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The AWS Public Sector Symposium Ottawa 2023 was a great success, and we look forward to seeing you next year!

View details from this year's event below and save the date for 2024.

October 9, 2024 | Shaw Centre, Ottawa, Canada

AWS Public Sector Symposium Ottawa

Bringing the cloud community together to innovate, build, and learn

Join us for the AWS Public Sector Symposium Ottawa 2023, and discover new ways to transform the services you provide to Canadians.

Explore how the cloud can help you enhance security, analyze data at scale, advance sustainability, and achieve your mission—faster and at lower cost. Returning in 2023 with all-new content and speakers, this must-attend event features inspiring keynotes from Canada’s tech leaders, breakout sessions, hands-on workshops, networking hubs, and more.

20+ sessions will cover topics ranging from artificial intelligence and big data analytics to cybersecurity and citizen service transformation. Whether you’re new to the cloud or an experienced user, you’ll gain key knowledge that you can use right away. 

AWS Summit Ottawa | 2022 recap (3:13)

See the highlights from last year's event.

Event highlights

20+ sessions

Lecture-style and interactive sessions to learn from, join us no matter where you are on your AWS journey.

Experiential zones

Join AWS experts to discover trends and possibilities for your data and experience the latest in innovation and live demos.

Ask an AWS expert

Speak to an AWS team member one-on-one and ask the questions you have on your mind.

AWS training

Get equipped with the knowledge it takes to move your company—and career—forward.  

Keynote

Across the public sector, innovation and problem-solving are more essential than ever before. Join Colonel Chris Hadfield, First Canadian Commander of the International Space Station, to discover how you can drive innovation throughout your own team, based on lessons learned from his three decades at NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

You’ll also hear from Dr. Kumar Chellapilla, general manager, AI and ML services at AWS., as he dives deep into Generative AI and the transformational role it can play in government, defence, health care, and education.

Whether you’re new to the cloud or a seasoned expert, you’ll leave this keynote with practical insights you can use right away.

Keynote speakers

Kumar Chellapilla

Dr. Kumar Chellapilla

General manager, AI and ML services

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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Dr. Kumar Chellapilla is a General Manager at Amazon Web Services and leads the development of ML/AI Services that involve humans and machines working together. Prior to AWS, Kumar was a Director of Engineering at Uber ATG and Lyft Level 5 and led teams using machine learning to develop self-driving capabilities such as perception and mapping. He also worked on applying machine learning techniques to improve search, recommendations, and advertising products at LinkedIn, Twitter, Bing, and Microsoft Research.

Kumar has a Ph.D from University of California at San Diego wherein he worked on teaching computers to learn by themselves to play games like chess and checkers. At Microsoft Research, Kumar developed the very first GPU based algorithms (2004) for training Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). He then used them to demonstrate that CNNs surpassed human capabilities at single character recognition by breaking several commonly used CAPTCHAs.

Col. Chris Hadfield - Astronaut | First Canadian Commander of the International Space Station

Col. Chris Hadfield

Astronaut | First Canadian Commander of the International Space Station

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Referred to as “the most famous astronaut since Neil Armstrong,” Colonel Chris Hadfield is a heavily decorated astronaut, engineer, and pilot who has become a worldwide sensation. Formerly NASA’s director of operations, Hadfield spent more than three decades working for NASA and the Canadian Space Agency.

Throughout his distinguished career, he has flown three space missions, built two space stations, performed two spacewalks, crewed the Shuttle and Soyuz, and in 2013 commanded the International Space Station for six months off planet. His many awards and recognitions include the Order of Canada, the Meritorious Service Cross, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal.

His TED talk “What I Learned from Going Blind in Space” has been viewed more than 11 million times. He is also the co-host, with actor Will Smith, of National Geographic’s One Strange Rock, which was directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Serapins

Lt. Col. Dave Serapins

2nd Cdn Div Digital Transformation Officer, Canadian Army

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Lieutenant-Colonel Dave Serapins is the Digital Transformation Officer of the Canadian Army’s 2nd Canadian Division, leading the team that helped fight wildfires throughout Quebec. His 18 years of army experience began with a posting as a medic with the 51st Field Ambulance team while employed as an EMT at Urgence Santé in Montreal. He commissioned as an Infantry Officer with the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada in 2009, where he has accumulated over a decade of experience leading soldiers throughout the organization, including on exercise, and both domestic and expeditionary operations.

