2027 CIO PEER FORUM®

May 5 – 6, 2027
Hilton Toronto

The Execution Era:
Orchestrating Intelligence, Value
and Trust at Scale

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Early Bird Pricing Ends February 21st, 2027

Join us May 5 – 6, 2027 as senior technology executives from across the country gather in Toronto for two days of insight, exchange, and strategic connection. As technology leaders, you’re not just implementing change—you’re architecting it. Technology leadership in Canada is at a turning point.

The Execution Era: Orchestrating Intelligence, Value and Trust at Scale

Today’s CIOs are balancing unprecedented opportunity with growing complexity. While AI continues to reshape industries, technology leaders must also navigate economic uncertainty, evolving cyber threats, changing workforce expectations, and increasing demands from boards and business stakeholders. Success belongs to organizations that can adapt, innovate, execute with confidence, and author their future.

© Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal

Photo by Jennifer Friesen, Digital Journal, at the 2026 CIO Peer Forum®

Adaptive Intelligence – Augmenting the Human

Organizations are realizing the potential of AI to increase intellectual capital and have learned that AI experiments are most successful when a human is in the loop, so that both the tools and the people become more effective together. This theme will explore the many, and often competing, definitions of intelligence, what it means to be an intelligent organization, and the human-centred leadership required to be effective in the age of AI. 
Tangible Value – Balancing Innovation, Speed and Risk

As technology becomes inseparable from business strategy, CIOs are increasingly focused on economic outlooks, board engagement, governance, operational priorities, and the imperative to demonstrate measurable business value. Discussions will explore how technology leaders are influencing enterprise direction while balancing innovation with accountability.
Building Together – Talent, Change & Trust

Technology transformation succeeds through people. From leading organizational change and building resilient cultures to advancing diversity in technology leadership, this track explores the human side of leadership, talent development, and the complexities of change management. Conversations will also address the evolving CIO journey, including advisory roles, board participation, mentoring, fractional leadership, and life beyond the traditional executive career path.

Join us in vibrant Toronto for this exciting, value-packed exploration of what it takes to execute at the highest level of IT leadership. Whether you’re orchestrating AI at scale, balancing innovation with risk, or building the trust and talent your organization needs to thrive, this conference offers the insight and inspiration you need to lead with clarity and impact. Expect candid conversations, hands-on insight, fresh perspectives, and actionable strategies tailored to the realities of technology executives like you. Step away from the day-to-day, challenge your assumptions, and connect with a national community of peers who are redefining what it means to Lead in the Execution Era!

Opening Keynote Speaker

Shawn Kanungo

Innovation & Al Speaker

We’re pleased to welcome Shawn Kanungo back to the CIO Peer Forum® stage. Shawn previously joined us as a speaker at the 2023 CIO Peer Forum in Toronto, and we’re excited to have him return for this year’s event.

An innovation strategist and author of The Bold Ones, Kanungo will open the Forum with “Reimagine The Future,” exploring how AI and disruption are changing the role of the CIO. Examine the rise of the agentic enterprise, where AI agents and an empowered workforce work together to rethink how work gets done, while navigating new challenges around security, governance, sovereignty, and investment. Shawn will challenge CIOs to look beyond incremental efficiency and consider what technology can make possible for their organizations in the Execution Era.

Shawn spent 12 years at Deloitte working closely with leaders to help them better plan for the opportunities associated with disruptive innovation. In his high energy keynotes, Kanungo draws on his extensive experience to provide audiences with an optimistic roadmap for the future; one that embraces unexpected approaches to innovation.

2026 CIO Peer Forum® articles from our partner, Digital Journal.

Digital Journal articles

When an agent owns the work, who is responsible?
Agents are moving from doing tasks to running whole workflows. What slows that down, the people building them say, is human.
When an agent owns the work, who is responsible?
Agents are moving from doing tasks to running whole workflows. What slows that down, the people building them say, is human.
Before you sell your security, close the open door
The 2026 threat data says most serious breaches still start with a login, not a hack, and that changes what it means to sell security as a business advantage
When AI writes the code and ships it at 3 a.m.
Boards are pushing Canadian companies to use AI. The code is now shipping itself, unchecked, with the company on the hook for what happens next.
CIOCAN’s push to bring more CIO voices into board governance
For senior technology leaders, influence in the boardroom is no longer optional.
CIOs talk AI readiness, cyber threats and the human cost of leading through both
AI threats, governance gaps, and what happens when the people running the systems push too hard for too long.
AI is going around IT and CIOs know it
At CIOCAN’s sold-out Peer Forum in Vancouver, Canada’s technology leaders spent a day wrestling with the gap between AI expecation and the daily reality of getting there
What agentic AI breaks and why nobody sees it coming
As organizations rush to deploy agentic AI, the systems meant to control it are still catching up. Lenovo’s John Encizo explains where things break, and why those failures are often hard to see.
Who owns your AI memory
The platforms powering AI are already changing the terms. The race to avoid vendor lock-in is underway, and Canadian leaders need to be in it.
Why strong security programs still fail
Andrew Archibald warns that companies “round up their grades” on security, leaving everyday risks hidden inside working systems
Why digital sovereignty is becoming a business issue
As AI systems learn from company data, CIOs are confronting a harder question about ownership, control, and digital sovereignty
The trust gap holding CIOs back in the AI era
AI has raised expectations for CIOs, but credibility inside the business still determines how much influence they have
If AI moves fast, leadership has to move faster
AI can give you an answer or draft a plan in seconds. Then what?

The CIO Association of Canada’s annual conference, the CIO Peer Forum®, is a vibrant community event for attendees and the profession. We recognize the essential role of the CIO Peer Forum® is now more important than ever. We need to bring our IT community together to share the latest trends, provide opportunities for thought leaders to learn about innovations, and be able to network with colleagues in their areas of expertise.
Connect with CIOCAN members and expert speakers from across the country as we share data, insights and best practices as companies shift and pivot to meet new challenges.

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