Day 1
8:00 am-9:00 am
Registration & Coffee
9:00 am-9:10 am
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Neeha Curtis, VP Digital Engineering Strategy, Encora
9:10 am-9:40 am
Keynote – Magic and Mouse House: How Storytelling Completes You as a Leader
- Many critical moments of your career as a leader rely on communication. The new strategy, the unexpected reorganization, the performance plan, and many more.
- In each situation, you must clearly explain the situation, describe what is changing, and, finally, explain why this will work. You need to tell a story.
- In this talk, Lopp vividly and unconventionally demonstrates the power of compelling storytelling. This critical and learnable skill is a toolkit essential for every leader.
Michael Lopp, Founder, Rands in Repose
9:40 am-10:10 am
Keynote – Leading Without the Bloat: Lessons from a Remote-First, High-Growth Team
- What does it really take to scale without sacrificing culture, autonomy, or technical excellence?
- In this session, the team behind LavinMQ shares the leadership lessons they’ve learned building a remote-first, flat-structured, high-growth company—where lean teams, shared ownership, and trust are core to how work gets done. Hear practical insights on:
- Building momentum with small, high-performing teams instead of hiring at speed
- Creating space for experimentation in a culture without heavy hierarchies
- Maintaining focus and alignment as both revenue and complexity scale
Lovisa Johansson, CMO, LavinMQ
Magnus Landerblom, Lead Developer / Acting CTO, LavinMQ
10:10 am-10:35 am
Presentation – Cultural Alignment in Tech: Bridging Product, Customer Success, and Engineering
- Misaligned teams create inefficiencies and frustration, both internally and for your customers. This session explores how to foster alignment across key departments.
- Learn communication strategies and organisational structures that enable seamless collaboration, ensuring your teams move in the same direction.
- Avoid the common traps of siloed thinking and miscommunication, which can derail even the best intentions.
Renata Vaccaro, VP of Financial Operations, Klick Health
10:35 am-11:10 am
Coffee & Recharge Break
Take time to grab some refreshments, chat with other attendees, and check out our sponsors’ exhibitions!
11:10 am-11:35 am
Presentation – Over-Indexing on Autonomy as Technical Leaders
- As startups enter hypergrowth, technical leaders must scale without becoming the bottleneck. Many turn to empowerment and autonomy—enabling teams to shape how systems and organizations run. But looking back over the past decade, it’s clear this approach hasn’t always worked, often driving up technical debt and organizational overhead that could have been avoided.
- In this session, Rob Zuber, CTO at CircleCI, will talk about two major ways he allowed a desire for autonomy to become the problem rather than the solution.
- Lack of belief in himself: When building his team at CircleCI, he initially thought, hire smart people to fix problems, vs. looking for the solution himself.
- Not clearly sharing intent: When asking people on the team to pick up a project, or find a solution, leaders need to make sure they clearly articulate what something is meant to do/or what the outcome should be
Rob Zuber, CTO, CircleCI
11:35 am- 12:20 pm
Panel – Building Resilient Engineering Teams: Lean Practices in Lean Times
- In times of economic uncertainty, every decision counts. This panel discusses how tech leaders are balancing efficiency and resilience, sharing insights into maintaining high performance without overburdening teams.
- Learn about the tools, techniques, and cultural changes that have helped teams stay motivated and productive during tough times.
- Avoid common mistakes like cutting corners or over-relying on automation, which can harm both team morale and product quality in the long run.
Joel Cumming, CTO, SkyWatch
Melissa Young, SVP Engineering, Vox Media
Bryan McEire, CTO, BoxHub
Sandrine Tremblay, President & CTO, KOLOSTAT
Moderator: Jobin Kuruvilla, Head of DevOps and SM Practice, Adaptavist
12:20 pm-12:45 pm
Community Showcase – The Unspoken Struggles of Leadership: Running a Company While Life Unravels Around You
- Discover the untold side of entrepreneurship, where personal crises—such as divorce, a partner’s illness, and family mental health challenges—intersect with leadership responsibilities.
- Hear a deeply personal narrative that reveals how major life events can impact both personal wellbeing and company performance.
- Explore practical strategies and lessons learned for managing overwhelming pressure and balancing professional demands with personal crises.
- This candid talk offers insight and support for leaders who have felt the weight of the world while striving to keep their businesses afloat.
James Ciesielski, CTO, Rewind Software Inc.
12:45 pm-1:55 pm
Lunch
Grab a bite to eat and foster those connections you have been making throughout the day.
1:55 pm-2:20 pm
Presentation – AI Assistants: Revolutionising Productivity or Adding Complexity?
- AI assistants promise to transform workflows, from automating repetitive tasks to enhancing decision-making processes, but what’s the reality behind the hype?
- Explore practical use cases where AI assistants have successfully streamlined operations and boosted team productivity, as well as the challenges teams face when adoption goes wrong.
- Learn how to choose the right tools, avoid common pitfalls like over-reliance or poor integration, and balance innovation with user trust to ensure AI assistants become enablers, not obstacles, in your organisation.
