AccelerateGOV 2026
AccelerateGOV 2026 takes place on 16–17 December 2026 at Shaw Centre, Ottawa. It is organised by Government of Canada and Global Government Forum, and B2DB lists 47 speakers and 47 sessions announced so far.
AccelerateGOV is an open conference for public servants, organised by Global Government Forum and co-hosted by the Government of Canada. It explores, through panel discussions and audience Q&As, how staff from different professions — including policy, HR, finance, legal, commercial, research and operational delivery as well as digital and data specialists — can work in partnership to deliver transformed public services. It features speakers from the Government Digital Summit and is free to attend for public servants.
Key facts
| Dates | 16–17 December 2026 (upcoming) |
|---|---|
| Venue | Shaw Centre, Ottawa, Canada |
| Organisers | Government of Canada, Global Government Forum |
| Series | AccelerateGOV |
| Speakers | 47 |
| Sessions | 47 |
| Stages | Main Stages, Impact Stages, Roundtables, AI Avenue |
| Sponsors | 37 |
| Official site | digital.globalgovernmentforum.com/conference-agenda-26 |
Keynote speakers
- Marie-Chantal Girard President, Public Service Commission of Canada
- Ben Piercey Chief Technology Officer, AffinitiQuest
Speakers (47)
Compiled from the published agenda; speakers can claim and verify their own entry.
- Marie-Chantal Girard President, Public Service Commission of Canada
- Ben Piercey Chief Technology Officer, AffinitiQuest
- Robert Michon Honorary Governor, Micro Logic
- Andrea Podruski Chief Operating Officer and Director General of Standards and Research, Accessibility Standards Canada
- Anthony P. Sheehan Chief Digital Officer, Public Safety Canada
- Beatrice Baribeau Chief Data Officer, and ADM of Strategic Data Management, Methods, and Analysis, Statistics Canada
- Birna Iris Jonsdottir CEO, Digital Iceland, Ministry of Economic Affairs
- Brian Hickey Assistant Deputy Minister, Benefits Delivery Modernization Implementation in the Service Design Branch, Employment and Social Development Canada
- Capt(N) Jon Lee Director, Digital Navy, Royal Canadian Navy
- Chika Masuda Head of Intelligence Research, Digital Agency of Japan
- Chris Allison Director General for AI and Data, Department of National Defence
- Elise Legendre Chief Data Officer, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
- Émile Wandji CPA, MBA Director General of Finance and Administration and Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Public Service Commission of Canada
- Erica Ren Chief Data Officer, Shared Services Canada
- Hamoon Ekhtiari Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, FutureFit AI
- Hugh Cairns Customer Advisory, SAS Canada
- Jared Killoran Account Technical Leader, Fed Gov, IBM Canada
- Jean-Sébastien Guy Executive Vice President, Revenue, Micrologic
- Jordan Zed Senior Assistant Deputy Minister, Service, Digital and Delivery Integration, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
- Keith Jansa CEO, Digital Governance Council
- Kristina Casey Assistant Deputy Minister, Chief Service and Digital Officer, Transport Canada
- Lauri Luht Government CIO, Justice and Digitalisation Ministry, Estonia
- Liane Catalfo Director, AI & Data, Deloitte
- Liz McKeown Executive Director, Digital Community Management, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
- Louise McKeever Government CIO, Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, Ireland
- Malte Spitz Member, National Regulatory Control Council, Germany
- Marc Brouillard Chief Information Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Public Services and Procurement Canada
- Mark Schaan Associate Deputy Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada
- Martin Boucher Director of Government Digital Communications, Government Communication Secretariat, Ministry of Executive Council, Government of Québec
