Past sessions
Each fall, the world’s leading public servants, tech innovators, and academics gather in Canada's Capital for the annual FWD50 conference. FWD50 spans multiple days of packed content, from keynotes and workshops to breakouts and meeting rooms, as well as other community meetups we run throughout the week. Every year we tackle a different theme on the most pressing challenges in digital government and curate our content accordingly. Browse all our past sessions from over the years using our interactive agenda.
November 03
9:00 AM EST
Welcome to FWD50 2025!
Join your hosts Alistair Croll and Hillary Hartley as they kick off the 9th edition of FWD50. See More.
9:15 AM EST
Goodhart's Law versus the one metric that matters
In 2012, FWD50 co-chair Alistair Croll published Lean Analytics, a book that showed organizations how to use data to build a better business faster. See More.
9:40 AM EST
Navigating the problem space in digital product management
Government agencies are under constant pressure to modernize services, yet too often digital projects fail because the problem space was not fully explored before building solutions. See More.
Associate Professor and E. Marie Shantz Fellow in Digital Technology and Director Master of Digital Product Management
Smith School of Business, Queen’s University
10:05 AM EST
Canada's AI readiness
Join Apolitical's Senior Manager for Policy & Insights, Jesse Samasuwo, to uncover insights into the strengths and gaps in Canada’s public sector AI capabilities. See More.
10:30 AM EST
From metrics to Evals: the human side of measuring AIs
When we test a process or system, we put in inputs and check that the outputs are correct. If they aren't, that's an error. But how do you test something that gives a different answer every time—and when varied responses are the whole point? See More.
10:55 AM EST
The click-away cost: Why ignoring accessibility will turn away your customers and clients
In 2022 27% of Canadians, 8 million people identified as having at least one disability. Let that number sink in for a bit. See More.
11:20 AM EST
What’s the role of serious games in policy-making?
Can games really help us make better policy? See More.
11:45 AM EST
Lunchtime!
Grab some food and take advantage of our braindates and networking! See More.
12:00 PM EST
Braindates!
The perfect platform and space for knowledge sharing and connecting with peers. See More.
1:10 PM EST
Speaker office hours
This is your chance to sit down with this morning's speakers and ask them any questions you may have! Head to Trillium where they'll be waiting for you in the Speaker's Corner. See More.
Associate Professor and E. Marie Shantz Fellow in Digital Technology and Director Master of Digital Product Management
Smith School of Business, Queen’s University
Scaling public services through collaborative standards
This interactive workshop will explore the critical role of standards in scaling public services across Canada's municipal, provincial, and federal levels. See More.
Director, Digital and Data Policy, Strategic Policy - Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement
Ontario Public Service
3:10 PM EST
Delivering outcomes not solutions
In this interactive session you will learn how focusing on outcomes makes it clear what you need to achieve, drives ambition and empowers teams. See More.
4:10 PM EST
From service to sovereignty: How dual-use mandates drive innovation ROI
Dual use is when one investment delivers both civilian and military benefits. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is a clear example. It provides the basic rails for government to deliver secure and connected services. When it is built well, it makes life easier for citizens and strengthens national resilience and sovereignty. See More.
Assistant Deputy Minister & Chief Data Officer
Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC)
Director General Data Analytics, (AI) and Information Management
Department of National Defence
4:55 PM EST
Coming up!
Join Alistair and Hillary as they wrap the day and tell you what's in store for tomorrow! See More.
5:30 PM EST
FWD50 Game night!
Games are simply constrained interactions, sometimes collaborative, sometimes competitive. They’re a perfect way to safely explore the dynamics of a complex problem. See More.
November 04
9:00 AM EST
Welcome back!
Welcome back to our Policy First Transformation day! Join Alistair and Hillary as they get you ready for the day! See More.
9:10 AM EST
From carved in stone to policy in Beta
What if policy were treated as a prototype — iterated like code — instead of something carved in stone? See More.
9:30 AM EST
The power of policy: Driving talent outcomes through data and metrics
This is the story of how we did policy differently to build digital capacity across the Government of Canada—proving that when you treat policy like a service and apply modern practices, you can deliver real transformation fast. See More.
Director for Talent Policy and Platforms
Office of the Chief Information Officer of Canada
9:55 AM EST
How procurement policy blocks citizen outcomes
Government is an institution that collects and spends money for the greater good. Procurement is at the core of what it does, but over the years, layers of initially well-intentioned bureaucracy have clogged up how it works. Many of today's processes optimize for impunity instead of outcome. See More.
10:20 AM EST
Technology is the spinal cord of government
The uncomfortable reality is that the problems with government are not technology — they are institutional and policy cruft and sclerosis that has built up over decades. However, over those decades, technology has become the spinal cord of government. See More.
10:45 AM EST
Governing in the Digital Age: Why states and sovereignty matter
Ben Terrett, CEO of Public Digital will be exploring what PD means by digital sovereignty, why this is important in a Canadian context and for policy makers globally. See More.
11:10 AM EST
The power of a rethink: Reimagining healthcare from a clean sheet of paper
This keynote argues that incremental fixes can no longer keep pace with structural decay. See More.
12:00 PM EST
Lunchtime!
Grab some food and take advantage of our braindates and networking! See More.
Braindates!
The perfect platform and space for knowledge sharing and connecting with peers. See More.
1:30 PM EST
Speaker office hours
This is your chance to sit down with this morning's speakers and ask them any questions you may have! Head to Trillium where they'll be waiting for you in the Speaker's Corner. See More.
Director for Talent Policy and Platforms
Office of the Chief Information Officer of Canada
Building a strategy stack
Today’s government leaders want results: lower costs, less red tape, and stronger economic strategies. See More.
Consultant
3:30 PM EST
Smart teams, simple rules: How multidisciplinary teams contribute to lean policy design
Policy and technology teams traditionally work in silos. Requirements are written, software is built, and meanwhile legislation is written, amended, added to, and amended again… creating the need to retrofit solutions through expensive change requests or workarounds and manual processes. See More.
4:30 PM EST
The best of all possible worlds
In the 1700s, philosopher Gottfried Leibniz sought to answer the prevailing theological question of the Enlightenment: Why, if God is good, is there evil in the world? His conclusion was that God would create the "best of all possible worlds". See More.