Lachlan Holmes, CTO, FirstHX
2:20 pm-2:45 pm
Community Showcase – Innovation at Odds: How Conflict Fuels Great Ideas
- True innovation emerges when diverse ideas, experiences, and expertise collide to create outcomes greater than the sum of their parts.
- Conflict acts as a catalyst by breaking through groupthink, challenging outdated practices, and driving teams to discover better solutions.
- Without the dynamic tension of conflict, organizations risk stagnation and mediocrity, as unchallenged ideas seldom lead to transformative breakthroughs.
- This session explores how leaders can harness constructive conflict to cultivate a culture of innovation, empowering team members to respectfully challenge and inspire one another.
Jen Fry, CEO, JenFryTalks
2:45 pm-3:10 pm
Presentation – Herding Cats and Avoiding Catastrophes: Lessons from team mergers during acquisitions
- Company acquisitions bring exciting opportunities but also significant challenges, particularly in aligning teams, cultures, and workflows. This session dives into the firsthand experiences of navigating these transitions.
- Explore what didn’t work—missteps that led to misalignment, communication breakdowns, and resistance to change—and the lessons learned from overcoming them.
- Hear about strategies for fostering collaboration, maintaining morale, and integrating diverse teams effectively. Leave with actionable insights on what to prioritize and avoid to ensure a smoother transition in your own organization.
Anna Goltsman, CTO, eDynamic Learning
3:10 pm-3:50 pm
Coffee & Recharge Break
Your final break of the day — grab some refreshments, chat with other attendees, and last chance to check out our sponsors’ exhibitions!
3:50 pm-4:35 pm
Panel – Managing Hybrid Teams: Lessons from Multicultural Tech Hubs
- Hybrid and remote work are reshaping how teams function. This panel brings together leaders to share their experiences navigating hybrid work in diverse and multilingual environments.
- Gain insights into building trust and inclusivity across geographically dispersed teams while avoiding common pitfalls like disengagement and fragmented communication.
- Explore strategies for fostering innovation and retaining top talent when physical presence isn’t guaranteed, ensuring your team thrives in the new normal.
Michon Williams, CTO, Walmart Canada
Neshay Ahmed, CTO and Co-Founder, Wavy
Jen Krieger, VP of Engineering Operations, ex-GitHub
Moderator: Bohdan Zabawskyj, Founder, TrueNorthCTO
4:35 pm-5:00 pm
Community Showcase – Context, Not Code: AI’s Role in Engineering Flow
- While AI is hailed as the next revolution in coding, the real crisis lies in understanding code—not just writing it.
- Software engineers spend 10x more time reading code than writing it, yet our tools remain fixated on generating more code rather than contextual insight.
- Explore how uneven knowledge distribution incurs hidden costs—from the overtaxed “sage developer” buried in Slack messages, to the on-call engineer deciphering system behavior at 2AM, to new hires struggling to ramp up.
- Through real-world examples and data, learn strategies to reduce cognitive load, enhance knowledge sharing, and leverage AI effectively—keeping developers in their optimal flow without falling into the “just generate more code” trap.
Chris Kelly, Director of Developer Experience, Augment Code
5:00 pm-5:05 pm
Chair’s closing remarks
Neeha Curtis, VP Digital Engineering Strategy, Encora
5:05 pm-7:00 pm
Networking Reception
Join us for drinks and nibbles to unwind after an amazing day of learning and networking. Time to unwind and continue those conversations!
Day 2
8:00 am-9:00 am
Registration & Coffee
09:00-09:05
Chair’s Opening Remarks
Neeha Curtis, VP Digital Engineering Strategy, Encora
9:05 am-9:35 am
Keynote – The Innovation Frontier: Navigating AI, Privacy, and Consumer Trust
- Smaller organizations face a unique challenge: balancing the drive to innovate with the increasing demands of compliance. For companies with limited resources, preparing for new regulations may feel daunting, but it’s also an opportunity to build trust, streamline operations, and future-proof growth.
- Explore how CTOs can embed governance into their innovation strategies without overburdening their teams. Learn how to turn compliance into a competitive advantage, building customer trust while staying agile in a rapidly evolving regulatory and technological landscape.
- Discover actionable frameworks to:
- Align your data practices with upcoming privacy and AI regulations to avoid disruption and enhance transparency.
- Use governance to differentiate your business, opening doors to enterprise partnerships and new market opportunities.
- Build scalable systems that allow you to adapt quickly to change without sacrificing innovation.
Olya Sanakoev, CTO, Rogers Bank
9:35 am-10:00 am
Presentation – From Backlogged to Backer: Redefining IT’s Role with AI and Automation
- IT teams are often viewed as bottlenecks—but leading organisations are using AI to become strategic enablers. This session explores how modern IT departments are securely operationalising AI and automation to shift from reactive support to business acceleration.
- You’ll learn how Model Context Protocol (MCP) lets developers connect AI agents to 8,000+ apps and 30,000+ actions—without custom integrations. Explore real-world examples of how business users can reduce backlogs and drive agility through governed no-code frameworks IT can trust.
