GOOD23
Lightning Talk speakers

Keith McDonald

Keith McDonald’s degree is in Communications with a long career converting complex issues into understandable and actionable information bytes. A mentored Presentation Specialist & Speaker Coach, Keith’s early background in teaching revealed a delightful talent for entertaining while encouraging critical thinking and inspiring others to adapt to change. He’s worked with TVOntario, Centennial College, the City of Toronto, the GO Open Data Association (as our past Director of Communications), Green Peace, UNICEF, the Toronto Public Library and many other private businesses. He founded "the literacy AI project" in 2018 to curate, unpack, ponder and teach about Artificial Intelligence issues for non-practitioner audiences including parents, teachers, students and seniors. You can reach out to collaborate or book an AI workshop with Keith at: keithmcdonald@literacyai.com

Ryan Garnett

Working in the data space for the better part of two decades, Ryan has been at the intersection of technology, leadership, strategy, and innovation. Recently Ryan has joined the Halifax International Airport Authority as a Senior Manager Business Solutions where he is establishing the culture and practice around data and analytics. 

Prior to joining the Halifax International Airport Authority Ryan was involved with transforming organizations related to data analytics and productization at Green Shield Canada, a health benefits organization, and GSTS a marine shipping AI start-up.

While at the City of Toronto's Information & Technology Division, Ryan led a team responsible for the creation and maintenance of the City's foundation mapping information, while leading the transition from a maintenance focused mandate, to that which focuses on data analytics and data driven decision making. Additionally I led the City's Open Data program, which makes municipal information available to private citizens, start-ups, corporations, other levels of government, educational institutions, and researchers. 

Prior to working with the City of Toronto, I worked nationally and internationally in both the public and private sector in urban data and information projects, in Canada, USA, Qatar, China and India. 

Constantly learning, I graduated from Lakehead University with a Master's degree in Environmental Studies and began pursuing a PhD in Geography from McMaster University.

Kelly Austen

Kelly Austen is the Senior Project Manager – Digital and Innovation for the City of Hamilton. Her portfolio includes supporting projects that build upon the principles of Hamilton’s Digital Strategy. Open Data and Open Hamilton is one example. She is a Project Management Professional with a background in Data Analysis, Geographic Information Systems, and Technical and Education Support with ESRI Canada. Kelly has experience with a variety of sectors including Planning and Economic Development, Public Works, Equity Diversity and Inclusion, Children’s Services, Seniors Services, Public Health and Information Technology. Kelly credits these diverse experiences and their lessons learned in her ability to recommend unique workflows, processes or solutions, traditionally used in other business sectors.

Barry Kong

Barry Kong is the Executive Director of the Open Government and Portals Division in the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS). He is also the government co-chair of Canada’s Multi-stakeholder Forum on Open Government, which provides input and advice on the Government of Canada’s open government commitments. In his role, Barry is working to mainstream inclusion, accountability, transparency, and civic participation in government while managing Canada’s Open Government and Open Data Portal and Access to Information and Privacy Digital Service.

Damien Mainprize

Damien Mainprize is project management professional with experience in both the technology and operational spaces of the financial sector. At the Town of Innisfil, he helps each team develop and enhance their processes to be more effective through data driven decision making and the exploration and adoption of new technologies.

Paul Connor

Paul Connor is Treasurer and Executive Director of the Canadian Open Data Society. His involvement in the Open Data community started with the 2015 GO Open Data Summit in St. Catharines, Ontario, and continued through co-chairing the 2018 Canadian Open Data Summit in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He started working with data while managing federal election campaigns in the early 2000s, going on to become versed in performance reporting data as President & Executive Director of Angel Investors Ontario. With AIO and its counterpart, the National Angel Capital Organization, he helped organize several national conferences across Canada for Angel investors and technology companies. He has also worked as an economic research manager for Niagara Region and as a schoolteacher. His volunteer work includes chairing the Governance Committee of the Professional Geoscientists of Ontario, a statutory self-regulatory body for geoscience professionals.

S. Ashleigh Weeden

Dr. S. Ashleigh Weeden is an award-winning rural innovator who splits her time between Ontario’s Bruce and Wellington Counties. A long-time advocate for the power of place-based approaches as critical mechanisms for creating effective public policy, Dr. Weeden has spent her career championing community-led innovation and critiquing ‘business first’ approaches to socioeconomic policy. Her recently completed doctoral research focused on the role of narrative in shaping and reflecting the realities of policy making around rural innovation systems anchored by the nuclear energy sector. Dr. Weeden also holds a Master’s in Public Administration and an Honours Bachelor of Arts in International Development, Political Economy and Administrative Change. Recognized as a thought leader on rural renewal, policy foresight, and public sector innovation, and an emerging voice for ‘the right to be rural,’ Dr. Weeden has provided expert commentary to outlets and organizations like Buzzfeed News, the Ryerson Review of Journalism, the David Hume Institute (Scotland), the Scottish Government, CBC News, and CTV News, as well as several podcasts and community news outlets. Dr. Weeden has published widely in both academic and popular press and her work can be read in publications like The Conversation Canada, the Journal of Rural and Community Development, the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, the Annals of Regional Science, IRPP Policy Options, the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation, Rural Policy Learning Commons, CIGI Online, and Municipal World.

Richard Pietro
Moderator

Richard Pietro socializes Open Government & Open Data by creating Civic Engagement as Art. Some of his projects include the 2014 Open Government Tour, the Open Toronto Meetup Group, the Stories from the Open Gov podcast, and Open – The World's first short film on Open Government, Open Data, and Open Source.

He also worked collaboratively with the Ontario Ministry of Housing to create the Open Data in Reverse method as a way to design, publish, and activate Open Data sets. This initiative helped the ministry win a nationally recognized award for engagement.

He now works for Skinopathy, medical technology startup that provides healthcare practitioners and patients real-world and real-time solutions on how to screen, triage, track, and manage all skin conditions, including skin cancers using AI, automation, and data.