Keynotes

Anthony morgan

Host, The Nature of Things (CBC) and Award-winning Science Communicator

Anthony Morgan is an award-winning science communicator, Ph.D. researcher, start-up founder, and game designer who has hosted dozens of TV programs. Morgan is the new host of The Nature of Things on CBC Television–and he is obsessed with changing how people see, think, and talk about science in their everyday lives. He has spent close to 20 years finding ways to do just that, having worked at the Ontario Science Centre with Asap SCIENCE, written for newspapers, hosted CBC Radio programs, collaborated with municipal governments, and served on the steering committee of the misinformation-tackling Science Up First. These efforts have earned Morgan multiple distinctions and award nominations, including a Falling Walls nomination for a breakthrough science engagement initiative. He was also named one of CBC's top 20 millennial change-makers.

TUESDAY, November 18MORNING PLENARY

katherena vermette

Writer, Storyteller

katherena vermette (she/her/hers) is a Michif (Red River Métis) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation, Winnipeg. katherena’s work, ranging across genres, has garnered critical acclaim and numerous literary awards, and has included national bestsellers. In 2013, her first book, North End Love Songs (Muses’ Company), won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. Among her subsequent publications are the novels The Break (House of Anansi); The Strangers, The Circle and real ones (Hamish Hamilton); the picture-book The Girl and The Wolf (Theytus); the graphic novel series A Girl Called Echo (Highwater); and a book of poetry, procession (House of Anansi). katherena also co-wrote and co-directed This River, winner of the 2017 Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Documentary.

katherena holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia and an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Manitoba. Born in Winnipeg, her Michif roots on her paternal side run deep in St. Boniface, St. Norbert, and beyond. Her maternal side is Mennonite from the Altona and Rosenfeld area (Treaty 1). katherena lives with her family in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.

TUESDAY, November 18 AFTERNOON PLENARY

Antony wood

Professor-in-Practice and Director of the Masters in Tall Buildings and Vertical Urbanism

Dr. Antony Wood is Professor-in-Practice and Director of the Master of Tall Buildings and Vertical Urbanism (MTBVU) programme in the College of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT); CEO of Antony Wood Consulting LLC; and a visiting professor of architecture at Tongji University, Shanghai. His specialization is the design—and in particular, the sustainable design—of tall buildings and vertical cities, with an emphasis on the role of mass timber in a sustainable urban future. From 2006 to 2025, Dr. Wood was President/CEO of the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Over his 20-year tenure, he developed the organization from a predominantly USA- and engineering-focused society into the global, multi-disciplinary entity it is today. Notable achievements include staff growth from one to forty; a ten-fold increase in membership; formation of regional offices in Asia and Europe, as well as myriad chapters and committees around the world; establishment of the CTBUH research division, with several million dollars of funding; growth of the annual conference and awards programme into world-class events; expansion of content-creation and publishing divisions; and the establishment of the world’s first master's degree focused on tall buildings and vertical urbanism, a joint programme between CTBUH and IIT.

Prior to becoming an academic, Dr. Wood worked as an architect in practice in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, and the UK. During that time, between 1991–2001, he developed his passion for, and professional background in, tall buildings and cities. He is the author of numerous books and papers in the fields of tall buildings and sustainability. His Ph.D. dissertation explored the multi-disciplinary aspects of skybridge connections between tall buildings. Dr. Wood was conference chair and chair of the scientific committee at all CTBUH conferences between 2006–2024; chair of the CTBUH Tall Buildings Sustainability Committee; chair of the Expert Peer Review Committee; a member of the CTBUH Height Committee; and chair of the CTBUH Best Tall Buildings Awards Jury, 2006–2024. He has presented at 100-plus conferences, and regularly lectures around the world.

WEDNESDAY, November 19
MORNING PLENARY

HARRISON MOONEY

Memoirist, Journalist, Educator, and Activist

Dr. Harrison Mooney is a bestselling memoirist, award-winning journalist, public speaker, educator, and activist from Canada’s west coast. The son of a Ghanaian immigrant mother, he was adopted at birth by a white, fundamentalist Christian family and raised in the “Bible Belt” of British Columbia. Harrison’s debut memoir, Invisible Boy, which traces his childhood journey “from white cult to Black consciousness,” was the winner of the 2023 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for nonfiction, and has been shortlisted for two BC & Yukon Book Prizes, as well as the prestigious Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Before pivoting to publishing, Harrison worked for The Vancouver Sun for nearly a decade as a reporter, editor, and columnist, winning the 2018 Jack Webster Award in breaking news reporting for his newsroom’s coverage of the 2017 BC wildfires. Harrison's work has also appeared in The New York Times, The National Post, The Guardian, The Tyee, and Maclean's.

Harrison narrated Season 2 of TVO Arts, an award-winning video series that decodes and demystifies iconic works of Canadian art. He is the regular host of Unbound, a growing collective that celebrates and nurtures Black creative voices. Founded in 2020 by fellow transracial adoptee Hope Lauterbach, the Unbound Reading Series produces literary events that feature emerging and established Black authors and poets. He is the co-founder of the long-running hockey blog Pass it to Bulis, still going strong in its fifteenth year. Harrison lives in East Vancouver with his family and family dog, Bootsy.

WEDNESDAY, November 19AFTERNOON PLENARY

Jay Kiew

Change Fluency Expert

Jay Kiew is the world’s leading expert on change fluency and a renowned keynote speaker with more than 13 years of strategy and human capital experience. He has created more than $2B of impact for 400+ executives by designing, developing, and delivering organizational transformation.

But Kiew’s story extends far beyond the professional arena: he is a half-blind cancer survivor, whose life is a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. His remarkable blend of professional expertise and personal resilience equips leaders to hack through the thick of change and disruption. Kiew spent his corporate career working at Deloitte, TELUS, and ADP, where he led mission-critical strategic transformations. This included a $150-million primary-care health policy reform and $13-million tech transformations, doubling app users from 1 to 2 million and scaling 15 product lines to $35 million in 12 months. At the age of 19, Kiew became the world's youngest Distinguished Toastmaster. He has since been featured in The Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, The Financial Post, Ivey Business Journal, and Change Leadership, among other publications. He also sits on the Project Management Institute’s Board of Directors for the Canadian West Coast Chapter. Kiew holds an MBA from the Ivey Business School and is a Prosci-certified PMP and Insights psychometric practitioner.