TORONTO, May 3, 2019 ­ /CNW/ - Celebrating 14 years of bold, new ideas,  Ontario Centres of Excellence's (OCE) award-winning  Discovery conference returns to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, South Building, on May 13-14. The event showcases the best innovations happening in Ontario, across Canada, and globally through the international entrepreneurship community.

"Every year, the Discovery conference is the place to be for job creators, entrepreneurs, start ups, students, industry experts, government, investors and thought leaders to demonstrate innovation, showcase new products, make deals and do business," said Dr. Tom Corr, President and CEO, OCE. "We look forward to bringing them all together as we demonstrate Ontario's global competitiveness and economic opportunities."

Discovery's 200,000-square-foot show floor features exhibitors from a wide range of tech and business sectors, as well as informative and captivating panel discussions with local and international industry experts. Highlights of the conference this year are many of today's emerging technology trends, including 5G networks, connected and autonomous vehicles, space exploration tech, and advanced manufacturing. The show floor will also feature fascinating futuristic technology in the WOW Zone, as well as the latest in healthcare tech, cleantech, artificial intelligence (AI), augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), and more.

Discovery 2019 will feature four main-stage keynote addresses:

May 13

• Duncan Wardle, former Head of Innovation & Creativity at Disney and founder of iD8 & Innov8, will discuss his experiences with global audiences and how to tap into your creativity to help your business grow and scale.
• Dr. Pernilla Jonsson, Head of Consumer & Industry Lab at Ericsson Research, will discuss 5G technologies and shed light on why 5G is not just another G.

May 14

• Dr. Nicole Buckley, Canadian Space Agency's (CSA's) Chief Scientist, Life Sciences and ISS Utilization, will speak about the Lunar Gateway and the challenges humans face as we explore space.
• Norm Judah, former Enterprise Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Microsoft, will discuss technical strategy, architectures and innovation, building technical leaders, digital transformation and making AI real.

OCE is also excited to feature panel discussions with leading entrepreneurs and industry experts across Canada:

• 5G and C/AV: Connectivity and Autonomous Vehicles Enter the Fast Lane
• Scale Every Mountain: From Start-up to Scale-up
• There's No "I" in Network: How to Build High-Quality Connections with Less Small Talk and More Big Listening
• Innovative Cannabis Growth
• The Next Generation of Mining and Advanced Manufacturing
• Planting the Seeds of Foodtech Innovation
• Appetite for Innovation: Canadian Agri-food is Hungry for the Digital Revolution
• Next Generation Energy: Beyond Petroleum

Discovery also provides students, job seekers, entrepreneurs, and start-ups with opportunities to network and interact with experts, investors, potential partners, and employers. This includes:

• Meet an Investor/Ask an Expert Sessions, where attendees can meet one-to-one with investors, experts, entrepreneurs, innovation agents, and professional services specialists.
• B2B Zone, where the conference will facilitate curated meetings between large corporations and start-ups and scale-ups.
• B2G Zone, where the conference will facilitate curated meetings between businesses and government.
• Career Zone, where job seekers can meet with top employers, discuss current and future opportunities and get expert tips and advice from experienced career coaches.

Canada's leading innovation conference and trade show will also hold the Young Entrepreneurs, Make Your Pitch competition, featuring twenty of Ontario's brightest high school entrepreneurs.

For anyone who would like to learn about and engage with today's dynamic innovation ecosystem, there is no better place to be than Discovery. It invites attendees to exchange ideas, foster partnerships, and develop new solutions that will solve current and future business challenges. By bringing together so many great minds under one roof, Discovery is showcasing Ontario's global competitiveness, and further highlighting the province as a leader in economic development and job creation.

Named Canada's Best Trade Show in 2010, 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2018, OCE's Discovery is Canada's premier innovation conference and trade show. It brings together the best and brightest minds in industry, academia, investment and government to showcase leading-edge technologies, best practices and research in the areas of advanced manufacturing, energy, ag-tech/food tech, cleantech, advanced health, digital media, information and communication technologies and automotive. The Discovery conference and showcase attracts more than 3,600 attendees and over 500 exhibitors.

For more on Discovery, visit  www.ocediscovery.com

About Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) Inc.

OCE drives the creation of high-quality jobs by accelerating the commercialization of cutting-edge research across key market sectors to build the economy of tomorrow and secure Ontario's global competitiveness. In doing this, OCE fosters the training and development of the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs and is a key partner with Ontario's industry, universities, colleges, research hospitals, investors and governments. A champion of leading-edge technologies, best practices and research, OCE invests in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, digital media and information communications, advanced health, cleantech, automotive and ag-tech to drive economic growth and foster made-in-Ontario solutions.

SOURCE Ontario Centres of Excellence Inc.