Why Attend

CICan’s Connection Conference – Collective Intelligence

CICan’s Annual Conference is the largest event of its kind in Canada! It fosters connections between post-secondary institutions from all across the country and around the world. In 2020, these connections will focus on strengthening our collective intelligence.

Knowing how to use and leverage all forms of intelligence is essential to the development of both individuals and societies. By using a holistic and creative approach to meet the needs of a diverse student population, colleges and institutes help foster individual and collective intelligence. This theme resonates with our amazing host city, Montreal, renowned as a hub of cultural, environmental, and artificial intelligence!

Conference at a GlanceRegister

Conference Streams

The conference is organized into 6 streams, outlined below, with cross-cutting topics of relevance to each stream incorporated across the program: Indigenous Education and Applied Research and Innovation.

Governing Excellence

For future-oriented leadership teams, including board members and CEOs, this stream will present sessions related to institutional planning, and creating institutional structures that drive change and capitalize on the diverse abilities of faculty, staff and technology.

Examples include:
  • Building intelligent partnerships to develop a leadership role within the larger community
  • Creating nimble institutions able to seize opportunities while mitigating risk
  • Inclusive governance: facilitating the recruitment, retention, and success of Indigenous peoples, and other underrepresented groups such as immigrants, international students, LGBTQ2+ individuals, and students with disabilities
  • The role of the CEO and the Board in ‘’friendraising’’ and fundraising

Wiring for Student Success

Sessions in this stream will explore how to better orient institutions to ensure the success of their students, including creating inclusive and intelligent campus spaces, promoting both physical and mental health, and using new technologies to strengthen support services from application to career placement.

Examples include:
  • Partnering with Indigenous leaders and communities to improve student outcomes
  • Institutional research and assessment: using data and evidence to validate investment in services to students
  • Creating a campus that offers services, programs, and facilities to promote physical and mental health among students with diverse backgrounds and needs
  • New disruptive technologies and approaches to student services that reflect how today’s students engage

Hacking Education

Education must adapt to tackle disruption in the classroom. This stream will explore how colleges and institutes can use innovative teaching and assessment methods to take learning beyond the typical classroom setting, including virtual and blended learning, traditional Indigenous ways of knowing, and work-integrated learning in the world of AI.

Examples include:
  • New approaches to hands-on learning: complementing in-class teaching with applied research projects, work-integrated learning, apprenticeship, and co-op placements
  • Meeting upskilling and reskilling needs through continuing education, essential skills training or adult basic education, and enhanced prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR)
  • Embedding Indigenous knowledge and cultural traditions in curricula and teaching approaches
  • Partnerships to bridge gaps: strategies incorporating new technologies and blended learning options to expand learning options for all Canadians, in particular in rural, remote, and northern communities

Embodying Sustainability

In the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, sessions in this stream will explore how colleges and institutes can expand their leadership role in contributing to pursue (or achieve) the SDG’s and ensure sustainability in multiple sectors, including curriculum development, solutions-oriented approaches to applied research, and designing smart green campuses.

Examples include:
  • Embedding environmental sustainability principles and competency development in curricula
  • Institutional sustainability plans: successes, challenges, strategies, and best practices
  • Setting green standards: including environmental concerns when designing new buildings and implementing new projects, relying on alternate energy sources, making energy efficient transportation accessible
  • Strengthening partnerships with community members, small and medium sized businesses, Indigenous peoples, and government partnerships to increase sustainability

Driving Innovation

This stream will present sessions related to building a culture of innovation on campus, encouraging students to pursue entrepreneurial ventures, incorporating applied research into curriculum, and developing intelligent solutions to tackle current challenges.

Examples include:
  • Increasing the capacity of applied research departments to meet the expanding needs of local businesses and entrepreneurs
  • Building a culture of innovation on campus: engaging students in entrepreneurial and innovative activities
  • Social entrepreneurship and innovation as a means to achieve corporate responsibility goals
  • Incorporating applied research into curriculum

Going Global

Expanding global intelligence and international strategy will be the focus of this stream. Sessions will cover the full range of international activities undertaken by colleges and institutes, including international student recruitment, TVET development and gender equality abroad, and inbound and outbound student mobility activities.

Examples include:
  • Student recruitment: establishing a presence in target markets and diversifying your international student demographics
  • International development projects as an element of corporate social responsibility for colleges and institutes
  • Colleges and institutes leading applied research partnerships internationally
  • Best practices for International Student Services

This year’s host committee is comprised of:

About Colleges and Institutes Canada

Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) is the voice of Canada’s publicly-supported colleges, institutes, cegeps and polytechnics, and an international leader in education for employment with ongoing programs in over 25 countries. CICan’s members add over $190B to Canada’s economy each year and contribute to inclusive economic growth by working with industry and community partners to offer more than 10,000 programs to learners in urban, rural, remote, and northern communities.