- Michael Goit Executive Director & Chief Architect, Digital Credentials, Canadian Digital Service / Employment and Social Development
- Nadine Repple SVP and NCR Business Unit Leader, CGI
- Nathan Johnson Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Worldwide Public Sector, OpenText
- Olivia Neal Director, Government Strategy - Worldwide Public Sector, Microsoft
- Peter Scheffler Senior Global Solutions Architect, F5
- Philippe Van Damme Deputy Director General, DG DIGIT, EU
- Rafael Carvalho de Fassio Procuradoria Geral do Estado de São Paulo
- Sandy Kyriantakos CIO, National Research Council
- Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère Assistant Deputy Minister, Emergency Management and Programs, Public Safety Canada
- Shannon Kot Partner, Deloitte
- Yannick Newton Director of Intergovernmental Cooperation, Institute for Citizen-Centred Service
- Yuriy Matsyk Advisor of the Digital Infrastructure Development, Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine
- Emily Middleton Director General, Digital Centre Design, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
- Emmanuel Cron Business Lead Integrated Channels and Solutions, Service Canada
- Jonathan Macdonald Executive, AI Strategy, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
- Kim Steele Assistant Deputy Minister and Chief Transformation Officer Human Capital Management, Public Services and Procurement Canada
- Melanie Desjardins Director, Northwest Territories Centre for Geomatics, Government of the Northwest Territories
- Vernon von Finckenstein Director General, Digital Policy & Design, Government of Canada
Most represented companies
- Deloitte — 2 speakers
- Micrologic — 2 speakers
- Public Safety Canada — 2 speakers
- Public Service Commission of Canada — 2 speakers
- Public Services and Procurement Canada — 2 speakers
- Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat — 2 speakers
Agenda (47 sessions)
Day 1 — Wednesday 16 December 2026
- Welcome Address 09:00–09:05 · Main Stages
- Keynote address 09:05–09:15 · Main Stages
- Keynote address – Verifiable human oversight: Keeping human judgment at the heart of agentic AI 09:15–09:25 · Main Stages — Ben Piercey
- Fireside Chat 09:25–09:50 · Main Stages — Mark Schaan
- The transformation imperative – why government must change, and how to make it happen 09:50–10:40 · Main Stages — Kristina Casey, Shannon Kot
- Micrologic's Sovereign Digital Vault 10:50–11:10 · Impact Stages — Jean-Sébastien Guy
- AI Agents Driving the Next Wave of ServiceOps 10:50–11:10 · Impact Stages
- The Sovereign AI Control Plane: Govern Everything, Lock Into Nothing 10:50–11:10 · Impact Stages — Jared Killoran
- Learning the most important lessons from digital transformation pioneers 11:10–12:00 · Main Stages — Lauri Luht
- Matching user needs to public services 11:10–12:00 · Main Stages — Brian Hickey, Martin Boucher
- Defending the digital state – is cyber resilience possible in the AI age? 11:10–12:00 · Main Stages — Anthony P. Sheehan
- From Ambition to Action: Modernizing Government for Better Outcomes 11:50–12:10 · Impact Stages
- Agentic AI for Government: Trusted context. Human oversight. Accountable action. 12:20–12:40 · Impact Stages — Nathan Johnson, Olivia Neal
- AI on Canadian terms: Delivering a sovereign, scalable AI stack 12:30–13:30 · Roundtables
- Scaling AI: From proof of concept to better outcomes for citizens 12:30–13:30 · Roundtables
- Sovereignty as a Service: Building better outcomes, greater choice, and value for money 12:30–13:30 · Roundtables
- How Data & AI Drive Savings, Efficiency and Integrity in Government Operations 12:50–13:10 · Impact Stages — Hugh Cairns
- Rewiring finance and procurement to enable, not hinder, innovation 13:00–13:50 · Main Stages — Rafael Carvalho de Fassio
