Canadians Connected 2016, CIRA’s symposium and annual general meeting, took place in Toronto at the Allstream Centre on Thursday, September 22nd.
Canadians Connected 2016, CIRA’s symposium and annual general meeting, took place in Toronto at the Allstream Centre on Thursday, September 22nd.
CIRA Members and individuals in the Internet community gathered together to learn about the state of the Internet from CIRA president and CEO Byron Holland, lunch keynote Andy Forest, an expert panel, and keynote Sue Gardner.
Here are some highlights from the day.
Andy Forest spoke about young Canadians participating in maker education and how we can adapt the way we educate youth in a more effective way in the Information Age. Andy Forest is the co-founder of STEAMLabs, a non-profit community makerspace in downtown Toronto. Two projects from STEAMLabs have recieved grants from CIRA’s Community Investment Program.
CIRA president and CEO Byron Holland spoke about what CIRA is doing to help build a better online Canada. Byron touched on the outlook for the future of the Internet from both a Canadian and global perspective. He also talked about CIRA’s current projects, including the announcement of CIRA becoming the back-end Registry provider for .KIWI, and encouraged everyone to spread the word about taking the Internet Performance Test.
An expert panel spoke about content delivery, availability, consumption, and how it affects Canadians. The panel featured:
- Jacques Latour, Chief Technology Officer at CIRA,
- Andrew Clement, Professor emeritus, University of Toronto, and
- Jane Tallim, Co-Executive Director, Media Smarts.
Keynote speaker, Sue Gardner, former Director of and now special advisor to Wikipedia, took at look at the history of the Internet thus far and how it has impacted our lives, and explained how we can use what we have learned from the past to embrace the future.
Thank you to those who attended the event in Toronto. The active participation from CIRA Members and stakeholders is just one step Canadians can take to help build a better online Canada.
More videos from Canadians Connected 2016 are available on the CIRANews YouTube channel.
Erin brings to CIRA a background of marketing experience in higher education and the not-for-profit sector. In 2015, she participated in ISOC’s Youth@IGF Programme and traveled to Guadalajara, Mexico to attend the IGF. She has a Bachelor of International Business from Carleton University.
