TESS 2025

Danielle Goldfarb

Senior Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and Centre for International Governance Innovation

The Next Generation of Public Interest Intelligence: Using New Tools to Confront the AI, Data, and Trade Shocks

Students, educators, and leaders across Canada are grappling with many shocks at once. The ubiquitous use of ChatGPT is raising deep concerns for educators and students including those about to enter the work force. The trade and tariff whiplash under Trump 2.0 has created major uncertainty and forced Canadians to reconsider long-held assumptions. Add to this list many other shocks including the climate crisis, a massive geopolitical recalibration, and a purge of evidence and government data not only in China and Russia but also in the United States.

This moment of overlapping shocks is also one of opportunity. The stunning advances in AI now available to anyone–including non-experts–combined with the world’s largest dataset ever provides an opportunity to create the next generation of public interest intelligence. We have the tools to create a much deeper and richer understanding of the world and to better zero in on solutions.

This talk explores both these risks and the new possibilities, using real-world examples and classroom experiments. These include using AI, sensors, and satellite images to monitor the Arctic as the US stops collecting key weather data and using digital tools and AI to anticipate and reroute trade disruptions as Canada can no longer count on free trade. The talk also asks how educators can prepare students not only to use these tools but to challenge them and use them to advance the greater public good, by drawing on experiments in which students deliberately mislead generative AI or where they successfully use it to expand what is possible beyond traditional policy and research. The goal is to consider the step change now possible to advance the public interest in the face of major disruption.

Dr. Andre De Freitas

AI Architect & Education Strategist

Student Panel: Shaping the Future of AI in Education

Join us for an insightful and engaging student panel that explores the intersections of artificial intelligence, empowerment, and educational innovation. Moderated by EdVisingU CEO Dr. Andre De Freitas, this panel brings together student voices to discuss the evolving landscape of higher education in the digital era. Panelists will share personal narratives, challenges overcome, and the transformative power of AI as both a tool and a catalyst for growth. From reimagining traditional classrooms and fostering academic honesty to ensuring equitable access and participation in AI policymaking, the conversation will highlight how students are not just adapting to change but actively shaping the future of learning. This event offers a unique opportunity to learn from the next generation of leaders, discover strategies for success, and connect with a community committed to growth, achievement, and the responsible integration of technology in education.

Darian Kovacs

Author, Founder, Speaker,
Jelly Academy

Darian is the Métis founder of Vancouver based PR, digital ads & SEO company Jelly Digital Marketing & PR and digital literacy and marketing school, Jelly Academy and a partner with the Spark Agency Group collective. He is the host of the podcast Métis Speaker Series and loves doing workshops. He volunteers on the board of the Digital Marketing Sector Council, ISET National Gathering, NPower Canada and his local Metis charter community – Waceya. He is the editor of IndigenousSME Magazine and freelances with publications like BCBusiness, Future Economy, Globe & Mail, Forbes and Entrepreneur magazine. His recent book Marketing Mentors features interviews with Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and marketing leads from LEGO, Lululemon and Starbucks. Most recently he helped launch an Indigenous language in the Roblox ecosystem for K-12 learners. Darian lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife and four children and likes to mountain bike, sauna, swim, grow dahlias and watercolour and read YA novels in his free time.

Anne-Marie
Scott

Vice-President,
Commonwealth of Learning

Rediscovering Open Education for a Resilient Future

Postsecondary institutions across Canada are rapidly adjusting to economic scarcity as a result of changes to international student recruitment and doing this within the broader complexities of our current world moment where we need to support learning across a lifetime of uncertainty, and with diminishing resources. It is has become abundantly clear (if it wasn’t already) that business-as-usual operating models are no longer fit for purpose and won’t support us to meet the challenges ahead. Compounding this is a tendency towards historical amnesia and constant reinvention; often the answers we need are already out there waiting to be rediscovered.

This talk will outline the ways in which various elements of the open education ecosystem are effective and innovative approaches that we can use to meet some of these big challenges head-on, and (I hope) provide some inspiration to keep us moving forward.