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May is nearly here, which means right around the corner is the IAPP Canada Privacy Symposium 2025, taking place 12-13 May in Toronto. As Canadian privacy professionals, we face a landscape that keeps getting more and more complex.
Symposium is right on time, designed to help you tackle the interconnected worlds of privacy, artificial intelligence governance, and digital responsibility. This year's agenda zeroes in on the issues that matter most to our daily work.
Sessions include critical discussions on privacy impact assessments, international data transfers, privacy compliance programs, privacy rights management, privacy awareness initiatives, handling privacy breaches effectively, and strategies for privacy leadership — just to name a few with the word privacy in the topic. Let's not forget the plethora of important discussions that need to be had about AI governance and digital responsibility.
Our keynote lineup brings fresh, diverse insights and, frankly, is reason enough to sign up.
Rick Mercer, one of Canada's best-loved comedians and commentators, will share his unique viewpoint on contemporary Canadian issues that I guarantee will be memorable. Professor Carys Craig from Osgoode Hall Law School will tackle the privacy implications tied to generative AI and intellectual property, in her part of delivering the Ian Kerr Memorial Lecture.
Privacy Commissioner of Canada Philippe Dufresne will speak to current national privacy initiatives and enforcement priorities in his annual address, while Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner Patricia Kosseim will reflect on the various milestones, challenges and lessons learned during her term — and maybe she will give us a hint as to whether that was her only term, or just the first.
Pre-conference workshops and post-conference training sessions are also worth checking out. The idea is to offer practical, hands-on skills you can immediately apply.
You'll find workshop sessions on privacy compliance, third-party vendor management, and operational privacy excellence. And, of course, all the great IAPP training to get you certified — or to build on your certifications. A huge shout out to our dedicated agenda chairs who thoughtfully crafted this year's relevant and timely program and to everyone who submitted such excellent proposals.
I know our content is really good, but networking with other Canadian privacy pros is just as important and we've created tons of opportunities for that too.
It's all about genuinely connecting with peers, regulators, and industry leaders and newcomers. Year after year, I always hear about great collaborations and new ideas being born out of the informal exchanges alone.
With that, it's time to sign up before we sell out. If you need to make a strong case internally, maybe you can just show the boss this article, but in case you need more, the IAPP has a justify your trip tool ready. Speakers and attendees alike can also use shareable "I’m speaking" graphics to easily promote their sessions and attendance. I'm looking forward to seeing these start to roll out on LinkedIn, as momentum continues to build.
It's funny that I'm even more excited about the Symposium than when I started drafting this. Anyway, I hope to see many of you soon in Toronto.
Kris Klein, CIPP/C, CIPM, FIP, is the managing director for Canada for the IAPP.
This article originally appeared in the Canada Dashboard Digest, a free weekly IAPP newsletter. Subscriptions to this and other IAPP newsletters can be found here.