His current team, working within the 2nd Canadian Division headquarters, are innovation catalysts: They are collaboratively breaking barriers, supporting the re-writing of policy and governance, and are focusing on actionable, deployable solutions that increase the operational capability and effectiveness of the army.

Kirsten Robinson - Federal Government Leader, AWS Canada

Kirsten Robinson

Federal Government Leader, Canada

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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Kirsten Robinson is a senior business leader with 25 years’ experience in sales, consulting, and business operations. Having joined AWS in 2018, she currently serves as Federal Government Leader, where she focuses on shaping and delivering strategies to enable government digital transformation. Prior to joining AWS, Kirsten held senior leadership positions with both public and private sector organizations, spanning multiple roles within tech startups, enterprise firms, and academia. 

Kirsten is the past co-chair of Technation’s Cloud Working Group, and the co-author of a Government of Canada whitepaper titled “Governments Embracing Cloud: An Opportunity for Modernization, Innovation and Transformation”. An avid gardener and traveler, she lives in Ottawa with her husband, son, and dog, Bailey.

Ray Hession - National Security and Defence Leader, AWS Canada

Ray Hession

National Security and Defence Leader, Canada

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

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Ray Hession leads AWS Canada’s national security and defence practice, drawing on over 25 years of experience as a consultant, trusted advisor and sales executive in the IT, IM and BI/Analytics sectors.

Before joining AWS in 2016, Ray served key Government of Canada departments as a Key Account Executive at cloud data protection leader Commvault. Previously, he has held roles at SAS, HP, and other world-leading firms in the areas of data management, predictive analytics, and IT Service Management & Operations management software.

Opening Keynote

Time: 1.5 hours

Keynote description. 

Watch Opening Keynote on demand »

Morning Keynote

Time: 30 min

Keynote description. 

Watch Afternoon Keynote on demand »

Afternoon Keynote

Time: 30 min

Keynote description. 

Watch Afternoon Keynote on demand »

Agenda

Thursday, September 7, 2023

This event is specifically designed to help public sector organizations across government, education, nonprofit, healthcare, and financial services navigate the increasingly complex and ever-evolving tech landscape. 

Our goal is to empower you, the leaders and architects of public sector digital transformation, with new capabilities and insights that help you accelerate your mission and improve the lives of people and the planet using cloud technology.

  • See cutting-edge products and the latest solutions from our sponsoring partners and learn how they can help you transform your organization. 

  • The Symposium features 20+ breakout sessions across four main tracks: technical, management, security, and data.  

    Discover content to accelerate your public sector mission, and hear from government, nonprofit, healthcare, education, and aerospace and satellite customers. Grow your existing cloud skills to learn how to build, deploy, and operate your infrastructure and applications learning from lecture-style and interactive sessions.

  • Learn from AWS experts about how AWS Training and Certification can help you gain practical experience with real-world cloud scenarios, validate your cloud expertise, and much more.

  • Join the conversation at our reception at the end of the day. Mingle and connect with your peers to discuss topics that interest you after a day of learning.

Schedule

8:00AM - 9:00AM EST: Registration
9:00AM - 10:50AM EST: Breakout sessions
10:50AM - 11:15AM EST: Break
11:15AM - 12:15PM EST: Keynote
12:15PM - 1:15PM EST: Lunch
1:15PM - 1:30PM EST: Break
1:30PM - 3:20PM EST: Breakout sessions
3:20PM - 3:40PM EST: Break
3:40PM - 4:30PM EST: Breakout sessions
4:30PM - 5:30PM EST: Closing reception

Agenda is subject to change.

Session level guide

Level 100: Introductory

Sessions are focused on providing an overview of AWS services and features, with the
assumption that attendees are new to the topic.

Level 200: Intermediate

Sessions are focused on providing best practices, details of service features and demos with the assumption that attendees have introductory knowledge of the topics.

Level 300: Advanced

Sessions dive deeper into the selected topic. Presenters assume that the audience has
some familiarity with the topic, but may or may not have direct experience .

Level 400: Expert

Sessions are for attendees who are deeply familiar with the topic, have implemented a
solution on their own already, and are comfortable with how the technology works.

 Download Agenda at a Glance

Session Catalogue

Browse, filter, or search through the session catalogue below to find topics that interest you and view the presentations.

Agenda is subject to change.

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