Keynote speakers

Chris Ferguson: founder of Bridgeable

Chris Ferguson is a leader in service and experience design. As the founder of Bridgeable, Chris leads a highly skilled multi-disciplinary team delivering projects to corporate, NGO and government clients. He teaches design in the faculty of business at the Rotman School of Management and the Law School at the University of Toronto. He is the co-founder of Service Design Canada, and a regular presenter and writer on service and experience design with work appearing in the Globe and Mail, Touchpoint Journal, Marketing Professionals, Global News, and the CBC. 

His work at Bridgeable has received the Fast Company Innovation by Design Award, DMI Design Value Award, Core77 Design Award, GOOD Design Award, NeoCon Award, the Humanitarian International Design Organization Award and the Global Service Design Award for Commercial work. 

Chris was an editor for the book This is Service Design Doing and the Annual Global Service Design Report. He is on the advisory boards for Global LEAP Dialogues, MaRS Technology Procurement by Co-design and The World Design Summit.

Chris holds a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) in Entrepreneurial Management from the Royal Roads University, and a master’s degree in Restoration of natural systems, systems science and theory from the University of Victoria.

Pamela Hilborn

Pamela Hilborn: Global Head of Design at Scotiabank

Pamela is currently SVP, Global Head of Design at Scotiabank. She is charged with implementing proven practices in design strategy and service design, product design, visual design, and usability to create transformative digital financial experiences for Scotiabank customers. 

Pamela brings over 20 years of experience in the design of digital consumer experiences (including both hardware and software products), and at times in her career has been a content writer, creative director, information architect, product designer, and design leader - these experiences, along with her profound interest in human behavior and culture have allowed her to create user-friendly and engaging technology experiences enjoyed by millions of people in over 190 countries. She is a practiced software start-up veteran, having scaled the design and experience team at Kobo Inc. as it grew from a small pilot program into a global, market-leading digital reading company. 

Prior to taking on the Global Head of Design job at Scotiabank, she spent two years helping to define and build LEAGUE, a digital platform disrupting the health insurance industry in Canada and the United States.