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City Building Summit 2025: Ottawa Strong to Feature Futurist Greg Lindsay on AI and the Future of Urban Innovation

April 15, 2025 - Ottawa, ON - Acclaimed urban futurist Greg Lindsay will deliver the closing keynote address at the Ottawa Board of Trade and Ottawa Business Journal’s highly anticipated City Building Summit 2025. With the theme "Ottawa Strong," this year’s summit will bring together leaders across private, public, and not-for-profit sectors to reimagine the future of Ottawa.

 

Lindsay is one of 20 leaders who will speak at the City Building Summit 2025, a unique one-day conference designed to create a common economic vision for the National Capital Region.

 

In a time of rapid technological evolution, Lindsay’s keynote, "The AI City: Building Smarter, Resilient Urban Futures" will explore the impact of artificial intelligence on how cities grow, function, and thrive.

 

Lindsay, a senior fellow at MIT’s Future Urban Collectives Lab and a leading voice at Cornell Tech’s Urban Tech Hub, will unpack how Ottawa can harness AI to become more adaptive, inclusive, and forward-thinking.

 

“AI isn’t just another layer of urban infrastructure — it’s a fundamental shift in how cities learn, adapt, and respond to citizens’ needs,” said Lindsay, “The most resilient urban futures will emerge not from algorithmic efficiency alone, but from thoughtfully combining AI’s capabilities with our own tacit knowledge, amplifying rather than replace human judgment.”

 

“The City Building Summit is a key opportunity for local leaders to be involved in a conversation about the future of Ottawa. Our current economic and political landscape inspires this time of transformation. We are inviting bold, future-thinking leaders across all sectors to come together as we build a more resilient, sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous city for everyone,” said Sueling Ching, President and CEO, Ottawa Board of Trade.

 

City Building Summit: Ottawa Strong

Wednesday, April 23, 2025 | Rogers Centre Ottawa

  • Ali Shafaee, Regional Vice President, Live Nation Canada
  • Andrew Reeves, Architect, Principal Partner, Linebox Studio
  • Brendan McGuinty, Chair, Ottawa Board of Trade
  • Bryce Conrad, President and CEO, Hydro Ottawa
  • Cameron Love, President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital
  • Christine Crump, President, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Ottawa
  • Debbie Stewart, General Manager, Strategic Initiatives Department, City of Ottawa
  • Julie St-Pierre, Interim Vice-President, Research and Innovation, Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
  • Eric Stubbs, Police Chief, Ottawa Police
  • Erin Benjamin, President & CEO, Canadian Live Music Association
  • Greg Lindsay, Urbanist, Futurist, Speaker
  • His Worship Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, Mayor of the City of Ottawa
  • Jennifer Armstrong, Director Transportation Planning, City of Ottawa
  • Jennifer Cross, Business Development Manager, MARANT Construction
  • Jonathan Westeinde, Founder & CEO, Windmill Development Group
  • Mark Monahan, Executive Director, Ottawa Bluesfest
  • Mary Rowe, President & CEO, Canadian Urban Institute
  • Mathieu Grondin, Nightlife Commissioner, City of Ottawa
  • Michael Curran, Publisher, Ottawa Business Journal
  • Scott Delaney, Chairman & CEO, Lumenix
  • Sueling Ching, President & CEO, Ottawa Board of Trade
  • Tobi Nussbaum, President & CEO, National Capital Commission

 

Full event details can be found here

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About the Ottawa Board of Trade:

The Ottawa Board of Trade is the voice of business and a key economic partner in the National Capital Region. Our mission is to cultivate a thriving world class business community. One that drives affordable, inclusive, and sustainable city building. We are champions of Ottawa as the best place to live, work, play, learn, visit, and invest. For information, visit www.ottawabot.ca.

 

About the Ottawa Business Journal:

Ottawa Business Journal is an independently owned media organization in Ottawa, Ontario, owned and operated by Great River Media Inc. OBJ is the leading source of business news and information in Canada’s national capital region. For more than 25 years, readers have turned to OBJ for the business news they can’t find anywhere else – unique and relevant articles and features tailored to local business managers, owners, professionals and executives. Since its inception, OBJ has engaged its audience through a variety of platforms, including its quarterly newsmagazine, specialty magazines, events, digital and broadcasts. For more information, visit https://obj.ca/.

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