldwide. The World Economic Forum estimates that the global cost of cybercrime will reach nearly $24 trillion by 2027. Just this year, Canada faced complicated and intelligent attacks on central infrastructure and local authorities which threatened the delivery of public services. See More.
Senior Advisor, North America
Apolitical
Former North America Workforce Development Lead
LinkedIn
2:30 PM GMT-5
Time to network!
It's time for a break! Take this opportunity to grab some food and catch up with, or meet your fellow attendees! See More.
3:00 PM GMT-5
Oxford debate: Government can't innovate
Is government's role to build, or to operate? It took the government to get us to the moon; today, we're dependent on industry to service space stations. See More.
Director, Office of the Chief Client Experience Officer
Canadian Digital Service (CDS)
Director, Digital Product Delivery, Canadian Digital Service
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)
Connect & Collaborate: A community gathering
Join us for this inclusive and interactive community gathering where the goal is to skip the small talk with your conference peers. We will get comfortable diving into deeper conversations and forge genuine connections with one another. This community gathering event isn't just about networking - it's about taking what we've learned throughout FWD50 2024 and activating it. It's about sparking collaborations and fostering a sense of belonging within the global innovators community. It's about you, making the most of this conference.
See More.
4:00 PM GMT-5
Networking break
It's time for a break! Take this opportunity to grab some food and catch up with, or meet your fellow attendees! See More.
4:30 PM GMT-5
FWD50 Impact
Let's review the ideas and ratings of Impactor as we wrap up our in-person day. See More.