Event category: Breakout

Scaling a startup isn’t just about hitting product milestones-it’s about building people infrastructure that can stretch and evolve without breaking. From hiring your first P&C leader to navigating founder transitions and funding inflection points, this session offers practical insights for those supporting startups through the most volatile growth stages. 

Distributed teams are here to stay- but with global reach comes complexity, inefficiency, and misalignment. As organizations scale, the friction between geographies, time zones, and cultures can create operational drag. In this session, Vimal Patel will share insights from his experience at Kinaxis, where he has helped teams across continents stay aligned, agile, and effective. Attendees will gain practical strategies for designing and streamlining operations so distributed teams can thrive, no matter where they’re located.

In a fast-moving, competitive tech world- where AI, market shifts, and leaner teams are reshaping what success looks like- how do you define and grow truly great talent? At Klue, Senior People Business Partner Simran Bahia helped build a clear, three-pronged framework around performance, potential, and culture contribution. This approach not only provides clarity for employees, but also equips leaders to build high-performing, resilient, and collaborative teams. In this session, Simran shares how Klue refined this model, embedded it into culture and performance reviews, and used it as a springboard for growth and innovation. Expect a refreshingly honest and tactical look at how to evaluate, support, and elevate top talent in today’s tech sector.

Compensation for key tech jobs has increased at unprecedented rates year over year and has started to cool. What happens when the hiring environment changes? As Canada’s tech industry continues to mature we are experiencing economic cycles, government policies and shifting landscapes that challenge how we compensate and incent our employees.  All in the midst of a new transparent environment that pressure tests our internal structures, processes and programs. In this session, Mercer’s Liz Elliott and Jennifer Kwong contrast the current state of tech against other industries that have precedent undergoing significant shifts. We will highlight examples of resilience, hard decisions and innovation that drive strength through change and discuss unintended consequences that we only saw in hindsight. The discussion will be fueled by data, including Mercer’s salary planning forecasts going into 2026 and a summary of this year’s hottest jobs.

In today’s fast-moving tech landscape, successful change hinges on strong HR leadership. Whether implementing new technologies, evolving team structures, or pivoting business priorities, HR leaders must not only manage change—they must lead it. This session equips you with actionable tools to plan, communicate, and sustain change through strategic project management and people-centered leadership.

Company culture is most vulnerable during times of organizational upheaval-but it’s also when it matters most. Whether your company is navigating layoffs, leadership turnover, or restructuring, this session offers tools to help HR leaders hold the cultural line while supporting employees and rebuilding trust.