The Digital Futures Symposium is a collaboration between Smith School of Business at Queen’s University and Ivey Business School at Western University to facilitate collaboration between industry and academia to advance Canada’s global position in Digital Futures.
"Digital Futures" refers to the exploration and speculation about the potential directions, impacts, and transformations that emerging digital technologies may bring about in various aspects of society, economy, culture, and individual life. Increasingly digitalization initiatives are falling short on strategic objectives and Canada continues to fall behind other countries on advancing their digital agenda.
Moving Canada forward requires new and innovative approaches to knowledge creation and mobilization. As such, uncovering opportunities is the purpose of this symposium.
Keynote Speakers
Michael Raynor
Managing Director
Deloitte
Jerry Kane
C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry Chair in Business Administration
University of Georgia
Stephanie Woerner
Principal Research Scientist; Executive Director, CISR
MIT Sloan School of Management
Gordon Sandford
Partner - Transformation
EY
Ola Henfridsson
Professor Schein Family Endowed Chair Associate Dean, Online Business Programs
University of Miami
Event Details
The symposium is a two-day event designed to encourage collaboration between industry and academia in two distinct ways.
By attending, you will not only influence Canada’s Digital Future, but you will also learn how your organization or academic institution can contribute to thought leadership, advancing practices, and making improvements to digitalization efforts across different sectors.
Event Agenda
Day 1: Building Industry Academic Partnerships to Drive Digital Futures in Canada
Thursday May 9th – 8:30-5:30 pm (ET)
This is a full day conference where digital leaders in academia and industry will come together to discuss how we can promote collaboration in research and development to advance technology innovation and digital transformation in Canada.
Day 2: Digital Futures Paper Development Workshop
Friday May 10th – 8:30-3 pm (ET)
The second day of the conference will focus on a collaborative research event where thought leaders in industry and academia will provide feedback and guidance on works in progress. Short versions of papers, research projects, and journal articles will be submitted and those accepted will be discussed by a team of mentors who will offer constructive criticism, suggestions, and insights to help authors enhance the quality and impact of their work.
Download the full event agenda
Event Organizers
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Abayomi BaiyereAssociate Professor & Distinguished Research Fellow of Digital Technology, Smith School of Business -
Kathryn BrohmanE. Marie Shantz Fellow of Digital Technology, Smith School of Business -
Isam FaikAssistant Professor of Information Systems, Ivey Business School
Register to Attend
Attendance is open to everyone. There is a registration fee of $175 for industry professional and academics and $50 for graduate students (PhD/MSc).
Day 2: PDW Participation
If planning to attend Day 2, please consider submitting a short paper by Monday, April 22nd at 11:59 pm (ET). Accepted papers will be assigned to a mentor and discussed during the workshop.
Short Paper Submission
Short papers must describe original and unpublished work where there is opportunity for thought leadership related to any aspect of digital futures. The opportunity for submitting a paper is to capture feedback early in the paper development process as well as identify potential publication outlets. Authors can be academics, industry professionals, or a collaboration between both.
Short papers may be no longer than three (3) pages, including figures, tables, and references. Submissions will be evaluated on suitability, originality, significance/contribution, validity of the work, thoroughness, and presentation clarity. Short papers accepted for the workshop will be discussed with an assigned mentor at the workshop on May 10th.
Authors will also be invited to prepare a poster that will be displayed during the Digital Futures Symposium on May 9th and 10th. Authors are not required to attend the conference on May 9th but it is highly encouraged.
The following examples may be helpful in understanding what type of papers could be suitable for short paper submission:
- Work-in-progress
- A position paper or contribution that is pushing/challenging existing boundaries
- Extensions or evaluations of existing methods or explorations of new methods
- A literature review of an emerging field related to digital futures
Submitting Your Short Paper
Papers must be uploaded to the secure dropbox by the deadline, April 22nd at 11:59 pm (ET). Authors will be notified by April 30th if their paper has been accepted for discussion.
Submit Your PaperWorkshop Mentors
(Mentors are subject to change)
- Shamel Addas, Smith School of Business, Queen’s University
- Abayomi Baiyere, Associate Professor & Distinguished Research Fellow of Digital Technology, Smith School of Business, Queen’s University
- Kathryn Brohman, E. Marie Shantz Fellow of Digital Technology, Smith School of Business, Queen’s University
- Burcu Bulgurcu, Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, Toronto Metropolitan University
- Jim Denford, Royal Military College
- Isam Faik, Ivey School of Business, Western University
- Khaled Hassanein, Professor of Information Systems, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University
- Milena Head, Professor/Wayne C. Fox Chair in Business Innovation, Director Digital Transformation Research Centre at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University
- Ola Henfridsson, University of Miami
- Mayur Joshi, Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa
- Chief Michael Nolan, Vice President & Co-Chair of the Ontario Community Paramedicine Knowledge Exchange, Paramedic Chief at County of Renfrew
- Yasser Rahrovani, Ivey Business School, Western University
- Gregory Vial, Associate Professor, Department of Information Technologies, HEC Montreal
- Gongtai Wang, Smith School of Business, Queen’s University