Theme: Pale Blue Dot

A famous photograph in 1990 described Earth as a pale blue dot, sailing through the vast cosmos. This metaphorical theme can have different meanings for different people. Whether it’s leaving your mark, reframing the narrative, gaining perspective, zooming in or zooming out, this year’s theme is quite open to interpretation.

Corona Theatre
2490 Notre-Dame West
Montreal, Quebec, H3J 1N5
Canada

Andrei Adam

Management Consultant, Student

Andrei is a leader in connecting corporate Canada with the perspectives of Generation Z. Currently studying at McGill University, Andrei has worked with dozens of Canadian companies to help them better understand, engage with and respond to the unique needs of the 16-to-24 age demographic. His work has included creating young employee retention strategies, designing marketing plans, and conducting consumer research for TSX-100s companies, start-ups and Fortune 500 multinationals. Bringing a data-driven approach to his mandates, Andrei combines his own perspective with insights from the 1000s of young people he connects with annually through his work.

Anna Maria Tosco

Psychologist and Tenured Psychology Teacher

Anna-Maria Tosco is a psychologist and tenured psychology lecturer of over 15 years. She has two graduate degrees in psychology and has worked in various Canadian provinces with experiences in healthcare institutions, community organizations, and educational settings. Through practice and education, Anna Maria hopes to show the general public there are normalizing and approachable explanations behind our psychological struggles - she works to make psychological concepts more mainstream to decrease stigma and encourage help-seeking. Changes to her career brought about in 2020 led to the undertaking of this mandate with the help of major media outlets. Anna Maria has often appeared as a guest psychologist on news and talk shows. Today, Anna Maria is grateful to be delivering a meaningful message on the TEDx stage. This message is vital to her professionally and personally in her life as a psychologist, mom, and woman.

Ben Harrison

Speaker

Ben Harrison is a Cambridge educated physicist turned generalist. He has innovated across multiple domains, including medical imaging, aerospace, and nanotechnology. Now, he is focused on pushing the boundaries of Human Light Interaction. He has 16 patents, with another 50 pending.

Farzad Milani

Performer

Farzad Milani is a music producer, accordion player, and researcher based in Montreal. He is finishing his second year at Schulich School of music where he is majoring in a music theory program. His area of speciality is in Persian-Arabic-Turkish modal system and maqam/dastgah musical culture. Currently, he is working on his thesis about the Persian microtonal seventeen-tone system.

Felicia Gisondi

Executive Director and Founder of Sex and Self. Speaker and M.Sc Candidate

Felicia Gisondi is the founder and current Executive Director of Sex and Self. She completed her Bachelor of Education from McGill University in 2022 and is currently pursuing her Master of Science at McGill University. In her sophomore year, Felicia had the idea to create an organization that would pave the way for modernized and inclusive sexual education, something she realized was lacking on university campuses in Canada. Since its conception in 2019, Sex and Self has grown to over 10,000 individuals across Canada and has also created spin-off initiatives such as the Bodies A-Z and Modern Manhood to expand her mission to Montreal classrooms. Felicia continues to be a trailblazer in the Sexual and Reproductive Health sphere and aims to continue her work of promoting comprehensive and modernized sexual and reproductive health education in Canada.

Jason Dellatolla

PhD Candidate

As someone who has been navigating depression for over a decade and has 25 years of gaming experience, Jason understands the extent to which videogames can provide people with an escape from their harsh realities. This is in alignment with recent research showing that videogames can also allow players to learn and practice depression-management skills in a safe, digital environment. By sharing personal stories of what it can feel like to live with depression, Jason wants to connect with those with lived experience—to make them feel a little bit less alone on their path through the thick, dark fog that is Depression.

Joseph Boonen

Performer

Dreamy, poetic and daring, Joseph Boonen draws his musical inspiration from French folklore as well as from modern and techno waves. A lover of nature, Joseph offers us committed music, rich in sounds and words, a soft and inviting universe.

Karim Atassi

Speaker

Karim is an award-winning medical student best recognized for his efforts in promoting unity. He is the recipient of the prestigious Dave Williams Leadership Award for his initiatives on promoting harmony and understanding between Muslims, Christians, and Jews at McGill. He achieved this upon establishing the Arab Student Network (ASN). At the federal level, Karim sat on the Consultation Committee of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students to resolve disagreements on policies regarding housing & homelessness. At the global level, Karim represents Canada in the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance where he advises governments on policies that harbor peace and sustainability through entrepreneurship. In short, Karim is a speaker who explores the healing properties of words in resolving conflicts between people.

Nancy Dewar

Speaker

Nancy Dewar is a sought-after keynote speaker who engages audiences internationally through her experience and warm style. She is a Certified Executive Leadership Coach, PCC, holds a Master of Education in Adult Learning and is a Certified Sales Professional, CSP. Nancy has held senior-level positions and led corporate coaching and learning initiatives. She specializes in leadership development, culture transformation, change management, motivation, and mindfulness and has industry experience, including hospitality, automotive, consumer packaged goods, retail, and pharmaceutical. She is certified in six different assessment tools. Nancy’s passion is to help inspire others to their next level, and she is the founder of Inspiring You Events and runs a Podcast focused on Elevating Women in Leadership. She has written two books and is currently responsible for Mentor Coaching other Executive Coaches around the globe as the Global Director of Coach Partnerships at Ezra Coaching.

Ruoqi Wang

Speaker

Ruoqi Wang is a strong advocate for multiple perspective thinking with a focus on the interrelation between social fabric and the built environment. She is the director of Rewrite Your Narrative, an observer at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) and is currently in pursuit of an architectural degree at McGill University. Having studied across continents, she has developed a global mindset, granting her the Radoslav Zuk Travel Award in Architecture. She practices multiple perspective thinking in problem-solving and has a keen interest in global affairs and leadership. With a background in engineering and an attentiveness in social issues, she is passionate about the intertwining relationship between architectural design, cultural exchange, and social phenomena. She hopes to share the benefits of bridging cultures and disciplines to the public, through the power of speech.

Sharon Gai

Author and Speaker

Sharon Gai has served as General Manager at Pattern, an unicorn ecomtech company. She is a China-born Canadian who has 10+ years in ecommerce, digital marketing and branding. In her tenure at Alibaba, she has advised large to emerging internet-viral brands in crafting their digital marketing and online e-commerce strategy. She has been the keynote speaker at Singularity University, UBS, Ecomworld, Etail, and Ecommerce Asia with over 40,000 attendees as well as the presenter to governments and heads of states on the developments of the tech industry in China. She is the author of the book, Ecommerce Reimagined: what we can learn in retail and ecommerce from China. Sharon has an Honors Bachelor’s degree in International Development from McGill and a Masters in Information Management from Columbia University.

Sophie Arseneault

Sexual and Reproductive Health Advocate

Sophie Arseneault is a long-standing advocate for health equity. Serving as a Board Director for Fòs Feminista's International Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice, she supports youth and community-led approaches to regressive policies impeding on the health and well-being of vulnerable communities. In this capacity, Sophie has identified disparities in policy and programming - addressing inequities through the WHO's Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health. Sophie has previously served as a consultant for the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children's Health, Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights, the International Youth Alliance for Family Planning, and the Inter-Agency Working Group on Reproductive Health in Crises; and currently advises UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA, and UNDP on best practices to enable the scaling of youth-led approaches in the global HIV/AIDS response in regions at risk of being left behind.