New Festival Celebrating the City’s Vibrant Innovation Ecosystem.
by Linda Montgomery
If it’s September in Toronto, TIFF may not be the only world-class festival our city is known for in the future. We are currently experiencing a golden time for technology and innovation. Elevate Toronto aims to broadcast our story far and wide while also providing discovery, connections and inspiration for Torontonians.
The 3-day festival will debut on September 12th. It will shine a light on our flourishing tech companies and community, as well as promoting Toronto as a destination for talent, investment and innovation leadership.
If you have an interest in what all this innovation fuss is about, if you work for a tech startup or a large corporation – there is something in it for you. The festival expects over 700 speakers at 70 venues, highlighting our growing technical leadership in areas like Artificial Intelligence, FinTech and Blockchain, including the people behind our hottest companies and diversity.
It features a King Street West street party hosted by local startups, an office open door event called NewCo, and the Spotlight Awards where top Canadian Unicorns and company exits will be celebrated at a Four Seasons Hotel gala.
Razor Suleman is the CEO and Founder of the non-profit festival. He is an example of a growing contingent of local entrepreneurs who have successfully founded, scaled and exited a $100M+ tech venture, then came back north to Canada realizing this is the best place to do it again.
He originated the concept for Elevate Toronto along with his wife Kari and Alex Norman of community group Tech Toronto. They are joined by a grass roots collaboration of 17 technology organizations in partnership with the City of Toronto. Together they will execute a labour of love devoted to innovation and the city where it is thriving.
For more information and tickets go to www.elevatetoronto.com.
