CIO Peer Forum® 2025

In this session we will explore and learn about the importance of building trust in your MetaData and how that will positively impact your relationship with legal and governance. We will also uncover and discuss how tracking MetaData with standards will immediately improve your AI position and further set you up for success with your corporate partners who are also struggling to manage this growth and demand for speed.
Mr. Fraser is a Partner at Noticia LLP an Ottawa based law firm specializing in modern technology-based approaches to legal Discovery and Governance in Canada. He is an expert in the field of how corporate legal procedures need to adapt to an accelerating use of AI, MetaData and advanced technologies that disrupt historic approaches to issues impacting corporate programs, particularly as it relates to your Legal and Governance teams.
Duncan will provide us guidance and thoughtful insight on:
• The legal challenges CIO’s can expect to face in this emerging AI driven landscape.
• Opportunities, legal priorities, and modern methods of how we can all think about standardizing MetaData across our organizations to create trust and value.
• The hidden high value elements of data that your corporate partners are looking for in this fast-paced AI driven economy.
This is an excellent opportunity to hear ideas, ask questions and learn about what is driving legal expectations surrounding the need for reliable, trustworthy MetaData across Canada.

In this talk, Dr. Joseph Geraci—scientist, entrepreneur, and architect of enterprise AI systems—explores the emerging frontier of Agentic AI and its transformative potential in corporate environments. Going beyond traditional machine learning and large language models (LLMs), Agentic AI refers to systems that can autonomously execute tasks, adapt dynamically to context, and orchestrate complex workflows across platforms.
We will explore locally deployed, agent-enabled middleware that allows enterprises to securely harness the power of AI without sending sensitive data to external servers while reducing costs. This talk also demonstrates how agentic systems can be designed to organize, contextualize, and structure internal data assets—making them not only intelligent assistants, but also scalable knowledge managers. Whether used for legal workflows, IT operations, or marketing automation, these agents reduce cognitive overhead while improving consistency, transparency, and decision support.

For most organizations, the key challenges in AI are around understanding and matching where and how AI can help the business and how to get started. The speed of the AI “Big Bang” has made it very challenging to use traditional enterprise project approaches. This session will focus on how to balance time to deliver value for the best use cases of AI against risk, cost and user adoption.

Let’s take off the armour for a moment. In this off-the-record, boardroom-style conversation, we’ll create space for what doesn’t always make it into keynote speeches — the hard stuff: layoffs, career pauses, burnout, education pivots, personal reinvention, and mental health.

This session is for anyone navigating change — or supporting someone who is. We’ll talk candidly about personal brand, job search realities, recruiter strategy, and how to keep moving forward when the ground beneath you shifts.

Come to speak, to share, or simply to listen. This is a safe, real, and human space — because sometimes, what we need most as leaders isn’t advice. It’s each other, and that is the power of community.

Members Only – Limited Space

The presentation will feature a dynamic panel discussion showcasing examples from industry and government, on how data serves as the driving force behind AI’s ability to solve complex challenges and achieve unprecedented productivity. Highlights will include projects where AI has or will drive innovation and operational excellence advancing Canada’s infrastructures management and industries productivity. This session will also explore how these emerging technology projects are challenging traditional CIO functions, as data analytics are driven by Chief Data Officers. Where should AI leadership by driven from? This session will foster knowledge sharing to inspire progress and elevate national competitiveness.

Moderated by Lucie Loignon.

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the integration of Generative AI (GenAI) is revolutionizing leadership paradigms, particularly for Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Senior Technology Leaders tasked with driving business transformation.

This panel brings together senior technology leaders, and recent graduates of the Rotman CIOCAN CIO Executive Leadership Program & CIO.D alumni, to explore how GenAI is reshaping the role of CIOs. Attendees will gain insights into how GenAI enhances strategic decision-making, streamlines operations, and fosters innovation within their organizations. The discussion will delve into recent Gen-AI successes, overcoming challenges in change management, and navigating the ethical and regulatory landscapes associated with AI initiatives.

This session is an essential event for technology leaders aiming to leverage advanced AI solutions to transform their businesses.

IT departments have historically been labeled as wet blankets to innovation rather than drivers of it. In the post-post-COVID world, shaped by doomscrolling fatigue, the loneliness of hybrid work, and the rise of AI-synthetic creativity—how can we as CIOs turn the tide? It’s time to modernize our approach to creativity – and build IT into a hub of creative work. This talk is about what it takes to build an innovation management program that trains up creativity as a necessary skillset in the modern digital domain.