Mentor Canada is pleased to announce the return of the Canadian Mentoring Summit for its second year!
This landmark event unites mentoring practitioners, researchers, educators, policymakers, post-secondary institutions, private sector leaders, philanthropic investors, and community champions to shape the future of mentoring in Canada.
This is an unparalleled opportunity to:
- Connect with a diverse network of mentoring professionals, practitioners and researchers across diverse sectors.
- Discover the latest research, promising practices, innovative programs and initiatives.
- Strengthen your mentoring initiatives with invaluable insights and strategies.
- Collaborate to expand mentoring opportunities for young people nationwide.
Summit Agenda:
This year's programming is thoughtfully designed to deliver a dynamic mix of keynote presentations, expert-led sessions, panel discussions, and networking opportunities. Explore the topics shaping Canada's mentoring landscape, gain actionable insights from industry leaders, and connect with peers with a shared goal of advancing mentoring across the country.
See the Full Summit Agenda Download as a PDF
Featuring Keynotes From:
Dr. Jean Rhodes
Humans-at-the-Helm: Mentoring in the Age of AI
As AI reshapes nearly every sector, mentoring is no exception. The questions many of us are asking are valid ones. Will AI dilute the human connection at the heart of mentoring? Can technology built for scale ever understand the nuance of a relationship? Can we leverage AI to strengthen our program operations and evaluation so we can spend more time building and managing great relationships?
In this keynote, Dr. Jean Rhodes, a leading voice in mentoring research, meets the skepticism head-on and unpacks where AI's real opportunities in our field actually lie.
Dr. Rhodes will explore how AI can help mentoring programs:
- Strengthen connections with mentees by synthesizing siloed data — profiles, program evaluations, and more — into a holistic picture that no single data source can provide alone
- Enhance matching and training, giving programs sharper tools to set mentors and mentees up for success
- Act as a back-office team, quietly supporting the operations of mentoring programs so staff can focus on the front office work of relationship building
- Bring meta-analytic research within reach, giving programs of every size access to a trusted evidence base that can inform program design, marketing, evaluation, and more
Dr. Rhodes will share new research findings and a call to action, a challenge to keep asking, again and again as we adopt these tools: does this affect the human connection?
This is a keynote for anyone who wants to engage AI's potential in mentoring without losing sight of what makes mentoring work in the first place — the humans at the helm.
David Allison
What Matters Most for Mentors & Mentees
What if the key to stronger mentoring relationships isn't found in demographics — age, background, or role — but in something deeper: the values people actually hold?
David Allison is a human values expert, global researcher, and two-time best-selling author who has spent his career proving that shared human values — not demographic stereotypes — are what truly drive engagement, connection, and outcomes. His research has shaped strategy for organizations like PayPal, lululemon, Google, and the United Nations Foundation, and has been featured in Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and the World Economic Forum.
In this interactive 60-minute keynote, David brings his signature Valuegraphics approach directly to the mentoring community. Using a live diagnostic tool — accessible right from your phone — the audience will complete a short values exercise in real time, generating a personal snapshot that grounds the entire session in lived experience rather than theory.
From there, David unpacks how values quietly shape decisions, relationships, and motivation in everyday life and shares original research conducted with Mentor Canada revealing exactly where mentor and mentee values align (and where they don't). This isn't abstract data: it's a practical map for building stronger, more resonant mentoring relationships. The session concludes with hands-on application where participants immediately put these insights to work to strengthen their programs, policies, and practices.
Part research sharing, part working session, this keynote leaves participants with a sharper understanding of what mentors and mentees truly value — and concrete next steps to act on it.
Event Details:
Date: November 3–4, 2026
Location: Delta Hotel Ottawa City Centre, 101 Lyon Street North, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Planning your trip? Reserve your hotel at our exclusive conference rate!
Ticket Pricing:
Regular rate: $725 +tax
Hotel & Travel Discounts
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