After an exclusive Monday night party, Collision kicked off at Toronto’s Enercare Centre on Tuesday, welcoming over 36,000 attendees from around the world.
Nicknamed ‘the Olympics of tech,’ the conference — one of the biggest tech events in the world — features 1,727 startups and partners from 76 countries. According to a press release:
- Almost 30 industries are exhibiting
- 30% of startups this year are women-founded, breaking a conference record
- 41% of attendees and 36% of speakers are women
Agenda
So what’s on tap for attendees? Well, an absolutely massive selection of sessions, across several tracks — and a whole lot of incredible speakers.
According to a Collision blog post, TikTok, ChatGPT, and the economic impact of AI are big topics for this year’s event. One of the most anticipated sessions is Wednesday’s conversation with the ‘Godfather of AI’ — i.e cognitive psychologist and computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton. This session is sure to spark plenty of thought, since Hinton has been increasingly vocal about the potential risks of AI.
The future of women’s health and the femtech sector will be addressed on Thursday, with a discussion featuring Priyanka Jain, co-founder and CEO of personalized health startup Evvy.
With generative AI tools like ChatGPT raising a wide range of questions about the future of work, a session featuring GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke will be a conference highlight. In this exclusive session, Dohmke will present a research study co-authored with Harvard’s Marco Iansiti that looks at the economic implications of generative AI.
And these are just three sessions on tap for Collision. There’s plenty more action happening on the conference stages and expo floor!
The future of Collision in Toronto
Despite some questions over whether the conference would stay in Toronto, the Collision team has confirmed that it will remain in the city for 2024. The travelling conference debuted in Toronto in 2019, originally agreeing to remain in the city for three years. After the COVID-19 pandemic moved the event online for 2020 and 2021, the conference extended its time in the city for two years.
Follow along with all the Collision action on the conference’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube. Look for the official hashtag, #CollisionConf!
