The Tech Festival Canada Brings Canada’s Technology Decision-Makers Into One Room

Federal and provincial ministers, regulators, founders, and industry leaders will shape the conversation on how technology is governed, funded, and deployed.

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, October 13, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The people shaping Canada’s technology future will come together at The Tech Festival Canada (TTFC) 2026, taking place October 26 and 27 at The Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto.

The initial speaker lineup brings together government ministers, regulators, technology founders, investors, enterprise leaders, startups, and policy experts from Canada and around the world.

The lineup includes Hon. Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada; Hon. Vic Fedeli, Chair of Cabinet and Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation, and Trade for Ontario; Hon. Stephen Crawford, Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement for Ontario; Hon. Nina Tangri, Associate Minister of Small Business for Ontario; and Hon. Mark Schaan, Associate Deputy Minister at Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada.

They will be joined by regulatory and public-interest leaders including Peter Routledge, Superintendent of the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions; Shereen Benzvy Miller, Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada; Brigitte Goulard, former Deputy Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada; and Vance Lockton of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

On the technology, enterprise, and capital side, TTFC will feature Dr. Christian Weedbrook, CEO and Founder of Xanadu; Thiru Venkatachalam, Vice President and Senior Partner at IBM Consulting; Queena Cheung, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer at Marsh Captive Solutions; Joe Greenwood, Vice President of AI Strategy at Mastercard; Dr. Noelle Ibrahim, Quantum Computing Innovation Leader at EY Canada; Jo-Anne Ryan,Vice President, Philanthropic Advisory Services at TD Wealth; and Ryan Gariepy, Chair, Canadian Robotics Council & VP Robotics atRockwell Automation. Startup and technology leaders also include Daniel Wigdor, CEO of AXL, and Paul Goldman, Founder and CEO of iTmethods. Investment and scale-up perspectives will include Shawn Abbott, Partner at Inovia Capital and Jasmin Ganie-Hobbs, Director of Tech Financing at BDC.

Across two days, ministers, regulators, founders, investors, and industry leaders will examine the decisions that will shape Canada’s innovation capacity, economic resilience, and technological sovereignty. Topics include Canada’s innovation strategy, industrial capacity, quantum computing, enterprise artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and digital trust, robotics, financial regulation, healthcare innovation, supply-chain security, and the future of Canadian technology.

At its core, TTFC will ask the questions that determine whether Canada can build, secure, and scale its own technological future. How does Canada move artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and robotics from promising pilots into real-world deployment? How can Canada build sovereign capability in critical technologies? How can it become a trusted supplier to global markets and serve growing global demand? How can regulators create trust without slowing innovation? What will it take for startups to access capital, enterprise buyers, and government procurement? And how can large organizations adopt new technologies while protecting the systems, people, and industries that depend on them?

That focus reflects how TTFC has been built. Lubna Soni, Founder of The Tech Festival Canada, brings first-hand experience from inside the technology industry. A former Amazon professional with a background in data science, she has experienced the conference circuit from within a technology company and has shaped TTFC around what technology builders actually need from an event. That means direct access to the industries that will use their work and meaningful conversations with the people who can help them deploy, scale, and sell it.

“TTFC is being built as more than an event. It is a platform where technology, ideas, and people come together to create lasting value for Canada’s innovation ecosystem and the broader economy it powers. The real opportunity is bringing builders and decision-makers into the same room, creating direct conversations that lead to partnerships, investment, and deals. That is the mindset I bring to building TTFC,” said Soni.

“Technology does not move from idea to impact on its own. It takes the right decisions, the right partnerships, and the right people in the room. TTFC is that room,” Soni said.

More information, including the full speaker lineup and agenda, is available at https://thetechfestival.com/agenda.

About The Tech Festival Canada
The Tech Festival Canada is a technology and industry festival connecting frontier technologies with the sectors deploying them. The festival is organized around a 5×5 Matrix covering five technology pillars and five applied sectors.

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Nicole Brooke Louis
The Tech Festival Canada
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