DevFest Toronto: Build, Secure, Scale: Developers and Builders in the Agentic Er

Welcome to Toronto's biggest celebration of developers and builders: DevFest Toronto 2026! 🎉

🎟️ Grab your ticket at a discounted price:⚡Flash Sale Code: FLS
🎓 College Students: CLG

🌐 DevFest is organized by Google Developer Groups (GDGs), a global network of communities passionate about learning, sharing, and building with Google's technologies. DevFest Toronto brings together the region's tech community for a full day of learning, connecting, and getting inspired by leading industry experts.

🤝 GDG Toronto, GDG Markham, and GDG Hamilton, the GDG on Campus chapters at York University, UofT St. George, and UofT Scarborough, and Women Techmakers (WTM) Toronto are proud to co-host this full-day conference on Sunday, November 15, 2026 at Northeastern University Toronto.

📍 Join 500+ developers, designers, and tech enthusiasts, and connect with Google Developer Experts (GDEs), Googlers, and speakers from across the local and global tech scene.

🧩 This year's theme: Build, Secure, Scale: Developers and Builders in the Agentic Era 🤖⚡

🛠️ Two tracks, one day:

Track 1: Developer, focused on Agentic AI

Track 2: Builder, for PMs, designers, marketers, and developers without a formal background

Topics include AI Agents & Generative AI, Machine Learning & Gemini, Security & Responsible AI, Cloud & Scalable Infrastructure, and Community & Careers.

🗓️ Agenda:

9:00 – 9:55 AM | Registration, breakfast & networking

10:00 – 10:10 AM | Introductions & welcome

10:15 – 10:55 AM | Opening keynote – Rachel Francois, Google (livestreamed to the Tech Builder track)

TRACK 01 · AGENTIC AI (Developer)

11:00 – 11:55 AM | Agentic AI & DevOps – Vaishal Shah, CGI (final session title to be announced)

12:00 – 12:30 PM | When Alignment Fails: Engineering Accountability into Agentic Systems – Lubna Rasheed & Moumita Nath, Cisco

12:30 – 1:00 PM | Integrate Antigravity Agents with Google Workspace MCPs – Mohammad Al-Ansari, Google

1:00 – 1:55 PM | Lunch & networking

2:00 – 2:25 PM | Building with Agents & Fine-tuning – Justin D. Harris, Shopify (final session title to be announced)

2:30 – 3:25 PM | Speaker to be announced

3:30 – 3:55 PM | Should AI Be Allowed to Do That? An Interactive Guide to Human Oversight in the Agentic Era – Dr. Zoe Aghababaeyan, Mindtora

4:00 – 4:25 PM | From Deal Flow to Model Weights: Encoding Ten Years of VC Judgment into an Agent – Vahid Fakhr (Vee), Evalyze

4:30 – 5:00 PM | LoRA's Math: To Train Every Weight, or to Factorize It – Dev Shah, TribalScale

TRACK 02 · TECH BUILDER (PM / Design / Marketing / Builders)

11:00 – 11:30 AM | When Everyone Can Build, What Makes You Valuable? Communication, judgment and the human advantage in the agentic era – Lidia Akar, Lighthauz

11:30 – 11:55 AM | Taking AI X-Risks Seriously – Mario Gibney, Trajectory Labs

12:00 - 12:30 PM | Session details to be announced – Gurulink

12:30 – 1:00 PM | Your AI Agent Works. Now What? From Prototype to Production – Ala Salehi, Deloitte

1:00 – 1:55 PM | Lunch & networking

2:00 – 2:25 PM | Building Agentic AI Systems People Can Trust – Dhari Gandhi, COHUMAIN Labs

2:30 – 3:00 PM | Stop Buying AI Tools. Start Building AI Culture. – George Yang, National Payroll Institute

3:00 – 4:25 PM | AI-Driven Troubleshooting for Google Cloud Infrastructure – Olivier Bourgeois, Google

4:30 – 5:00 PM | So… You Want to Work at Google? – Olivier Bourgeois, Google

5:00 – 5:30 PM | Raffle & closing ceremony

🎤 From keynotes to hands-on sessions, DevFest is your chance to pick up new skills, swap ideas with fellow builders, and see what's next in the agentic era.

🛋️ Community Lounge: Take a break, meet local tech communities, and keep the conversations going all day.

🎟️ Your ticket includes:

Full-day access to all sessions, with the freedom to switch between tracks anytime (subject to room capacity)

Breakfast and lunch 🥐🥗

DevFest swag 🎁

Networking with Toronto's most passionate builders 🤝

📌 Good to know:

All ticket sales are final. No refunds.

🎓 Students MUST show a valid student ID at check-in.

🔥 Don't miss your chance to be part of Toronto's thriving tech community!

👉 Grab your ticket now. Spots are limited! 🎟️

Agenda

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Speakers

Rache Francois - Google (Program Manager)

Dev Shah - TribalScale

Mohammad Al-Ansari - Google

George Yang - National Payroll Institute

Olivier Bourgeois - Google (Senior DevRel Developer)

Vahid (VEE) Fakhr - Evalyze (CEO and Co-Founder)

Hosted By

Solomon Hsu, GDG Organizer

I believe in one mandate in the digital space: Crafting Authentic Digital Experiences for All People.

With that vision, I value digital accessibility and user centric design as the core foundation for all my projects. It is within the users' insights and needs that allow us to build great apps.

Hiral Thaker, Co-organizer

Jolina Li, Co-organizer

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Partner

Women Techmakers (https://www.womentechmakers.com/)
Building a world where all women can thrive in tech by providing visibility, community, and resources.

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Complete your event RSVP here: https://gdg.community.dev/events/details/google-gdg-toronto-presents-devfest-toronto-build-secure-scale-developers-and-builders-in-the-agentic-era-1/.