Amplify 2024 Recap
On April 16, 2024; First Work hosted the largest-ever Amplify Leadership Summit, with over 300 workforce development leaders in attendance at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Themed Workforce Catalyst: Building Healthy Ecosystems, the 2024 Summit emphasized the crucial role of leadership in the health of Ontario's current and future workforce.
"Adaptability for change management begins with leaders as the ecosystem cultivators," stated Akosua Alagaratnam, Executive Director of First Work. "Thriving leaders create a rippling impact, catalyzing innovative approaches across our economies, which are crucial as Ontario faces ongoing sectoral disruption and skill mismatch challenges."
Session highlights include:
Morning Keynote
Hosni Zaouali explored the transformative impact of AI on the employment sector, highlighting its role in enhancing job matching accuracy, personalizing career paths, and providing real-time labour market analytics. Zaouali's insights illustrated AI's potential to revolutionize how jobseekers and employers connect, emphasizing improved efficiency, inclusivity, and effectiveness in employment services.
Innovation Lightning Round
Inviting a cross-section of innovators to a panel, and delivered in the unique PechaKucha style – 20 slides, with 20 seconds spent on each slide .
For the first time, workforce development leaders got a speed-intro to the sheer ideating power of our sector. Skills For Change in Toronto gave insight on how their through vetting process for project alignment has allowed private partnerships to flourish, for example with Mastercard. NPower spoke on community insight as key to effective programming.
The Woodgreen Foundation leveraged popular culture with their UnMet Needs campaign that culminated in the UnMet Gala to raise astonishing amounts to increase capacity for their many services. Lastly, John Howard Society of Ontario detailed how they advocate effectively for people who deserve second chances at employment after justice-involvement – and how they are doing the work to innovate employer buy-in.
SSM Showcase
Highlighting the interdependence of public and private efforts in advancing employment services, sessions focused on innovation, professional development, inclusivity, effective leadership, collaboration, and adaptability. Employment Ontario Service System Managers participated in a showcase of their approaches in the last block of the day.
The conference underscored the importance of innovative and robust leadership – essential for sustaining the province’s economic growth and addressing labour market challenges. First Work’s Annual Leadership conference showcases our own success in innovation, connecting our membership Network to partnerships with organizations like FutureFit AI, LinkedIn, and Google Canada.
The conference underscored the importance of innovative and robust leadership – essential for sustaining the province’s economic growth and addressing labour market challenges. First Work’s Annual Leadership conference showcases our own success in innovation, connecting our membership Network to partnerships with organizations like FutureFit AI, LinkedIn, and Google Canada.
From #Amplify24 to Queen’s Park
Our network did not stop there – later in the day, our strategic members joined us at the Provincial Legislature for a reception to re-introduce our network of community-based employment service providers to elected officials. We discussed how our providers are experts at navigating change for the employments and clients they serve, as well as for the health of their organization. Learn more here.
Sponsorship
Interested in highlighting your commitment to the Ontario’s workforce development leadership? Get in touch for Amplify’24 Workforce Catalyst sponsorship options. Email [email protected]
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Sponsors
Delegate Bag Sponsor
FutureFit AI
Awards Sponsor
Serco Canada Inc.
Lanyard Sponsor
Collège Boréal
Lunch Sponsor
WCG Services
Session Sponsor
Fedcap Canada
Supporting Sponsor
APMA
Supporting Sponsor
Grow with Google
