With several noteworthy virtual tech events on the horizon, we wanted to give our readers a heads up on a few that we think will be valuable.

MTL Connect, October 13 - 18, 2020

The folks at Montreal Digital Spring (Printemps numérique) are presenting Montreal Connect, which kicks off on Tuesday, October 13. The six-day event is entirely online with live programming from 7am - 7pm. The presenters are calling it “a dematerialized experiential event.

“Over 300 hours of content will fill the laptops of thousands of participants, while 600 speakers will play a part in the event.

Montreal Digital Week will aim to look across the board at the main questions related to digital development, focusing on its economic, social, cultural and environmental impacts in various sectors of activity. The event features keynotes, masterclasses, and conferences based around nine thematic pavilions, hosted by the world’s elite entrepreneurs, creatives, developers, specialists in digital and technological tools, involved in digital research and in the development of new ideas.

Here’s the nine pavilions and their main speaker:

• Cybersecurity: Sir Rob Wainwright, Sir Rob Wainwright is a senior partner at Deloitte, working within the firm’s global cyber security and financial crime practice. He previously served as Executive Director of Europol, the European Union law enforcement agency, for almost a decade. Here he helped established the European Counter Terrorism Centre and the European Cybercrime Centre, and led the transformation of Europol into a world-class security institution. Alissa Knight is a recovering hacker of 20 years. As a serial entrepreneur, Alissa has started and sold two cybersecurity companies to public companies in international markets and now sits as the Managing Partner of Knight Ink
• Fintech: Layial El-Hadi. Layial is the Executive Director of Fintech Cadence, an organization that aims to create start-ups that will help solve the financial industry’s problems through the integration of technology, and a professor at Concordia University.
• AI: Victor Riparbelli, CEO & Co-founder Synthesia - the company behind the incredible David Beckham deep-fake. Celine Lee, the Country Manager at Amazon for Alexa in Canada, driving product management, strategy, consumer engagement and new business development to delight customers in Canada with voice first interactions. She was a part of the team that launched Alexa in Canada and in French Canadian, and before that managed Alexa launches in the UK, DE and JP.
• Health: Dr Yanick Beaulieu: head of Clinical Science for Philips Ultrasound, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Montreal, a practicing cardiologist-intensivist at Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal, and intensivist at the Montreal Heart Institute.
• Sustainable development: Jonathan Defoy, CEO of Food Hero (Montreal) FoodHero’s mission is to create enough FoodHeroes around the world to generate a 10% reduction in global food waste.
• City of the Future: Taiwan Digital Minister in charge of Social Innovation, Audrey Tang. In the social sector, Audrey actively contributes to g0v (“gov zero”), a vibrant community focusing on creating tools for the civil society, with the call to “fork the government.” She is also the world’s first government minister to identify as transgender.
• Work of Tomorrow: Ayumi Moore Aoki, founder and president of Women in tech
• Creativity (ISEA2020): Karim Jerbi, associate professor, psychology department, University of Montreal. Kim Tallbear, associate professor, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples, Technoscience & Environment
• Education

TechAide AI Conference + AI4GOOD Hackathon, November 12 - 15, 2020