In 2024, we leaned into the overlap with the US Election, splitting the conference into several days: One online-only day that brought in bestselling authors and global speakers; two hybrid days, and one in-person day devoted to workshops and debates. We also launched new activations developed exclusively for the event such as Change My Mind and Place Your Bets.

 

With 2022 showing that hybrid events were the future, we expanded both onsite and virtual content in 2023.

 

2022 saw the return to in-person interaction with a truly hybrid event: An entire virtual platform with networking, messaging, chat, and multi-channel streaming; and a live studio audience. It was also our first event with department-wide access, as several major departments of the Canadian Federal Government gave their employees access to online talks.

 

Pour la deuxième année consécutive, nous avons organisé le FWD50 en tant qu'événement exclusivement virtuel et avons innové avec de nouveaux formats, notamment un jeu télévisé gouvernemental et le concours de pitchs politiques, G-Factor.

 

In 2020 the pandemic changed everyone's plans, and so we decided to tackle a second question: How do we use technology to bring us together?

 

In 2019 we readjusted FWD50 to this reality, and packed the lineup with content on culture and transformation. We broadened the "big tent" of FWD50 and added a number of activities and the first-ever Regional Digital Government Summit, a track focused on the unique challenges of municipal and state innovation exclusively for public servants.

 

In 2018, we announced our first advisory board, and built on our pilot event to expand the scale of the conference. We also reconfigured the conference around a circular stage when we launched Circlesquare.

 

In the inaugural year of FWD50, we brought hundreds of public servants under one roof in Ottawa. It was a modest event, and we tried many new things. But we had a few principles: That the event was international; that there was no pitching or expo hall; and that we'd tackle not just technology, but the cultural and structural changes needed to make digital innovation happen.