- An app for that: Designing government apps to join up and modernize public services 13:00–13:50 · Main Stages — Capt(N) Jon Lee, Michael Goit
- Citizen Services, Reimagined: From Ambition to Action 13:20–13:40 · Impact Stages — Liane Catalfo
- From data to decisions – redoubling the role of public servants to provide the best advice in government 14:00–14:50 · Main Stages — Chris Allison, Malte Spitz
- Empowering civil servants to test and learn new delivery approaches 14:00–14:50 · Main Stages — Chika Masuda, Hamoon Ekhtiari, Liz McKeown
- Defence as an engine for growth: Unlocking strategic value for the economy 15:10–16:00 · Main Stages
- Fireside Chat 15:10–15:35 · Main Stages
- AI in government – moving from cautious pilots to scaled deployment 15:35–16:25 · Main Stages — Jordan Zed
Day 2 — Thursday 17 December 2026
- Welcome Address 09:00–09:05 · Main Stages
- Keynote address 09:05–09:15 · Main Stages — Marie-Chantal Girard
- How to rewire and simplify government to get collaboration right 09:15–10:05 · Main Stages — Erica Ren, Philippe Van Damme, Yannick Newton
- How improved data governance can help shape the public services of the future 10:10–11:00 · Main Stages — Beatrice Baribeau
- Building the public service of the future: Can AI-powered officials drive government in the digital age? 10:10–11:00 · Main Stages — Marie-Chantal Girard, Birna Iris Jonsdottir
- Leveraging technology to help identify and combat fraud 10:10–11:00 · Main Stages
- Putting science at the centre of government 10:10–11:00 · Main Stages — Sandy Kyriantakos
- Sovereignty as a Service: Better Outcomes, Greater Choice, and Value for Money 10:20–10:40 · Impact Stages
- Securing your organization from AI threats 10:20–10:40 · Impact Stages — Peter Scheffler
- When AI Needs Human Approval: Verifiable Oversight in Action 10:20–10:40 · Impact Stages
- Know Your Documents (KYD): Prevent Fraud by Transforming your Documents into Verifiable Credentials 10:50–11:10 · Impact Stages
- Building a sovereign AI core for the Government of Canada 10:50–11:50 · Roundtables
- Quantum leap: How governments should prepare for quantum computing now 11:30–12:20 · Main Stages
- Funding transformation: Why the shift from capital to revenue spending matters 11:30–12:20 · Main Stages
- Accessibility and inclusive design as a transformation enabler 11:30–12:20 · Main Stages — Andrea Podruski
- The crisis is the work: How to deliver government in the age of permacrisis 11:30–12:20 · Main Stages — Sébastien Aubertin-Giguère, Yuriy Matsyk
- Next Generation Agentic AI solutions 13:20–13:40 · AI Avenue — Émile Wandji CPA, MBA
- Procurement for public value: Can government purchasing drive growth? 13:20–14:10 · Main Stages — Marc Brouillard
- Harnessing ideas from outside government to solve the biggest challenges 13:20–14:10 · Main Stages — Keith Jansa, Louise McKeever, Nadine Repple
- How digital sovereignty can make government more secure in uncertain times 13:20–14:10 · Main Stages — Robert Michon
- Accelerating transformation: What public servants can do tomorrow morning 14:10–15:10 · Main Stages — Elise Legendre
- Summary and Thank You 15:10–15:20 · Main Stages
Organisers, sponsors and partners
Organiser (1)
Co-Organiser (1)
Sponsors (37)
Red Hat · Dell Technologies · Okta · IBM · Carahsoft · Dayforce · sailpoint · OpenText · HP · Apption · Skillsoft · Workday · SAS · Pluralsight · WinMagic · CBN · Fujitsu · CGI · Vaultie · Chainalysis · Tanium · Lexum · Micrologic · AltaML · Quantexa · BMC Helix · Levio · Global Relay · GRANICUS · Unit4 · Deloitte · SRA Group · 4Point · EY · Xerox · Maximus Canada · BeyondTrust
Exhibitors (6)
Carahsoft · Council of Canadian Innovators · IDENTOS · Micrologic · AltaML · Qu Data Centres
Source: the published agenda. See how B2DB compiles its records.