Discovery 2019 celebrates Ontario’s leading-edge innovation
The revolutionary power of 5G, journeying to the Moon and how our lives will be transformed by artificial intelligence. These are just some of the provocative topics highlighted at this year’s award-winning Discovery conference.
With close to 3,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors, Discovery 2019 marked 14 years of Canada’s premier innovation showcase.
Held in Toronto on May 13–14, the conference brought renowned keynote speakers; hosted panels on relevant and crucial topics for the province’s economic development; facilitated more than 700 one-to-one meetings between entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs, government and investors; connected students and young talent with potential employers; hosted the “Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch” competition for high school students; and featured the latest and greatest made-in-Ontario innovations on the 200,000 square-foot show floor.
Keynote Speeches
This year’s Discovery opened with keynote speaker Duncan Wardle, former head of innovation and creativity at Disney. Duncan shared his experiences and strategies for fostering an innovative culture, creating safe spaces for taking creative risks, ensuring team members are empowered, thinking like an entrepreneur and transitioning from ideas to real action.
He was followed by Pernilla Jonsson, head of consumer and industry lab at Ericsson, who professed that 5G will drive transformation in every industry with smart connectivity. With 5G moving into factories, running traffic on streets and fueling concepts like immersive healthcare, we face a new technological revolution.
Later at the conference, Dr. Nicole Buckley, chief scientist at the Canadian Space Agency, took attendees on a journey of space exploration. She described the challenges and opportunities of advancing technologies and innovation to help propel humans to the Moon and beyond.
Closing the show, Norm Judah, former CTO at Microsoft, discussed the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and the impact of data in our day-to-day lives. He shared his human approach to conducting technology development, having an empathetic framework and diversifying a team to combat unconscious bias in AI.
Panels
Discovery also featured panels on topics that are shaping Ontario’s future and its economic development. The discussions brought together industry experts from advanced manufacturing, autonomous vehicles, cannabis, foodtech innovation, next generation of energy, ag-tech and other sectors.
Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch
The conference also named winners for the Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch competition, which selects innovative solutions presented by high school students from across Ontario. Students submit a two-minute video of their business ideas and 20 finalists are chosen from online voting and judges’ scores. Those selected pitched their ideas live at Discovery and six were chosen as winners.
The 2019 winners are:
- Brock Babin of Kapuskasing for the company Northern Edge (Conseil Scolaire de District du Nord-Est de l’Ontario)
- Funmi Oyapero of Etobicoke for the company Goddess Girl Cosmetics (Father Henry Carr Catholic Secondary School)
- Dillon Anderson of Callander for the company D Target Hockey School (West Ferris Secondary School)
- Emalie Santos of Mississauga for the company Elements of Fun (St. Joseph Secondary School)
- Joshua Varkey of Windsor for the company Geogen (Assumption Catholic High School)
- Bentley Chen of Markham for the company The Shop — Youth Auto Sourcing (Markville Secondary School)
Show floor
The 200,000 square-foot show floor displayed more than 500 exhibitors from across Ontario of the newest technologies, innovative solutions and disruptive ideas arising from the province’s research and educational institutions, entrepreneurs, companies and industry associations.
The trade show's B2B and B2G zones that connected businesses with each other and businesses and government; the Wow Zone with awe-inspiring technologies and leading-edge innovation; the Meet an Investor/Ask an Expert Area; and the Career Zone that brought together job seekers and employers, and featured a headshot station while promoting workshops and one-to-one meetings with coaches.
Named Canada’s Best Trade Show in 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and celebrating 14 years of bold, new ideas, OCE’s Discovery is Canada’s premier innovation showcase. It brings together the best and the brightest minds in industry, academia, investment and government to feature leading-edge technologies, best practices and research in the areas of energy, fintech, cleantech, the environment, advanced health, digital media, information and communication technologies, and advanced manufacturing.
For more photos from Discovery 2019, please visit the OCE’s Flickr.
