After two years of waiting, Collision is back for a sold out in-person conference, with over 35,000 people expected to converge for the four-day event in Toronto. Running from June 20 to June 23, the tech-heavy conference will host over 20 topics and tracks, including conversations around future societies, auto-tech, sports, fintech, and health. There will also be curated tracks for interested developers, designers, startups, leaders, marketers, and media.
According to the Collision team, over 900 speakers, 1,250 startups, 1,200 journalists, 850 investors, and 100 unicorn companies (companies worth $1 billion) from more than 140 countries will be in attendance. The number of attendees has grown by 40% since Collision’s last physical event in 2019 and total floor space increased by 54%, from 50,000 square metres to 77,000 square metres to cater for this growth.
Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Lapps, along with Academy Award winning actor Lupita Nyong’o, and acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood will be part of the official opening night, June 20, festivities. Toronto mayor John Tory, MaRs Discovery District’s CEO Yung Wu, and Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and founder of Web Summit, will also take part. All Collision attendees must be registered and have the event lanyard to enter. The party starts at 5PM.
Collision After Hours will bring guests away from the Enercare Building and out to various Toronto venues. Check out Grand Bizarre on Monday night, which will feature six food stalls located just off the Toronto waterfront. A DJ will also perform. Tuesday will see festivities in Toronto’s Distillery District, and Wednesday’s After Hours soiree will be housed at Canada’s largest shipping container market, stackt, which will come with dozens of food eateries, a Belgian Moon batch brewery, and a DJ spinning tunes.
Companies and organizations represented at Collision 2022 include Xanadu, Wikipedia, Activision Blizzard, Clearco, 1Password, Substack, Avast, The Knoweldge Society, Calendly, Neo Financial, Github, PointClickCare, Deel, and Levi Strauss & Co.
Investors represented at Collision 2022 include Andreessen Horowitz’s Jeff Jordan; Renata Quintini, co-founder of Renegade Partners; Maëlle Gavet, CEO at Techstars; Janine Sickmeyer, general partner at Overlooked Ventures; Janet Bannister, managing partner at Real Ventures; Daria Saharova, founder and partner of World Fund; and Hans Tung, managing partner at GGV Capital.
York Region, Canada’s second largest technology hub, will be hosting one of the many of booths at Collision. Check out the #YRtech Pavilion (E234), which will feature freelance journalist and author Marc Saltzman emcee a series of announcements over the course of three days (June 21-23). An estimated $250 million worth of new business investment and expansion is expected to be unveiled. We’re told there will be news about EV vehicles and chip technology announced on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
All attendees must download the Collision app in order to verify their registration and entry.
Here’s what we’re looking forward to catching, and here’s a map to help you navigate it all.
IS PRIVACY POSSIBLE IN THE AGE OF BIG TECH?
Speaking: Brittany Kaiser (Own Your Own Data), Sridhar Ramaswamy (Neeva), Ashley Gold (Axios)
BUILDING PRODUCTS THAT GO VIRAL
Speaking: Madhu Muthukumar (Norton), Sean Kim (Kajabi), Allie Garfinkle (Yahoo Finance)
SOLVING AUTONOMOUS DRIVING’S BIGGEST BLIND SPOT
HanBin Lee (Seoul Robotics)
DIGITAL OUTLAWS: HOW FACEBOOK EXTORTED AUSTRALIA
Speaking: Jason Kint (Digital Content Next), Libby Liu (Whistleblower Aid), Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (House of Commons of Canada), Alex Kantrowitz (Big Technology)
INTELLIGENT INDUSTRY: THE NEW DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION [HOSTED BY CAPEGEMINI ENGINEERING]
Speaking: Sanjay Salunkhe (Capegemini), Zenyk Matchyshyn (Capgemini)
Speaking: Becky Center (Indiegogo), Todd Coleman (eStruxture Data Centers), Jared Lindzon (The Globe and Mail)
Speaking: Andrew McAfee (MIT), Ryan Heath (Politico)
Speaking: Brittany Kaiser (Own Your Data), Carolina Abenante (NYIAX), Olivia Morely (Adweek)
WHAT IMPACTS CONSUMERS PURCHASE DECISIONS?
Speaking: Ragy Thomas (Sprinklr), Angela Moon (Bloomberg News)
Speaking: Gonzalo Brujó (Interbrand Group), Amy Peck (EndeavorXR), Alex Kantrowitz (Big Technology)
TECH FOR GOOD: UNLOCKING THE POWER OF TECHNOLOGY TO ADVANCE HUMAN HEALTH
Speaking: Jim Swanson (Johnson & Johnson), Rob Pegoraro (USA Today)
FAST-TRACKING SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE
Speaking: Sebastien Gendron (TransPod), Sue Ozdemir (Exro Technologies), Jon Jacobs (Solid Power), Akiko Fujita (Yahoo Finance)
EXPLORING THE OUTER LIMITS OF FAN LOYALTY
Speaking: Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia), Perkins Miller (Fandom), Connie Guglielmo (CNET)
THE NEW ROI: RETURN ON IMAGINATION [HOSTED BY FROG: A CAPGEMINI BRAND]
Speaking: Liron Reznik (Frog)
Brian Ritchie (Kama.AI)
Hanna Marie Asmussen (Localyze)
Dan Li (Shypyard)
Emilia Molimpakis (Thymia)
Jeff Ward (Animikii Indigenous Technology)
Melissa Cash (Pok Pok)
Jakob Pizzera (OneVest)
Milind Singh (Xare)
Romy Lynch (Unflow)
Félix Bélisle Dockrill (Axya)
Selishia Smith (iDIG Rental Services)
Patrik Ghoshal (Skyfri)
Keith Mcintosh (Plato Testing)
Ram Essaid (Finmark)
Photos are courtesy of Collision.