Forum on The Future of Smart Communities – May 5

As urbanization accelerates around the world in the 21^st century, municipalities are feeling unprecedented pressure on environmental issues and their capacity to deliver services to their expanding population bases.

The mass movement of people to urban centres is forcing municipalities to think about ‘smart’ development: building communities that are instrumented, integrated and intelligent. Underpinning much of smart development is the exponential rise of information communication technologies.

As part of its ongoing contribution to the regional innovation ecosystem, the University of Ontario Institute of Technology will host its second-annual Futures Forum on Thursday, May 5.

Focusing on The Future of Smart Communities, the forum will consist of three themes running concurrently throughout the day:

• Innovation
• Mobility
• Energy

Representatives from academia, government and leading corporations initiate discussion on strategies for developing smarter communities that are socially inclusive, innovative, digitally enabled, and economically and culturally robust.

• Link to Futures Forum 2016 agenda, moderators and panelists

Note to reporters: Participants will be available for interviews during break periods throughout the day.

When:
Thursday, May 5, starting at 9 a.m.

Where:
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
Science Building, Founding Deans Atrium
2000 Simcoe Street North
Oshawa, Ontario

In addition to UOIT senior leaders and various university researchers, Futures Forum participants include: 

• Steve Carlisle, President and Managing Director, General Motors of Canada
• Glenn Case, Senior Technical Advisor, Port Hope Area Initiative
• Dennis Croft, President and CEO, Spark Centre
• Hugh Drouin, Commissioner, Social Services, Regional Municipality of Durham
• Giles Gherson, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Research and Innovation
• Pat Horgan, Vice-President, Manufacturing, Development and Operations, IBM
• Ken Knox, Chair, Science, Technology and Innovation Council
• David Paterson, Board Chair, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
• Gary Rose, Vice-President, Project Planning and Control, Nuclear Refurbishments, Ontario Power Generation

Website: uoit.ca/futuresforum

Parking: Founders Lot 3, adjacent to Founders Drive and Founders Gate.

• Directions and campus map (select UOIT north Oshawa location)

To RSVP for the Futures Forum or to arrange advance interviews, please contact:
Bryan Oliver
Communications and Marketing
University of Ontario Institute of Technology
905.721.8668 ext. 6709
289.928.3653 (cell)
bryan.oliver@uoit.ca