Waterloo.Dev Fest: Who Gets to Build, Own, and Define the Future?
Spur Innovation Center - SPUR Campus, Waterloo, Canada
In personThe software landscape is undergoing its most radical transformation in decades. The role of the engineer is moving from syntax to system review, reasoning architectures, and orchestrating autonomous agent networks. Simultaneously, intelligent tools are turning product managers, designers, finance leads, and operators into high-velocity solution builders.
Gartner projects that 80% of technology products and services will soon be built by people outside traditional software engineering roles. In a world where anyone can build, adopting a secure-by-default mindset, mastering core theory, and fiercely debating how domestic infrastructure is governed matters more than ever.
Who Gets to Build, Own, and Define the Future? unites engineers, researchers, founders, and cross-functional builders for an immersive full-day summit organized across two dedicated tracks and four physical environments.
🌟 Featured Keynotes & Plenary Headliners
Jim Balsillie (Retired Chairman & Co-CEO of BlackBerry / RIM; Chair, Council of Canadian Innovators)Scaling BlackBerry from an idea into a $20 billion global tech giant, Jim is Canada’s foremost authority on IP strategy, data sovereignty, and technology governance. He joins us to break down the geopolitical stakes of the agentic era: sovereign compute, who owns foundational knowledge assets, and how builders protect domestic prosperity in an intangibles economy.
The Hon. Vijay Thanigasalam (Associate Minister of Artificial Intelligence Adoption, Ontario)Serving as Ontario’s first-ever Associate Minister of Artificial Intelligence Adoption, Minister Thanigasalam is driving provincial policy to accelerate practical AI deployment, support local tech builders, and modernise economic infrastructure across Ontario. He will speak directly to the builders shaping the future of Canadian enterprise innovation.
⚡ Event at a Glance
Format: 2 Parallel Tracks across 4 Specialized Environments (The Lab, The Academy, The Studio, The Commons)
High-Impact Plena
08:00 · cad 15 · HackathonDetails →