Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Arcadian Loft, Toronto

Roundtable Topics

Panel # 1: The Future of Learning

Moderator:
Amy Dorn Kopelan, Founder & President, Bedlam Productions Inc.
Panelists:
Evelyn Bailey-Semeniuk, VP, North America Storage Solutions, IBM Canada
Anne Darche, President, Pertinence Inc.
Fiona Deller, Executive Director, Policy and Partnership, Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO)
Heather Fraser, Founder & CEO | Vuka Innovation, Inc./Co-Founder of Rotman DesignWorks
Adjunct Professor of Business Design, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Susan Wortzman, Founder, Wortzmans

Discussion:
Novel strategies are actually reforming education. We are fast entering an era where educational tinkering just might better equip our children for the workplace and the world. Stats tell us that 38% of our children under the age of 2 use mobile devices for learning. Finland is teaching coding in grade school. The Minerva Project is a successful re-imagination of the university system that is unbundling higher-ed. And “massive open online courses” (or MOOCs) are being developed, taught and funded by large corporations such as AT&T, Google and Yahoo. MOOCs, in fact, are creating a talent pool (with desired skills) that companies can more easily access. How will corporate-funded education influence course selection, educational focus and intellectual integrity? How are established colleges starting to react? Will new tests, like the College Learning Assessment, bump out old ones to formally evaluate students’ critical thinking capabilities? How much more of our higher education will fall to companies and MOOCs and will a liberal arts education become outdated? What other forms of innovation and experimentation are still in store?

 

Panel # 2: Game Changers 2025

Moderator:
Pamela Ritchie, Anchor, The Daily Brief, Bloomberg TV Canada
Panelists:
Jessica Ching, Co-Founder & CEO of Eve Medical Inc.
Jackie Dinsmore, Founder, FlapJackKids & Principal, Caravel Law
Natalka Falcomer, Hons. B.A., J.D., C.LO., Co-Producer and Host, Toronto Speaks Legal Advice (Rogers TV) & Founder, Groundworks Firm Commercial Leasing Services
Rheta Fanizza, Chief Business Officer, Senior Vice President, Innovation, Saint Elizabeth
Vicki Saunders, President, SheEO

Discussion:
From inventors to pioneers, from entrepreneurs to visionaries. Young women are observing, experimenting, exploring, and questioning. Some, with very special talents and much curiosity, will change or reshape the world. Who are they? What problems are they solving? What exciting work have they begun? What new businesses may they launch? How do they see the world with a different filter or lens? And what is their imagination telling them? We’ll introduce you to the women we consider to be game changers: in technology, public policy, medicine, health, global resources, and energy, just to name a few. In talking to them, we will all have a better grasp of what is possible and how we can make a difference along with them.

Panel # 3: Unraveling the Brain

Moderator:
Beth Wilson, Toronto Managing Partner and Canadian Managing Partner of Community Leadership, KPMG LLP
Panelists:
Dr. Gillian Hawker
Sir John and Lady Eaton Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
Inez Jabalpurwala, President & CEO, Brain Canada Foundation
Fang Liu, MD, PhD, Senior Scientist, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, & Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Physiology, Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto
Lynn Posluns, Founder, President & Board Chair, Women’s Brain Health Initiative
Dr. Catherine Zahn, President & CEO, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

Discussion:
Of all the objects in the universe, the brain is the most complex! Consider the sheer mechanics of intelligence, memory and knowledge. Study and exploration are opening brilliant new doors of understanding. From mental illness, to language, to information processing, how the disparate parts of our brain actually interact with each other will unlock new opportunity and discovery. Scientists are talking about exciting possibilities to reveal more…not just about the vast sea of synapses, neurons and “traffic jams” in our brain but about insights, treatments, and approaches never realized before. Where and how will industry and business be affected by advances in brain study? What assumptions may be turned upside down about memory, social stimuli, imagination, and motivation? Will these discoveries change our approach to treating mental disorders? Will traffic jams in the brain show us more about how to improve mental health? Or help victims of head injury? What role will the medical community or big “pharma” play in advancing treatments? What will we do with all this new knowledge?

Igniters:

Petra Kassun-Mutch, Social Entrepreneur in Residence, Program Manager, & Strategic Advisor, Community Innovation Lab & Founder, Publisher, LiisBeth
Dee-Ann Lama, Vice President, Central Sales Operations, Xerox Canada
Leslee Thompson, President & CEO, AccreditationCanada