Join us in Toronto March 6

EvolveDigital is a summit for digital innovators: developers, designers, marketers, and strategists. Whether you work with Drupal, WordPress, other open-source platforms, or in sectors like education, government, or healthcare, this event is for you. We focus on digital strategy, AI, and accessibility to drive collaboration and innovation.

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What to expect at EvolveDigital

Networking with experts

Connect with directors, thought leaders, and peers from higher education institutions, non-profit and government organizations as well as digital agencies, to exchange ideas and build valuable relationships.

Inspiring sessions

Learn from +20 sessions on digital strategy, marketing, design, and technology that will fuel your creativity and drive your digital projects forward.
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Insightful panels

Expert panels create space for meaningful conversation among experienced voices from across the industry, offering insight grounded in real-world practice.

AGENDA

Sessions

Below are the first accepted sessions. More sessions will be added gradually. In total you can expect more than 25 sessions including panels.

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Description:
AI is reshaping how marketers work with Digital Experience Platforms—but what does that actually mean for your day-to-day operations? This session cuts through the buzzwords to explore four key areas where AI is making the biggest difference right now. You'll learn how agentic capabilities enable true 1:1 personalization, how your team's workflow shifts from manual creation to strategic oversight, and how to measure success with new metrics that matter.
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About Speaker(s):

Martin Anderson-Clutz is a Drupal expert based in London, Ontario. A Pricipal Solutions Engineer at Acquia, he has a proven ability to understand the nuances of complex technologies and communicate them to business stakeholders. He has spoken internationally at technology conferences and is a regular on the Talking Drupal podcast.

Description:
Large organizations often struggle with digital inconsistency, varying website quality, siloed teams, duplicated user research, and uneven adoption of standards. At McGill University, we turned this challenge into an opportunity by establishing institutional foundations for digital consistency across dozens of faculties, units, and content teams. This session shares how cross‑departmental collaboration led to the creation of McGill’s Digital Standards, the evolution of a sustainable digital governance framework, a university‑wide current‑student journey map, and thriving digital communities such as the Web Advisory Committee, the Student Usability Panel, and a site managers and editors Community of Practice.
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About Speaker(s):

Joyce has been building websites and digital communities for over 20 years, including 15 years of experience in higher education. She is currently Associate Director, Digital Communications at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Her prior experience includes positions at the University of Victoria, Western University, and Kings University College. Joyce is an award-winning international speaker who has presented at Button, ContentED, CMS Connect, Confoo, Digital Collegium, and #PSEWeb. Her topics of focus include web standards, governance, and user experience.

Description:
AI adoption is less about tools and more about change. This session explores how teams can move from AI hesitation to meaningful, everyday use. The first part focuses on change management, breaking down AI adoption into four practical phases: planning, engaging the right people, enablement, and scaling. It addresses common barriers like fear, time constraints, and institutional limitations, and shares strategies for turning hesitant stakeholders into AI champions. The second half features a Q&A-style case study of an internal AI project: a custom GPT built to code and assess email content. Rather than a technical demo, the discussion centers on the problem it solved, the experimentation process, and how the tool is being introduced and adopted within the team. The session concludes with audience Q&A and practical takeaways for anyone looking to introduce or expand AI use in their organization.
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About Speaker(s):

Emma Nguyen, Executive Director, Digital Marketing and Communications, University of Toronto
With over 15 years of expertise in digital transformation, fundraising, and brand strategy, Emma drives initiatives that integrate digital channels to enhance alumni engagement and philanthropic impact. She leads the Brand Hub digital team to advance the university’s global reputation and digital thumbprint.

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Gary Bhanot, Director, Digital Infrastructure, University of Toronto
With 12+ years driving technology, data, and enterprise solutions in the non-profit sector, Gary optimizes fundraising performance and operational efficiency. He has worked with 75+ North American non-profits, leading cross-functional teams and complex integrations, and also teaches programming at Humber College—bringing a practical, people-first approach to innovation and donor engagement.

