2020/2021

A Digital Event SerieS

Join us for a season of events

TEDxToronto 2020/21 is a series of evening events! Come join us for our thoughtfully curated digital experiences featuring critical ideas and powerful speakers - all from the comfort of your home. Let’s explore Uncharted together!

Speakers

PART 1 | Understanding where we are

OCTOBER 29, 2020
Ran Goel

Ran Goel

Founder, Fresh City Farms

Jimmy Ba

Jimmy Ba

Artificial Intelligence Expert

Frances Donald

Frances Donald

Global Chief Economist

Jason van Bruggen

Through his craft, Jason captures the vulnerability of our ecosystems and the people who live within them, illuminating the strength and fragility of our planet.  His work has been featured by National Geographic, Outdoor Magazine, and by brands including Patagonia, and Arc’teryx.


Gillian Hadfield

Gillian’s research focuses on how we can design innovative legal and regulatory systems for AI and other complex global technologies. She is the Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at the University of Toronto, a faculty affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and a senior policy advisor at OpenAI.


Ryan DeCaire

Ryan is working to revitalize Kanien’kéha (Mohawk language). He is an instructor and curriculum developer at Onkwawén:na Kentyóhkwa, an immersion school for adults, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Centre for Indigenous Studies at the University of Toronto.


Chenny Xia

Chenny is changing how home health care is delivered. As an experienced designer and technologist, Chenny’s mission is to create a more equitable health care system by reducing the cost of care delivery, and enabling greater empathy and control over care decisions.

Phil De Luna

Phil is on a mission to make Canada a leader in decarbonization technology. He leads a $57M research program with the goal of helping Canada achieve net-zero GHG emissions by 2050, using renewable fuels from air and water.

Lydia-Joi Marshall

As a Research Associate for #theActionProject at UHN, and Vice-President of the Black Health Alliance, Lydia-Joi improves our health care system by bringing awareness to issues of health inequity and promoting personalized patient care.

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee

Paul is best known for his role as Appa in Kim’s Convenience. A two-time Canadian Screen Award winner, and self-professed nerd, Paul is a collector of movies, all things Star Wars, and an avid replica prop builder and cosplayer.

Hamza Haq

Hamza is the star of the most watched Canadian series this year, “Transplant”, where he plays a Syrian doctor trying to make a new life for his family in Canada. His own family moved from Pakistan to Canada via Saudi Arabia, and as an actor, Hamza’s passion is storytelling that lifts up real voices, including those of refugees and immigrants.

Sara Mojtehedzadeh

As the Toronto Star’s Work and Wealth reporter, Sara covers the changing workplace, shining a spotlight on precarious work, migrant workers, the gig economy and labour rights. Sara’s journalism has put a human face on unfair workplace practices and has helped bring the interests of workers to the forefront of mainstream media coverage.

Ran Goel

A former Wall Street investment lawyer on a mission to build a better world through food, Ran Goel founded Fresh City Farms in 2011. From an urban farm to a widespread delivery business and eight organic grocery stores, Ran is passionate about connecting people directly to the source of their food, and is a driving force for using better food practises to create stronger communities and healthier environments.

Jimmy Ba

A faculty member at the University of Toronto and Vector Institute, Jimmy developed the Adam Optimizer, a foundational algorithm used to train AI models. Today, Jimmy’s research focuses on advancing our understanding of the human mind, intelligence and computation.

Frances Donald

As the Global Chief Economist for Manulife, Frances helps forecast global macro-economic and financial trends. Looking beyond models, numbers and markets Frances uses a unique blend of insight and irreverence to help bring a human face to economics and finance.

Kofi Hope

Kofi is a social entrepreneur on a mission to create a fairer city. As the founder and former Executive Director of the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals, Kofi built an organization dedicated to addressing the economic and social barriers affecting black youth. As the co-founder of Monumental, Kofi is now focused on helping institutions and organizations work towards an equitable economic recovery.

Catherine Hernandez

In her debut novel, Scarborough, Catherine tells the incredible story of a neighbourhood that refuses to fall apart in the face of poverty and crime. A writer and theatre practitioner, Catherine’s latest novel, Crosshairs, paints a vision of a dystopian society and explores the universal desire to thrive - all against the backdrop of Toronto.

Kamran Khan

Kamran founded BlueDot to build an early warning system for outbreaks of infectious diseases. BlueDot has gone on to predict the spread of Ebola, Zika, and identified and wrote the world’s first peer-reviewed study of COVID-19. A practicing infectious diseases physician, Kamran’s mission is to strengthen global readiness against dangerous epidemics through the development of sophisticated data technology.

Amanda Munday

As the founder of Toronto’s first co-working facility with childcare, Amanda is on a mission to create better opportunities for working parents. She is the author of Day Nine: A Postpartum Depression Memoir, and is an advocate for women’s rights and community leader.

PART 2 | Discovering our connections

NOVEMBER 26, 2020
Kofi Hope

Kofi Hope

Civic Entrepreneur

Catherine Hernandez

Catherine Hernandez

Writer and Artistic Director

Kamran Khan

Kamran Khan

Doctor, Scientist, and Entrepreneur

Amanda Munday

Amanda Munday

Founder, The Workaround

Speakers

PART 4 | SHIFTING OUR COURSE

march 4, 2021
Gillian Hadfield

Gillian Hadfield

Professor of Law & Strategic Management

An expert on the legal and regulatory systems that govern AI and other complex global technologies, Gillian is the Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society at UofT.

Read more
Ryan DeCaire

Ryan DeCaire

Mohawk Language Learner and Teacher

Ryan is working to revitalize Kanien’kéha (Mohawk language) through instructing students at an adult immersion school, and as an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto.

Read more
Jason van Bruggen

Jason van Bruggen

Filmmaker & Photographer

Through his craft, Jason captures the vulnerability of our ecosystems and the people who live within them, illuminating the strength and fragility of our planet.

Read more

PART 3 | EXPLORING NEW TERRITORY

february 4, 2021
Paul Sun-Hyung Lee

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee

Actor & Comedian

A two-time Canadian Screen Award winner, Paul plays Appa on the hit TV show “Kim’s Convenience”.

Read more
Lydia-Joi Marshall

Lydia-Joi Marshall

Researcher & Health Equity Champion

The Vice-President of the Black Health Alliance, Lydia-Joi is passionate about bringing awareness to issues of health inequity and promoting personalized patient care.

Read more
Phil De Luna

Phil De Luna

Clean Energy Innovator

The director of a $57M research program, Phil’s mission is to help Canada achieve net-zero GHG emissions through developing new decarbonization technologies.

Read more
Chenny Xia

Chenny Xia

Co-founder, GotCare

Chenny is changing how home health care is delivered, creating a more equitable system by leveraging technology and design thinking.

Read more
2020 ADVENTURES

Jimmy Ba & Freestyle Socials

DATE

Thursday, December 10, 2020

TIME

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM EST

LOCATION

Virtual

Speakers

Jimmy Ba

COST

Free

Registration Ended

Event Ended

2020 CIRCLES

Super Circle

DATE

November 18, 2020

Please click register to choose a date. Participants will be asked to register for only ONE DATE.
TIME

6:30 PM -8:30 PM

LOCATION

Online Event

THEME

How Changes Happen

COST

Free

Event Ended

What is TEDxtoronto

TEDxToronto is Canada’s largest TEDx event, a platform for exceptional ideas, and a catalyst for profound change since 2009.

TEDx is a global community that believes passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. Our chapter is called TEDxToronto, where x = independently organized. Individual TEDx events like ours are organized by our entirely volunteer-led community, with the goal of sparking deep discussion and intimate connection.

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