Take part in automated, one-on-one meetings in our networking zone.

Responsible business means connecting Black and Indigenous populations, as well as people of colour, to Canada’s innovation sector. It’s how we can build back better, and it’s how we can transition to a new, sustainable economy.

Curtis VanWalleghem, CEO of Hydrostor, is leading the journey to a 100 percent renewable grid with long-duration energy storage. No batteries required.

Questions are being raised about the impact of America’s tech heartland. Can the Valley’s formula be replicated elsewhere — and should it?

Paul Bottero, president and CEO of Inmotive, explains how novel transmission technology for EVs means lower cost, longer range, and faster acceleration.

A healthy venture capital market is essential if we want our startup ecosystem to survive COVID-19, but how does VC funding play into building back better? Are investors funding the type of ventures we really need? And is Big Tech hampering the pace of positive change? All of these questions and more will be explored in this exciting panel.

Gareth Brown, co-founder and CEO of Clir Renewables, is showing how AI-enabled software can get more clean electrons — and dollars — out of wind and solar power.

David Arsenault, president of Effenco, is electrifying heavy-duty trucks with a powertrain that combines ultracapacitor tech and AI algorithms. Goodbye diesel.

Visit the online hub for automated one-on-one meetings. Powered by Hopin, our networking zone automatically pairs two people over a direct video call. In the networking tab, after an attendee clicks the Ready button, they are matched with another guest for a three-minute video chat.

Visit the virtual expo – a collection of interactive vendor booths from partners, speakers and startups.

Tech for Good: Meet Canadian ventures that are improving health and our climate.

A welcome from Sophie Dumoulin, director of cleantech at EDC, and session introduction by the Honourable Seamus O’Regan, Canada’s minister of Natural Resources.

Getting to know a region, city or community is essential to building lasting relationships and impact. In this session, learn how to bring community-rooted approaches to investment, and how these experiences can support investors seeking greater impact. Hosted by Vancity Community Investment Bank, an impact-focused lender with roots in community development, panelists bring experience in neighbourhood-level change, Indigenous economic reconciliation, and regional community economic development.

Nicole Stott, retired NASA astronaut and author of the upcoming book Back To Earth, offers her perspective of climate change as viewed from the International Space Station, the importance of collaboration in solving global problems, and of becoming a space traveller in a field where 90 percent of astronauts are men.

Canada’s Women In Cleantech Challenge, which kicked off in 2018 as a partnership between MaRS and Natural Resources Canada, was designed to inspire more women to launch, lead and build their own cleantech ventures. What does the landscape look like today?

PRESENTED BY SCOTIABANK: Two entrepreneurs, two VCs and a bank executive — all of them women — share their respective experiences, discuss the importance of diverse perspectives, and explore what has improved and what remains to be done to get more women into cleantech leadership roles.

Led by Impact Frontiers, an initiative of the IMP, this workshop teaches investors how to develop globally-aligned measurement and management strategies.

The U.K. impact investing market is now worth over £5 billion, representing 20-percent growth since 2018. Social impact property funds account for the largest proportion. What are the factors contributing to growth in the U.K.? Why has the Canadian impact-investment market not yet taken off in the same way? These are some of the questions we’ll tackle as part of an interactive panel with experts from both geographies.

Join Robert Greenhill and Brian Gallant in conversation with Allyson Hewitt on how Canadian executives should steer their businesses for societal good.

Using drones to restore our forests. Catalysts that can make cleaner hydrogen. Harnessing the power of nanotechnology for more sustainable lithium extraction. The founders of Flash Forest, Summit Nanotech and Solistra discuss how their respective innovations can help protect the climate and transition important resource sectors.

Visit the online hub for automated one-on-one meetings. Powered by Hopin, our networking zone automatically pairs two people over a direct video call. In the networking tab, after an attendee clicks the Ready button, they are matched with another guest for a three-minute video chat.

Visit the virtual expo – a collection of interactive vendor booths from partners, speakers and startups.

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Check out the online hub for automated one-on-one meetings. The networking zone on Hopin offers an experience that feels like FaceTime or Hangouts, with two people paired over a direct video call. In the networking tab, when an attendee clicks the ready button, the system searches for someone else who has also clicked ready. If someone else is available, the two are matched instantly and a three-minute video chat begins

Fable’s CEO Alwar Pillai on the importance of inclusive design for the products, services and systems we live in.

Jodie Morgan, CEO of GreenMantra, shares how her company converts unrecyclable plastics into “performance enhancers” used in a range of industrial applications.