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Description:
How can higher education deliver faster, more accurate student support without adding to staff workload? This session explores how McMaster University’s Office of the Registrar implemented a generative AI chatbot as part of a cross-functional service transformation led by systems, communications, and service teams. Built on responsible AI principles and strong governance, the chatbot provides consistent, privacy-compliant answers using public institutional content. Beyond automation, the chatbot became a strategic insight tool—highlighting where students get stuck, which content is unclear, and where digital journeys break down. These insights helped communications teams simplify language, improve navigation, and redesign content to better meet student needs. The result: fewer inquiries escalating to staff, improved accuracy ratings from students, and more time for teams to focus on complex support—demonstrating how AI, service strategy, and communications can work together to create smarter, more responsive student services.
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About Speaker(s):

Charlotte Miller, Assistant Registrar, Strategic Communications and Marketing, McMaster University
Charlotte specializes in helping teams work smarter through digital transformation, process improvement and collaborative problem-solving. She brings a practical, people-centered approach to leveraging technology to improve service delivery and organizational effectiveness.

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Leanne Ruiz, Associaate Director of Business Transformation, Office of the Registrar, McMaster University
Leanne Ruiz leads cross‑functional initiatives that modernize processes, improve service delivery, and support organizational change. She specializes in bridging strategy, systems, and people to create scalable, human‑centered solutions that enhance both staff workflows and student experiences.

Description:
Managing a digital ecosystem in a regulated industry requires more than just launching websites;it requires building a reusable foundation. In this session, Luke Woolliscroft, Director, IT Digital Customer & Advisor Experience, shares Empire Life's strategy for unifying its digital estate across Drupal 10, the new Drupal 11 architecture, and other non-Drupal applications. Luke will discuss how his team is moving from "disparate sites" to a "unified experience" by focusing on the plumbing that connects them: - The Design System: Standardizing components on [empire.ca](http://empire.ca/) to accelerate development and ensure consistency. - The "Invisible" Layer: Implementing a unified analytics and AODA compliance strategy across the entire portfolio. - Future-Readiness: How Empire Life is preparing its flagship properties for AI Search through structured data and content modelling.
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About Speaker(s):

Luke Woolliscroft is Director, IT, Digital Customer & Advisor Journeys for The Empire Life Insurance Company, a Canadian insurance and investments company.

Description:
This panel brings together digital leaders to discuss the role of accessibility in building inclusive, effective digital experiences. Through an open conversation and audience Q&A, panelists will share perspectives on leadership, responsibility, and how accessibility fits into long-term digital strategy.
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About Speaker(s):

Niki Ramesh, Senior Manager, Product Accessibility, CBC
Niki Ramesh leads product accessibility at CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster and media company. She collaborates with research and product development teams to create innovative accessibility experiences, driven by a deep understanding of the disabled community's needs. A Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA), Niki also contributes to national accessibility standards as a technical committee member with Accessibility Standards Canada.

Pina D'Intino, Accessibility Strategy Adviser and CEO, Aequum

For more than 25 years, Pina D'Intino has been a catalyst for change working with large public and private sector organizations helping them to develop, implement and measure their accessibility progress. An evangelist for role-based training, from leadership to testers and support agents, she ensures that everyone understand their responsibilities towards greater accessibility. Pina is also the project manager for the Business Accessibility Program at IAAP.

Juan Olarte, CEO, Digita11y Accessible Inc./ A11YVERSE

Juan Olarte is a digital accessibility leader and founder of Digita11y Accessible and A11YVERSE. With over 25 years of experience and lived experience with visual impairment, he helps organizations embed accessibility into digital products through practical strategy and responsible use of AI, focused on real and measurable impact.

Description:
This panel brings together digital leaders to explore how design systems support consistency, collaboration, and scalability across organizations. Through an open discussion and audience Q&A, panelists will share perspectives on governance, adoption, and evolving design practices.
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About Speaker(s):

Irina Stoica
Irina is a designer with over 10 years of experience working across digital products and platforms. Over the past 4 years, her work has focused on design systems, with a strong emphasis on token architecture and building scalable foundations for multi-brand, multi-platform products. She specializes in creating systems that balance creativity, flexibility, and real-world development constraints.

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Guy Segal
Guy is a design leader with over 20 years of experience in the tech industry, specializing in UX, product design, and DesignOps. His expertise in design leadership and people management has allowed him to foster innovation and collaboration within design teams, establishing robust design practices and leading them to success. In recent years, Guy has focused on design systems, building and growing teams around the practice, and launching systems that optimize efficiency and enhance user experiences.