Key Takeaways:
- Why IT bottlenecks persist—and how AI can solve them
- How MCP enables secure, scalable AI automation
- Ways to empower business users without creating risk
- Real-world results from AI automation in action
Mojtaba Hosseini, VP Engineering, Zapier
10:00 am-10:40 am
Coffee & Recharge Break
Take time to grab some refreshments, chat with other attendees, and check out our sponsors’ exhibitions!
10:40 am-11:25 am
Panel – From Startups to Scale-ups: Unique Challenges for Tech Leaders
- Scaling a company isn’t just about hiring more people—it’s about shifting mindsets and processes. This panel dives into the nuances of managing growth while balancing cultural and operational priorities.
- Discover strategies to manage growth without sacrificing company culture or product quality, and learn what scaling too quickly—or too cautiously—can cost your organisation.
- Hear from leaders who’ve turned local success into international expansion, sharing lessons learned from both triumphs and setbacks.
Mehrsan Javan, Co-Founder & CTO, Sportlogiq
Robin Sutara, Field Chief Data Strategy Officer, Databricks
Melissa DePuydt, Director of Engineering, Medium
Shakti Sinha, CTO, CanadaHelps
11:25 am-11:50 am
Presentation – AI Across the Product Engineering Lifecycle: Supercharging Development from Idea to Deployment
AI is transforming product engineering, but where does it deliver real impact? Explore how AI-driven tools can enhance every stage of the development lifecycle, from ideation and design to coding, testing, and deployment.
Michon Williams, CTO, Walmart Canada
11:50 am-1:00 pm
Lunch
Grab a bite to eat and foster those connections you have been making throughout the day.
1:00 pm-1:25 pm
Community Showcase – Navigators: Decentralizing Decisions and Empowering ICs at Carta
- Learn how a dedicated group of senior engineers, known as the Navigators, bridges the gap between individual contributors, managers, and executives.
- Discover how a clear engineering strategy, combined with the Navigators, helps cut through bureaucracy and align technical decisions with strategic goals.
- Explore the distinct roles of Directors and Navigators, and hear real scenarios where this model has accelerated decision-making and boosted team velocity.
- Gain practical insights on launching a similar program to enhance communication, alignment, and overall organizational effectiveness.
Shawna Martell, Sr. Staff Engineer, Carta
Dan Fike, Principal Engineer and Deputy to the CTO, Carta
1:25 pm-1:50 pm
Presentation – Bootstrapping the CTO: Laying a Foundation for Leadership Success
- Your first 100 days as a CTO can define your leadership journey. This session will guide you through setting priorities, managing expectations, and establishing credibility from day one.
- Discover the critical actions that matter most—fostering trust, building strategic alignment, and identifying quick wins that demonstrate impact without overwhelming your team.
- Learn how to navigate common pitfalls like spreading yourself too thin or diving too deep into operational details, ensuring your leadership approach is focused and future-proof.
Dwayne Ford, Co-Founder & CTO, Mantle
1:50 pm-2:15 pm
Presentation – The New Quality Assurance: Redefining Quality in Modern Engineering Teams
- As software development accelerates, the role of QA must evolve to keep up. This session explores how to embed quality assurance into every stage of your development cycle.
- Avoid the pitfalls of reactive testing by learning about proactive approaches, from automated tools to shifting team mindsets toward quality ownership.
- See how modern QA practices can drive innovation, improve reliability, and strengthen customer trust.
Anne Steptoe, SVP Software Development, Propel Holdings
2:15 pm-2:50 pm
Coffee & Recharge Break
Your final break of the day — grab some refreshments, chat with other attendees, and last chance to check out our sponsors’ exhibitions!
2:50 pm-3:15 pm
Presentation – Bridging the Gap: Harmonizing Tech and Product Teams
- Collaboration between tech and product teams can be a minefield of misaligned priorities and communication breakdowns. This presentation explores how to avoid these pitfalls by fostering better alignment and shared goals.
- Gain actionable strategies for defining roles and responsibilities, creating transparent workflows, and navigating conflicts that can arise in fast-paced environments.
- Learn from real-world examples of what happens when collaboration breaks down—and how to fix it before it impacts your bottom line.
Daniel Wolfe, CTO, MANDY’S
3:15 pm-3:40
pm
Presentation -Building Careers, Not Just Teams: A Guide to Performance Management and Career Frameworks
- Performance management is about more than appraisals—it’s about creating systems that drive growth, clarity, and accountability across your teams.
- Learn how to design career frameworks that align employee aspirations with business needs, improving retention, engagement, and performance.
- Avoid common pitfalls like rigid processes or mismatched expectations, and gain practical tools to build a thriving, adaptable team culture.
Andrew Potapov, Director of Engineering, Leap Tools
3:40 pm-3:45 pm
Chair’s closing remarks
Neeha Curtis, VP Digital Engineering Strategy, Encora
3:45 pm-4:00 pm
End of Day