Talent is Canada’s greatest resource. Before COVID-19, Canada’s tech sector was booming. Programs like the Global Talent Stream were reversing decades-long brain drain, bringing in top international talent to local tech companies, and enrolment in STEM programs increased 16.4 percent between 2014 and 2018. But has the pandemic hampered Canada’s ability to attract the best foreign workers? How can we preserve and fuel our burgeoning tech sector growth?

Ajay Kochhar, CEO of Li-Cycle, sees huge value — not waste — in old lithium-ion batteries. Li-Cycle’s goal is to become the global leader in battery recycling.

As investors and enterprises increasingly align their activities with the UN SDGs, the UNDP and Social Value International have developed the SDG Impact Standards to progress the SDGs into business and investment decision-making. This session will focus on how these standards will empower business leaders to translate their intent into action.

Melanie McClare, CEO of Swirltex, is helping cities and industries treat their wastewater using a novel, more economic approach that beats the competition.

Jason Robinson, CEO of Evoco, explains how his company’s high-performance “eco-foam” puts plant-based materials, not petrochemicals, in the soles of footwear.

In seeking to rebuild the Canadian and global economy in a more equitable and sustainable way, governments have a unique opportunity to embrace innovative policies and transformative funding approaches. One such innovation is to strengthen the social finance and impact investing ecosystem, which are particularly relevant to tackling major social challenges related to healthcare, employment, clean technologies, and social justice. This session provides insights into how governments are adapting to the COVID-19 crisis, and explores case studies on how public-sector innovations, cross-sectoral partnerships and a robust social finance ecosystem can help build a more equitable society.

Calling on history, cutting-edge research, complexity science and even The Lord of the Rings, Thomas Homer-Dixon lays out how to rescue a world on the brink.

With vast resources, intellectual capital, and global networks of consumers and suppliers, corporations play a critical role in scaling innovative solutions to social challenges. Nevertheless, corporations have been slow to embed impact into their core businesses amidst claims of greenwashing and unfulfilled commitments. Panelists discuss how corporations can drive authentic social impact, including through venture capital, corporate activism, supply-chain influence, and ownership models.

Canada is facing unprecedented social and economic challenges that have been worsened by the COVID-19 crisis. Governments are also facing record fiscal deficits as they try to solve these challenges. Within this context, outcomes-based financing has been gaining traction across Canada by directly linking funding to beneficiary outcomes and facilitating greater collaborations between the public, private and social sectors. However, an outcomes-based funding approach remains fragmented and not yet scaled and streamlined in Canada. By aggregating larger pools of government and philanthropic funding, an outcomes fund is an innovative way to provide more outcomes-based financing to projects in a more efficient and strategic way. In this session, we discuss the merits of an outcomes-based funding approach, as well as the opportunities and challenges of launching a national outcomes fund for Canada.

Ashlee Cunsolo on building for tomorrow in times of grief and loss.

How can smart technologies help cities recover from, prepare for and mitigate future climate-fuelled crises, and what have we learned from the pandemic?

It is clear that our existing financial instruments and mechanisms are not yet equipped for a fairer and more sustainable society. From retrofitting entire cities to planting new forests, the impact economy needs help if it hopes to fuel massive change. The future needs new tools and institutions. We need the next impact economy. This deep-dive panel invites a series of leaders from around the world around, each exploring their ideal pathways to this future.

Jessica Matthews, founder and CEO of NYC-based Uncharted Power, is enabling the future of cities by turning the ground we walk on into an industrial IoT platform. In other words, she wants to lay exactly the kind of infrastructure that cities need to become truly connected and intelligent. She’ll share her story.

The automation and digitization of industry is driving efficiencies and building much-needed resilience into the economy. But is industry moving fast enough?

Five ventures with energy innovations will be selected to give seven-minute pitches, followed by audience Q&A.

Companies participating include:

Innovia GEO
Peak Power
Kanin Energy
Sollum Technologies
Jaza Energy

Visit the online hub for automated one-on-one meetings. Powered by Hopin, our networking zone automatically pairs two people over a direct video call. In the networking tab, after an attendee clicks the Ready button, they are matched with another guest for a three-minute video chat.

Visit the virtual expo – a collection of interactive vendor booths from partners, speakers and startups.

Back to top

Check out the online hub for automated one-on-one meetings. The networking zone on Hopin offers an experience that feels like FaceTime or Hangouts, with two people paired over a direct video call. In the networking tab, when an attendee clicks the ready button, the system searches for someone else who has also clicked ready. If someone else is available, the two are matched instantly and a three-minute video chat begins

Defeating climate change by accelerating tech adoption.

Dennon Oosterman, founder and CEO of ReDeTec, knows that plastic isn’t going away — so he’s helping manufacturers reduce their footprint and save money.