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James W. Harrison
James W. Harrison is a Staff Product Designer at Loblaw Digital, where he leads the Helios design system. With over a decade of experience in the design space, James has designed everything from independent magazines to AI-powered conversational interfaces. He occasionally writes (and speaks) about systems, UX, and design, and writes a weekly newsletter dedicated to his endless font of interesting facts, called Know-it-all. James lives in Toronto and enjoys tennis, trivia, and cats.

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Andrea Ong

As a strategist and coach, Andrea's practice is focused on untangling complexity and ambiguity to find a path forward that balances the needs of humans and business at the intersection of ethics, systems, and technology.

Description:
Your marcom team is underwater. The content requests keep coming. Program pages, campaign assets, social posts, email sequences...and leadership wants it faster, better, and with the same headcount. AI tools promise relief, and you've probably already started experimenting. But something's off. The content coming out of these tools is...fine. It's technically accurate. It hits the keywords. But it doesn't sound like your institution. It could have come from any organization in the country. The stories that make your business unique, the voice your audience recognizes, the emotional resonance that drives enrollment decisions. Somewhere in the workflow, you lost it. Here's the problem: most AI content rollouts start with the technology instead of the humans. Teams jump straight to "what can this tool do?" and build workflows around AI capabilities. The result is content that's efficient to produce and forgettable to read. The Human-in-the-Loop Sandwich flips that approach. Humans lead on the front end. Setting strategy, surfacing stories, defining the emotional beat, and brand voice before AI touches anything. AI works in the middle, drafting, scaling, repurposing, and handling the volume that's crushing your team. Humans return at the end to review accuracy, cultural fit, audience nuance, and the gut check that separates authentic content from chatbot output. This structure doesn't just protect quality. It transforms your team's relationship with AI from threat to advantage. Instead of replacing writers and strategists, you're freeing them from the grind work so they can focus on what actually requires human judgment: the ideas, the stories, the creative decisions that make your content connect. The goal isn't automation. It's amplification. Your team's expertise, scaled.
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About Speaker(s):

Brian Piper is an award-winning author, international keynote speaker, and consultant who has been optimizing digital content since 1996. He co-authored the second edition of Epic Content Marketing with Joe Pulizzi, wrote Epic Content Marketing for Higher Education, and hosts the AI for U podcast.He helps higher education and mission-driven organizations collaborate with AI to make their work smarter, faster, and more human, bridging the gap between innovation and impact.

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Description:
When faculty and students don't adopt your new tools or attend your AI workshops, it's tempting to see them as resistant, behind, or simply "not digital." But what if they're protecting something valuable? Universities are fundamentally relational institutions. Faculty prioritize deep connections with students and their disciplines. Students seek belonging and meaningful learning experiences. The "analog" university isn't a problem to solve — it's a signal that people care more about relationships than efficiency. This session explores what happens when we design AI literacy and digital transformation strategies that honor rather than override the relational core of universities. Drawing on work leading institutional AI initiatives and consulting across sectors, I'll share: Why relationship-centered faculty and students approach AI differently than efficiency-minded administrators What shifts when we frame digital adoption as "how does this serve relationships?" rather than "how do we overcome resistance?" Practical examples of engagement strategies that work with the relational nature of universities How a "relational AI" approach creates more sustainable, values-aligned adoption You'll leave understanding why the analog university exists, what it's protecting, and how to design change strategies that strengthen rather than threaten the relationships that make education work.
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About Speaker(s):

Erin Aspenlieder is the Director of the Office of Teaching and Learning at the University of Guelph, where she leads institutional initiatives around teaching innovation and supports educators and programs in teaching practice. She also runs erinai.ca, a consulting practice that helps organizations develop human-centered approaches to AI adoption through what she calls "relational AI" — meeting people in their values and relationships, not just their technical capacity. With 15 years in educational development, Erin works daily with educators who remind her that the best technology serves human connection, not the other way around.

