Alistair makes early-stage companies improve their go-to-market strategies, and works with some of the world’s largest firms on business model innovation. He also helps governments understand the impact of technology on society, ethics, and resiliency.
As an entrepreneur, Alistair co-founded Coradiant; the Year One Labs accelerator; and a variety of other startups. He has also launched and chaired some of the world’s leading conferences on emerging technology, including Startupfest, Strata, Cloud Connect, FWD50, Bitnorth, and more.
Alistair is the author of four books on technology and entrepreneurship, including the best-selling Lean Analytics, which has been translated into eight languages and is in its tenth printing in China. He speaks internationally on topics such as data science, innovation, scaling startups, digital government, AI, and applying critical thinking to technology. A graduate of Dalhousie University, he has also been a visiting executive on data science and critical thinking at Harvard Business School.
Sessions
Jacqueline and FWD50 Chair Alistair Croll kick off a day-long series of executive talks focusing on the unique challenges digital leaders face in a tech-driven public service. Presented in partnership with the Association of Professional Executives of the Government of Canada (APEX).
Technology infrastructure has undergone massive shifts in the last decade. Simply put, the way we build, deliver, and maintain IT services is almost unrecognizable from the early days of the Internet. So how should leaders adjust their thinking for this new world?
In this Fireside Chat, FWD50 chair Alistair Croll sits down with Mark Schwartz—Who served as CIO of the US Citizenship and Immigration... read more
Alistair and Jacqueline comment on the morning’s learnings and look ahead to the afternoon.
We open the second day of FWD50 with a look at global co-operation. In partnership with the Digital Nations, which Canada is hosting for 2020, we’ll look at how progressive governments are sharing best practices and tackling some of the most promising—and controversial—technologies that can drive public sector services forward.
2020 has been a crucible for both government, and the platforms on which it relies. The public sector has shown it can react quickly, at scale, using tools that simply weren’t available a decade ago. By tackling health, policy, and the economy digitally, we’ve also created a roadmap for the future of government in a digital age. But where do we go from here?
Dr. Julia Glidden... read more
Your hosts wrap up the morning and get you ready for an afternoon of learning and networking!
Alistair and Rebecca kick off the day and highlight some of the amazing sessions we have planned.
Trust in government is wavering around the world. Fake news, conspiracies, and a business model of outrage has ended reasonable discourse and healthy compromise. We can disagree—but we must agree on how to resolve those disagreements if we are to function in modern society. How do we govern in a post-trust world, where facts compete with outrage?
The Civic Tech movement provides a possible... read more
Your hosts wrap up the morning and get you ready for an afternoon of learning and networking!
Alistair and Rebecca kick off the day and highlight some of the amazing sessions we have planned.
Around the world, trust in governments is at an all-time low. Many have lost capacity and confidence. Yet only governments can solve the interlocking crises of health, employment, racism and the environment that the world confronts. The answer to our problems is not to abandon the idea of government, but to reinvent it. In this conversation with Alistair Croll, Professor Beth Simone Noveck, director... read more
Open Source is more than a software license. It’s a mindset for working in the open, transparently, with a recognition that we’re stronger together. Today, Open is a stack: Open compute, open code, open data, open services, and open communities. In this session, Red Hat Chief Strategist Todd Wilson discusses the impact an open mindset has the behaviour of teams and the impact of organizations.
Using... read more
Your hosts wrap up the morning and get you ready for an afternoon of learning and networking!
How do you use technology to mitigate the worst pandemic in recent history? If you’re DJ Patil, you bring your background in data science, and your experience in the public and private sector, to bear. In 2020, DJ took months off from his role as head of technology at Devoted Health to be an unpaid volunteer supporting California’s efforts on COVID-19. His 6 lessons learned to get ready... read more
Join your host for a look back at the past week and a glimpse of what the next 2 days will bring!
Your hosts wrap up the morning and get you ready for an afternoon of learning and networking!
Following his morning keynote, Farhad Mohit, joined by our hosts, will take a deeper dive into how digital-native thinking can bring voting into the 21st century—and save democracy as we know it.
Details to come!
