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Past Conferences

2023 TMU IT Conference

The eighth annual IT Conference was hosted online and attracted 500 attendees. Spanning four days from May 23 to 26, 2023, attendees comprised TMU faculty, staff and students, and included approximately 150 guests from 83 organizations outside of TMU. Representation included Chief Information Officers (CIOs), IT leaders and IT providers from fellow Ontario universities, colleges and the Ontario public sector who participated in the conference’s Cybersecurity track.

The 2023 conference featured an opening keynote address from Dr. Margaret Mitchell, Chief Ethics Scientist at Hugging Face. A researcher focused on the ins and outs of machine learning and ethics-informed AI development in tech, Dr. Mitchell presented on Forecasting the Future of AI From What We Know Today.

The conference also featured a cybersecurity-focused keynote address presented by Oleh Derevianko, Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Visionary Officer at Information Systems Security Partners, who gave a timely presentation titled Cyberwar is Real. What We Know, Don't Know and Hope for After a Year of Russia's Full Scale Invasion of Ukraine.

Featuring over 30 presentations in our virtual breakout sessions, highlights from our IT in Teaching and Learning and IT in Administration tracks included:

  • Instructor Guide to Leveraging AI by Allyson Miller, Office of the Vice Provost, Academic
  • Activating HR Transformation Through Technology by Tamara Jacobs, Human Resources
  • How Continuing Education (CE) Automated Financial Data Import from FIS (Oracle EBS/Google Drive) to Internal Data Warehouse, Soumya Chatterjee, Technology Solutions, The Chang School
  • The State of End-User Computing, Kevin Davies, CCS
  • Communication Strategies for Managing Change in IT: A TMU Renaming Case Study, Brandon Sloan, Administration and Operations
  • Reimagining Teaching and Learning at TMU, Jason Lisi and Curtis Maloley, Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching and Stephanie Goetz, CCS

An annual draw of our conference is the unique Cybersecurity track, attracting guests from outside of TMU across the IT sector. Cybersecurity track presentation highlights included:

  • Looking Back and Moving Forward: Anticipating Cyber Security Challenges in Academia in 2023/2024, Glenne Grossman, Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS)
  • From Zero to Ransomware: A Live Demonstration by Erik Yunghans, Palo Alto and Paul Webber, CCS
  • Defending Our Turf: Putting ChatGPT to the Test in Information Security, John Cuzzola, Thompson River University
  • Navigating the Cyber Security Ecosystem in Canadian Higher Education, Lindsay Sill & Jeff Grieve, CUCCIO
  • Creating a Culture of Cyber Security, Julia Le, Cyber Security Centre of Excellence (CSCE); Rachel Davies, Deloitte; Prieeyya Kaur Kesh, Our Wave Hub
  • Translating Information Security for Research, Michael Laurentius, University of Toronto

2023 TMU IT Conference keynote speakers

Margaret Mitchell
Dr. Margaret Mitchell
Oleh Derevianko.
Oleh Derevianko

Taking place from May 25 to 28, 2021, the seventh annual IT Conference attracted more than 450 attendees for our first ever fully virtual conference. Attendees included TMU faculty, staff and students, but also included guests external to TMU representing Chief Information Officers (CIOs), other IT leaders and IT providers from fellow Ontario universities, colleges and the Ontario public sector who participated in the conference’s Cybersecurity track.

The 2021 conference featured keynote addresses from Dr. Jessica Barker, co-founder and co-CEO of Cygenta (external link) , on The Human Factor in Cybersecurity, and Dr. Rhonda McEwen, special advisor to the Vice-President and Principal on Anti-Racism and Equity, at the University of Toronto Mississauga and director and professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information & Technology (ICCIT) (external link)  who presented The Role of IT in Equity and Inclusion. 

With over 30 presentations in our virtual breakout sessions, highlights from our IT in Teaching and Learning and IT in Administration tracks included:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Classroom: Professors Needed? (Ted Rogers School of IT Management, TMU)
  • Augmented Reality (AR) in Labs - COVID and Beyond (Faculty of Science, TMU)
  • Azure WVD Windows Virtual Desktops (Faculty of Arts, TMU)
  • Doing More with Google Workspace and New and Upcoming Features (Google Workspace for Education)
  • Exploring Human Rights in the IT Space (Human Rights Services, TMU)
  • Transforming Alumni and Donor Management: A Salesforce Journey (University Advancement, TMU)

2021 TMU IT Conference Gallery

Hosted in person at the George Vari Engineering and Computing Centre, the 2019 TMU IT Conference occurred on May 23, 2019 and attracted more than 325 staff, faculty and students.

The 2019 conference featured a keynote presentation from Susan Grajek, EDUCAUSE (external link) ’s vice-president for communities and research. She is responsible for EDUCAUSE research and benchmarking programs, communities of practice, and the IT Issues Panel, which releases the Top 10 IT Issues annually. With her presentation on The Digital Transformation of Higher Education, attendees learned about the cultural, technological and workforce shifts that are entailed with the digital transformation of higher education and heard examples of innovations already underway on campuses in North America.

In the lead-up to the 2019 conference, we also partnered with the University of Toronto to present our Cybersecurity Day at the 2019 Ontario Higher Education Information Technology (OHEIT) Conference, hosted at the UofT St. George campus. OHEIT’s Cybersecurity Day included:

  • We Can and Must Have Both: A keynote presentation by Dr. Ann Cavoukian, a recognized privacy expert, explored how a strong foundation of security is essential to privacy 
  • Security Considerations for the Mobility Powered Campus (Matt Hyson, Aruba (external link) )
  • Security is a Mindset (Dan Ward, Security Operations (SecOps) at Palo Alto Networks (external link) )
  • Getting Cyber Security out of the Weeds and at the Leadership Table: A Conversation and Panel with Three New CISOs on Creating Strategy and Setting Priorities (featuring Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) from TMU, the University of Toronto and Western University)

2019 TMU IT Conference Gallery

In 2018, our two day TMU IT Conference took place on May 30 and 31, with the first day of the conference highlighting new and emerging IT initiatives and services across a variety of university departments. Keynote speaker Malcolm Brown, director of EDUCAUSE (external link)  learning initiatives, discussed the next generation of learning and teaching and the role technology will play in transforming higher education. 

Day two of the conference was focused on cybersecurity, with both a technical track suited for IT providers and a general track devoted to anyone with an interest in staying safe online. Keynote speaker Colleen Merchant, director general of national cybersecurity at Public Safety Canada (external link) , provided insight into cybersecurity planning at the national level, including federal government commitments to proactively evolve cybersecurity. 

2018 TMU IT Conference Gallery