Today, Mayor John Tory helped to launch Collision from Home to help restart and rebuild Toronto’s economy. Collision From Home is bringing 30,000 people who are reshaping the world together from June 23 to 25.
To build on the momentum of Toronto’s technology sector, the City partnered with Destination Toronto (formerly Tourism Toronto) and Exhibition Place to bring this sought-after conference to Toronto for three years starting in 2019. In its first year in the city, Collision surpassed its attendance target, welcoming 25,711 attendees from 125 countries. It was the first time that the conference was held outside of the United States.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Collision conference will be held online this year. Toronto is scheduled to host Collision for two additional years when it returns in 2021. The three conferences are expected to have an economic impact of $147 million.
The City partnered with the Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada to recruit international virtual missions to participate in Collision from Home. More than 1,800 delegates will participate via 63 Canadian-run missions comprised of representation from 26 countries worldwide including Europe, Asia, South America and the United States.
Toronto participants will have the opportunity to connect with members of these delegations representing academia, government, small to medium enterprises, foreign direct investment prospects, accelerator and innovation partners, technology buyers, start-ups and venture capital investors.
To create an inclusive and accessible conference, the City worked alongside Collision on various programs to provide free tickets to students, community groups and tech sector employees impacted by COVID-19. Through the INSPIRE program, Humber College, Ryerson University, the University of Toronto and York University students will have access to free tickets.
Collision also wanted to celebrate Toronto’s diverse communities, networks and cultures through their Toronto Community Celebration initiative. The City helped Collision distribute free tickets to Toronto organizations that support diverse, equity seeking communities.
The City worked with Collision to distribute free tickets to people in the technology community who have been displaced due to COVID-19. Free tickets were also made available to web developers volunteering with the City’s ShopHERE powered by Google program.
More information about Collision from Home is available at collisionconf.com. View Mayor Tory’s Collision activation schedule.
As the fourth-largest city in North America, Toronto is Canada’s business, financial and technology capital and North America’s third largest market for technology talent. Toronto’s pool of technology talent grew at the fastest pace, adding more than 80,000 technology jobs in the past five years, a 54 per cent increase. The sector is fueled by nearly 230,000 skilled workers.
Toronto’s rich industrial diversity drives growth, innovation and cross-sectoral synergies. Knowledge spillovers have produced new leading-edge hybrid sectors including fin-tech, med-tech, green-tech and food-tech.
Quotes:
“COVID-19 is changing the way we do many things, including Collision – North America’s fastest growing tech conference. I’m proud to participate in Collision at Home to showcase Toronto’s phenomenal technology and innovation sector and connect them to international investment opportunities but I especially look forward to the day we can welcome Collision back to Toronto.”
– Mayor John Tory
“We are so pleased to partner with Collision at Home to provide tickets to Toronto’s diverse community organizations, volunteers supporting our ShopHERE powered by Google program, and members of the tech community who have been impacted by COVID-19 lay-offs. It is partnerships such as this that will help rebuild our economy even stronger than before.”
– Deputy Mayor Michael Thompson (Ward 21 Scarborough Centre), Chair of the City’s Economic and Community Development Committee
Toronto is home to more than 2.9 million people whose diversity and experiences make this great city Canada’s leading economic engine and one of the world’s most diverse and livable cities. As the fourth largest city in North America, Toronto is a global leader in technology, finance, film, music, culture and innovation, and consistently places at the top of international rankings due to investments championed by its government, residents and businesses. For more information visit toronto.ca or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/CityofToronto, on Instagram at instagram.com/cityofto or on Facebook at facebook.com/cityofto.