Elevate Festival 2023
U of T Speaker Schedule
Hear from alumni, faculty and others who are part of U of T’s innovation ecosystem.
Tuesday, September 26 | OPening night
| 6:25 pm Meridian Hall – Main Stage | Beacons of Hope: AI in Medicine | Brendan Frey, Founder, Board Member and Chief Innovation Officer, Deep Genomics |
| 6:45 pm Meridian Hall – Main Stage | Generative AI: A New Computing Era | Sanja Fidler, Vice President of AI Research at Nvidia & Associate Professor at U of T |
Wednesday, September 27
| 10:40 am St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts @ Bluma Appel Theatre | Unlocking Canada’s Financial Future: Lessons Learned from Real-Time Rails Around | Hanna Zaidi, Chief Compliance Officer, Payments, Wealthsimple |
| 11:45 am St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts @ Jane Mallett Theatre | The Road to Inclusive Banking | Mohamad Sawwaf, Founder & CEO, Manzil |
| 11:50 am St Lawrence Centre for the Arts – Bluma Appel Theatre | Navigating the AI Frontier: Regulation and Responsible AI Adoption | Gillian Hadfield, Chair & Director, Schwartz Reisman Institute |
| 12:00 pm St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts @ Jane Mallett Theatre | Embedded Finance – Reimagining Financial Services Delivery | Jakob Pizzera, Co-Founder, OneVest |
| 1:20 pm Meridian Hall – Main Stage | When Investor Met Founder | Sunil Sharma, Managing Director, Techstars Toronto |
| 1:50 pm Meridian Hall – Main Stage | Knowing Your Worth: BIPOC Contributions to Canada’s Economic Output | Wes Hall, Executive Chairman & Founder, Weshall Investments |
| 2:15 pm St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts @ Bluma Appel Theatre | Human Connection – The Next Frontier | Sarah Baldeo, Innovation Partner, ID Quotient |
| 2:30 pm Meridian Hall – Upper Mezzanine | Women in Tech – Angel Investors | Helen Kontozopoulos, Co-founder & Chief Tech Evangelist, ODAIA Intelligence |
| 3:50 pm St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts @ Bluma Appel Theatre | Sustainable Strategies for Climate Transformation | Laura Zizzo, CEO & Co-Founder, Manifest Climate |
Thursday, September 28
| 10:15 am Meridian Hall – Main Stage | In Conversation with Minister Mary Ng | Hon. Mary Ng, Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development, Government of Canada |
| 2:15 pm St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts @ Bluma Appel Theatre | The Art of Falling in Love with the Problem | Ariel Garten, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist Officer, Muse |
| 3:40 pm St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts @ Bluma Appel Theatre | We’re in a Recession! It’s Time to Think Like Camels | Allen Lau, Co-Founder & Operating Partner, Two Small Fish Ventures Eva Lau, General Partner, Two Small Fish Ventures |