Dave King, founder and CEO of Denvr Dataworks, is improving data centres with a design that consumes 80 percent less space and 33 percent less electricity.

Investment managers are bringing to market new theme-based impact investing funds to respond to the growing interest in impact from individual investors. Here, we’ve have curated a stable of new products that cross public and private equity opportunities.

Do for-profit corporations have a responsibility to empower the disadvantaged? Four experts debate whether the free market can bring about innovation at scale.

Stéphane Germain, CEO of GHGSat, is creating a standard for GHG monitoring using a fleet of microsatellites that can pinpoint emissions w/ unmatched precision.

Mike Kelland, CEO of Planetary Hydrogen, has figured out a way to economically produce clean hydrogen while removing CO2 from the air and healing the ocean.

Arlan Hamilton on being the first-ever Black, queer woman to build a VC fund, as well as her mission to serve underrepresented entrepreneurs.

If businesses want legitimacy among consumers, ESG can’t be denied. This session covers the latest trends pushing the ESG into the mainstream.

There has been a rapid increase in investments driven by environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, with global assets under management (AUM) doubling to $40 trillion in just the last four years.

Yet there is a real risk that the most impactful solutions will not attract large pools of capital from major institutional investors, and instead, most of the ESG capital will flow to organizations that are not generating measurable impact and contributing to the solutions that improve people’s lives and the environment.

How can investors more actively pursue investment opportunities that are generating measurable impact and contributing to meaningful solutions? How can social purpose organizations attract more impact investments and seek larger-scale investors who are mission-aligned?

It has been five years since 197 countries signed the Paris climate agreement. It also saw the Bill Gates-led birth of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition, followed a year later by its $1-billion Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) fund. Eric Toone, executive managing director of BEV, and Rob Niven, CEO of CarbonCure and BEV investee, interview each other about the state of cleantech innovation and reflect on our collective global journey to achieve net-zero by 2050.

With the rapid increase in demand from institutional and retail investors for ESG and impact investments, there is a huge win-win opportunity for financial advisors and wealth managers to enhance their value proposition to clients, increase revenues and generate meaningful social impact. This session explores tangible ways for financial advisors and wealth managers to build their knowledge and expertise in ESG and impact investments, and what individual investors can do to reallocate more of their assets to the cause. Discover insights from various market participants as they share their expertise and experiences in the world of ESG and impact investments.

In this fireside chat, minister of international development Karina Gould and the CDPQ’s Kim Thomassin discuss the importance of engaging private-sector partners in the financing of international development solutions, highlighting Global Affairs Canada’s $1.5-billion International Assistance Innovation Program, and CDPQ’s $250-million diversity and inclusion fund.

Ken Hartwick, president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation (one of North America’s largest power generators) discusses the many benefits of adding small modular reactors (SMRs) to Canada’s electricity mix, and how going small with nuclear is the path to providing safe, reliable and low-carbon baseload power to remote, off-grid communities, mines and heavy industry.

How does the world eliminate gigatons of GHG emissions from global economic activity? Incrementalism certainly isn’t the answer. On this panel, three entrepreneurs from different regions of Canada discuss the immense potential of their ground-breaking climate innovations and the importance of thinking outside the box to achieve maximum impact.

In this panel, we hear from leaders across Canada on how the investment decision-making process can and should improve gender equality.

As fossil-fuel-rich jurisdictions such as Alberta and Saskatchewan contemplate their future in a carbon-constrained world, what’s a realistic path to clean prosperity? Some themes this panel will touch on include hydrogen, carbon capture and utilization, geothermal power and underlying infrastructure and training needs.

In July 2020, after completing a global search for an investment manager, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) selected a Canadian consortium led by Sarona Asset Management to help run an emerging markets impact investing fund focused on South East Asia and the Pacific Islands. The consortium, which also includes MEDA and Volta Capital, will deliver technical assistance to SMEs and SME funds, while managing funds focused on early-stage growth and financial institutions supporting SMEs via lending platforms. In this session, learn about how Canadian-based organizations have supported the Australian Government in breaking barriers to pursue this innovative program.

Pitch Hour: Five ventures with transportation innovations will be selected to give seven-minute pitches, followed by audience Q&A.

Companies participating include:

Letenda
Elocity Technologies
Breeze Traffic
Duxion Motors
Plugzio

Visit the online hub for automated one-on-one meetings. Powered by Hopin, our networking zone automatically pairs two people over a direct video call. In the networking tab, after an attendee clicks the Ready button, they are matched with another guest for a three-minute video chat.

Visit the virtual expo – a collection of interactive vendor booths from partners, speakers and startups.

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