Alberta has a reputation for being transactional and infrastructure-focused, and the new technology conference this November aims to apply that brand to a new style of conference.
Future summit 2025 bills itself as North America's premier conference on emerging technologies and business innovation, designed to skip the talking points and focus on deals, collaboration and results.
“I strive to measure impact, not the number of visitors.”
Josh Rainbow, Future Summit
“It’s impossible to gain momentum in Canada if every conversation ends in discussion,” said Josh Rainbow, founder of Future Summit.
“You build it by putting the right people in the room and giving them time to figure it out.”
The conference, which will take place from November 18 to 20 at the BMO Center in Calgary, will be the first full-scale event after a series of small pilots last year.
The summit program focuses on the intersection of traditional industries and artificial intelligence, with sessions focusing on the future of work, infrastructure readiness, and scaling pilot projects to full-scale production.
The goal of the Future Summit is to bring builders and buyers together to solve problems and make deals.
Eric Gayles, President of AWS Canada, will deliver the keynote address “Unlocking the Potential of Canada's Artificial Intelligence.” Amazon Web Services opened its Canada West computing center in Calgary in 2023 and announced plans to invest more $4 billion in Alberta until 2037.
The conference will focus on facilitating specific discussions about the challenges and opportunities of such large-scale moves, with the smallest facilitated sessions bringing together as few as 12 people to discuss solutions in a private, informal setting. The largest sessions will involve up to 200 people, with 30-minute breaks between discussions to move the deal forward.
Rainbow said overall conference attendance will also be limited to about 1,200 people, which he considers the “sweet spot” for meaningful participation.
“This event is focused on ROI,” Rainbow said. “Every conversation will be about that.”
This approach has already proven itself. At a VIP dinner for 45 people last year, Rainbow reported that three seven-figure deals were struck in one evening. Pilot events also included a 200-person breakfast focused on data centers and energy, designed for decision makers to network without the typical conference appearance.
“For the Future Summit, we only increased that by 10 times,” Rainbow said of the conference format.
This event reflects a deliberate shift from productivity to performance. There are no paid speakers, no pre-calls, and no camera sessions. The panelists don't even meet beforehand to make room for more authentic conversations.
“When you have people who are actually very smart, they bring living solutions to the stage that people can empathize with and respond to,” Rainbow said.
Calgary's reputation for dealmaking, coupled with Alberta's expertise in energy resources and infrastructure, made it a natural choice to host this event.
“You're always one coffee conversation away from the next collaboration,” Rainbow said of the city's innovation ecosystem.
The timing of the future summit also coincides with the plans of the federal government. AI Strategy Task Forcewhich launched in September to shape Canada's approach to sovereign AI. Key members of the task force are expected to attend the Future Summit.
Business leaders who will attend the event say Canada has the talent, capital and technical know-how to become a leader in both energy and artificial intelligence. What is missing is greater alignment between these areas.
“Alberta has qualities that make it an attractive market for data center expansion,” said Carson Kearl, lead data center analyst at Enverus, who will speak at the conference.
Attendee Yuri Navarro, partner at Kanata Ventures, hopes events like the Future Summit will help spur real action across the country.
“Canada has a small window to take advantage of the enormous potential of artificial intelligence, and the time to act is now. Capital and operators must come together if we hope to transform Canadian research capabilities into global technology companies,” Navarro said.
To achieve this, Future Summit carefully considers the discussions it hosts and who participates in them, and Rainbow said he is not afraid to call and find out who will be in the room.
“We are built for decision makers,” Rainbow added. “If you don't have the budget, the commitment to attract investment or make regulatory changes, you won't get any benefit from your presence.”
“I strive to measure impact, not the number of visitors.”
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Join the most ambitious founders, investors and technology leaders at the Future Summit, November 18-20 in Calgary. Get your tickets here.
All photos courtesy of Future Summit.