Description:
With AI replacing traditional search journeys, the tactics that used to win page one are evolving fast. This session focuses on what’s changing and what to do about it, including: - How AI search experiences differ from classic SEO (links vs. synthesized answers) - Debunking myths surrounding "LLM Optimization" with proper technical foundations - What brands can do to become “reference-worthy” in AI-generated results
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About Speaker(s):

Justin engages international audiences with an easygoing style and sharp digital intellect. Through his presentations and work, he entertains, informs, and sparks ideas that inspire action and drive impressive online results.

Description:

600+ subsites. 200 plugins. 50 themes. A WordPress Multisite network frozen in 2017. A mandatory jump to PHP 8.

This talk is a survival guide for upgrading legacy WordPress at scale. We’ll skip the basics and dive into the deep end of a major upgrade. You will learn how to audit vast codebases and automate compatibility checks for hundreds of plugins. We’ll talk about the importance of developing a testing plan, with tools for automation but also including manual and user acceptance testing (UAT). Finally, some unexpected issues to expect, and how to manage the deployment of this major change. 

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About Speaker(s):

Jesse Dyck is the WordPress Practice Lead and Solutions Architect at Evolving Web. He loves the block editor and block themes, especially in higher ed and enterprise.

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Description:

Over a 10-month period, U of T Scarborough’s admission website redesign incorporated a disciplined, multi-phase user research program that garnered qualitative and quantitative feedback from a total of 194 prospective student users. With a modest investment, one dedicated user research lead, and a fifth of the total project time, the research directly enabled a high performing digital experience that is measurably advancing recruitment goals. In this talk, we will break down the studies we did, why we did them, how they impacted our design decisions, and how to advocate for them to your leadership so they understand their tangible value.

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Language:
About Speaker(s):

Adie has been working in the user experience field for over 13 years, with roles across the public and private sector, in house and agency-side. She cares about making services and products accessible and easy to use, and she’s been enjoying working on several projects with the web team at U of T Scarborough for the past three years. In her spare time, she’s an avid reader and knitter.

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Description:

Your website isn’t dead, but it’s no longer enough. As AI reshapes customer expectations, static digital experiences must evolve.

AI-powered digital assistants, embedded directly on websites, personalize interactions by answering questions and guiding visitors to take action. In this session, we’ll explore how these assistants transform experiences, including the landing page itself, based on what people ask.

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Language:
About Speaker(s):

Nicole is a technology professional with a background spanning cloud, content management and spatial data. Her experience includes establishing and scaling programs from their start to success, steering team operations, driving go-to-market initiatives, and enhancing partner and analyst relations to boost solution visibility and drive revenue. Nicole has contributed her expertise to companies which include Google, Box, WeWork, Matterport, and Ektron (now known as Optimizely).

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Description:
We hear a lot about the value of creativity in an age of generative AI. It's an important factor. But great content doesn't exist in a vacuum. In this wide-ranging analysis, we'll look at how data and insights help inform ideas and set creative teams up for success. Real-life case studies will illustrate how to achieve a winning formula.
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About Speaker(s):

Sean Stanleigh is Director of Globe Content Studio, the content-marketing division of The Globe and Mail. His team blends audience data with journalistic intuition and experience to craft great storytelling on behalf of brands, positioning them as thought leaders with influential audiences across multiple platforms. Sean's background is rooted in journalism, and he has held a number of senior editing roles at The Globe and the Toronto Star in disciplines that include national, foreign and local news, small business, and entertainment. He has a keen interest in entrepreneurship as former co-founder of a networking events business, he was co-chair of The Globe’s innovation lab and host of the podcast Industry Interrupted, and he participates as a judge in business competitions. Sean regularly appears at events as a host, speaker and moderator.

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Description:
WordPress is built for flexibility. Enterprise design systems need consistency. In this session, I’ll show how we made WordPress behave like a design system: limiting options, trimming core blocks, and shipping a small set of brand-safe blocks and patterns. Real examples from an enterprise build, plus practical tradeoffs and alternatives.
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About Speaker(s):

Dmitry is a front-end engineer focused on design systems and enterprise-scale content platforms. He partners with design and content teams to build token-driven foundations, component libraries, and editor guardrails. His work helps teams move faster by reducing options and making consistency the default.

