TORONTO — After a successful first year in Toronto, the Collision tech conference is expanding the four-day event with two new stages and launching its effort to increase the participation of women. The conference takes place June 22-25 at the Enercare Centre in Toronto.
As part of its women in tech initiative, Collision is releasing today subsidized women in tech tickets in its effort to even the gender ratio at the event. At Collision 2019, 45.7% of all registered attendees were female. In 2018, when the annual event was still held in New Orleans, 42.5% of attendees were female. Over the last two years, the conference has released more than 25,000 subsidized tickets to encourage female participation.
“We’ve noticed a significant increase in female participation since we launched the initiative and can attribute a lot of its success to Canada’s inclusivity. We’re very proud of the progress we’ve made with our women in tech initiative. We want to continue to maintain momentum and work to make our event as inclusive as possible in a traditionally male dominated industry,” says Anna O’Hare, head of content at Collision, in the news release.
The two new stages being introduced this year include one focused on the future of journalism and one for the world of retail. The Fourth Estate stage aims to bring together leading editors, producers and media personalities to debate technology, freedoms and trust in media in a polarizing and consolidating media landscape. Among those scheduled to make an appearance on stage include Steve Clemons, editor at large at The Hill, and Dafna Linzer, managing editor of politics at NBC News and MSNBC.
The Click & Mortar stage will cover the transformation of the world of retail, from customer experience to distribution. With these two new stage additions, the Collision conference now offers 21 stages for attendees to access insight from a wide variety of industries and perspectives.
“For our second year in Toronto, we want to bring together brand new elements that continue to enhance our overall attendee experience. Conversation around trust in media is at an all time high, reflecting a period of increased political polarization. We have a responsibility to shine a light on these topics through the lens of technology,” says Paddy Cosgrave, CEO and founder of Collision, in the release.
Now in its sixth year, Collision 2020 is set to grow to more than 30,000 attendees with more than 900 leading CEOs, founders and government leaders set to speak at the event.
