CUTC 2026: TRANSFORM brought together more than 500 students, founders, and tech leaders at Toronto Metropolitan University for a full day focused on AI, entrepreneurship, and innovation. As Canada’s largest and longest-running student-led tech conference, the event featured speakers from companies including Boardy, Convictional, Chatbase, Interac, Zynga, and Loblaw Digital. One of the event highlights was the “Build More With Less” panel organized by Startup Ecosystem Canada and moderated by Eleni Belete, which explored how founders can build impactful companies in today’s evolving tech landscape. The conference reinforced the growing momentum behind Canada’s next generation of builders, innovators, and startup leaders.
Toronto’s young tech community came together on May 23, 2026 as the Canadian Undergraduate Technology Conference (CUTC) returned with its 2026 theme: TRANSFORM, a full-day experience centered on artificial intelligence, entrepreneurship, and the future of innovation in Canada.
Hosted at Chrysalis Theatre at the Toronto Metropolitan University campus, CUTC 2026 welcomed more than 500 students, builders, creators, founders, and aspiring innovators from across the country. Founded in 1999, CUTC remains Canada’s largest and longest-running student-led technology conference, known for creating an environment focused on collaboration, accessibility, and action-driven learning.
Startup Ecosystem Canada was proud to sponsor CUTC 2026, supporting the conference's mission of connecting students, founders, and innovators with the ideas, opportunities, and relationships shaping Canada's technology ecosystem.
This year’s conference explored how AI is reshaping industries in real time while encouraging attendees to think beyond traditional career paths and embrace leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Throughout the day, participants engaged in keynote talks, founder conversations, networking opportunities, sponsor activations, and interactive sessions designed to connect ambitious students with leaders actively building the future of technology.
The speaker lineup featured a diverse group of founders, operators, and innovators from across Canada’s startup ecosystem, including Andrew D’Souza of Boardy, Roger Kirkness of Convictional, Rob Imbeault of Backboard.io, Jack Price of Chatbase, Tobin Tang of Polymarket, Anson Lin of Stan, Taylor Young of CoLab Software, Iris Guo of Zynga, Nimrah Umar of Interac, and leaders from IBM, Deloitte, Loblaw Digital, and more. Conversations throughout the day focused on artificial intelligence, product development, scaling startups, growth strategy, venture building, and the evolving role of technology in shaping the future economy.
As a proud sponsor of CUTC 2026, Startup Ecosystem Canada also contributed to the conference programming through the “Build More With Less” panel, organized and moderated by Startup Ecosystem Canada's very own, Eleni Belete.
Featured panelists included:
- Sultan Akif, Startups Executive, Microsoft Canada
- Ben Gigone, Co-Founder/CTO, Chexy
- Jason B Ramsay, Co-Founder/CEO, Nodalli Technologies
- Kazzy Khazaal, Co-Founder/CEO, Dreamwell AI
The discussion shared insights on building impactful companies in today’s rapidly changing environment while navigating challenges around growth, resources, and innovation.
The panel reflected one of the core themes echoed throughout the conference: there has never been a more important time to build in Canada and build for Canada. Speakers highlighted the opportunity for young entrepreneurs and emerging founders to shape the country’s future through technology, collaboration, and purpose-driven innovation.
The energy throughout the event reinforced why CUTC has remained such an influential platform for more than 25 years. Rather than functioning as a traditional conference, CUTC continues to create meaningful opportunities for students and founders to build relationships, exchange ideas, and gain direct exposure to Canada’s startup and innovation ecosystem.
Attendees also connected with sponsors and hiring companies through networking activations and career-focused experiences. Organizations supporting this year’s event included Shopify, CoLab Software, Rocket Innovation Studio, Blinq, Leopard AI, Framer, Exa, and Startup Ecosystem Canada.
Beyond Toronto, CUTC 2026 expanded into a nationwide initiative with an upcoming Montreal conference this October 2026,and an upcoming virtual hackathon expected to engage more than 1,000 participants across Canada and internationally.
As Canada’s technology sector continues to evolve, conferences like CUTC are helping empower the next generation of builders, founders, and innovators by creating spaces where inspiration turns into action and conversations turn into future collaborations.
For many attendees, CUTC 2026 was more than a conference. It was a reminder that the future of Canada’s innovation economy is already being built by the next generation.