Description:
Content strategy is fundamental to making sure that the content you build is actually speaking to your audience, and that the pages you create are doing their job. While your design system or style guide is giving you choices for what your content should look like. The result might be on-brand, but how can you be sure it sends the right message? In this session, we’ll look at five types of landing pages, each of which takes a different approach to storytelling. We’ll get into the specifics of the audience, the story that's being told, and how they fit into the bigger user experience. Takeaways: You’ll learn how to make decisions like: Where to put CTAs - How much visual content should be there - Who does my landing page speak to? - How much related content do you sprinkle in? - How does this play a role in the user journey?
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About Speaker(s):

Suzanne is the co-founder of Evolving Web, a digital agency that helps organizations that make a big impact in the world. She helps translate institutional goals and user needs into a tangible digital strategy, often bridging the gap between technology and user experience design. She runs trainings and strategic workshops and has collaborated with teams at Georgia Tech, Princeton University, McGill University and the University of Waterloo.

Venue

Event location

EvolveDigital Toronto will be hosted at the MaRS Centre, a world-class innovation hub in the heart of the Discovery District. As a premier destination for Canada’s tech community, its stunning blend of historic architecture and modern design provides the perfect high-energy backdrop for a day of learning, connection, and inspiration.
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Address

101 College St, Toronto, ON M5G 0A3

Public Transit

The MaRS Centre is a 1-minute walk from Queen’s Park Station, with direct access to Subway Line 1 (Yonge-University) and the 506 Carlton streetcar. It is a 20-minute walk from the CN Tower or about 30 minutes from Union Station.

Parking

There are two parking garages connected to the MaRS Centre. They can be accessed from 218 Elizabeth Street (East Tower) or 661 University Avenue (West Tower).

Airport

The MaRS Centre is approximately 15 to 30 minutes by car from Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and 45 to 75 minutes from Toronto Pearson International Airport (or approx. 30 minutes via the UP Express to Union Station).

Our sponsors

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Join us in other cities

A full program in other East Coast cities, packed with insightful sessions and networking opportunities, tailored for digital strategists, marketers, designers and developers.

Summer 2026
New York City, NY

EvolveDigital NYC

Set against the iconic skyscrapers of the Financial District, this event captures the city’s unmatched energy, innovation, and ambition. Choose to be part of it—sign up for updates and be the first to know when Early Bird tickets go on sale.

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Fall 2026
Boston, MA

EvolveDigital Boston

Rooted in world-class universities and a thriving innovation ecosystem, Boston brings together research, technology, and forward-thinking ideas. Be part of the conversation—sign up for updates and be the first to know when Early Bird tickets go on sale.

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Spring 2027
Montreal, QC

EvolveDigital Montreal

As one of North America’s leading innovation and cultural hubs, Montreal brings together global thinking and a vibrant, bilingual tech community. Stay connected for updates on registration, programming, and participation—and as EvolveDigital expands to other North American cities in 2027.

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Memorable moments

The first EvolveDigital (formerly EvolveDrupal) took place in May 2023. Since then, there have been 10 EvolveDigital summits across Canada and the United States. Scroll through our gallery to relive the energy from past events!

Testimonials

Don’t take our word for it—hear directly from past attendees.

“EvolveDrupal was not just an event; it was a catalyst for inspiration and collaboration, sparking new ideas and forging lasting connections.”

‍John Cloys
Assistant Director of Web & Digital Initiatives

“Possibly the most memorable conference experience I’ve ever had! Leave it to Evolving Web to organize an event so good it was literally out of this world!”
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Joyce Peralta
Manager, Digital Communications

"We’re still buzzing from all the energy at EvolveDrupal Toronto last week! The sessions were inspiring, the conversations were meaningful, and the connections we made were unforgettable."

Pantheon Platform

"Honestly, it was so much fun getting to talk about this work. It was nice to deep dive on design and just nerd out. Thank you so much for having me! All the talks were great. Design systems are top of mind right now."

Chris Mantil
Graphic Designer

About Evolving Web

EvolveDigital is organized by the team at Evolving Web. Our dedicated team of digital experts, event planners, and community enthusiasts work hard to ensure that every event is a success and brings immense value to attendees.

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