Digital Media at the Crossroads

Ope Akanbi is Associate Professor in the Creative School and the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture at Toronto Metropolitan University. She also serves as Undergraduate Program Director of the School of Creative Industries. Her research examines the political economy of media, focusing on how corporate interests and capitalist structures shape media industries. She was lead author of Platform Governance: The Antitrust Option, which received the 2024 Canadian Journal of Communication Editor’s Award. Ope teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in media policy and privacy and holds graduate degrees in law and communication.

Amy Awad leads the Digital and Creative Marketplace Frameworks branch at Canadian Heritage where she works on issues related to digital transition, culture and media including broadcasting, online safety, copyright, journalism and disinformation. She previously worked on the negotiation and implementation of labour and culture provisions in Canada’s free trade agreements. Amy holds degrees in software engineering and law including a masters in law and technology from the University of Ottawa

Julian Carrington is the Executive Director of the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), representing over 1600 independent documentary creators across six regional chapters. Julian leads the organization’s advocacy and research initiatives, which seek to promote an equitable, sustainable environment for documentary production and to strengthen the sector within the broader cultural industry. Previously, Julian served as the Managing Director of the Racial Equity Media Collective and as a Senior Industry Manager at Hot Docs. In the latter capacity, he administered Hot Docs’ portfolio of production funds, providing grants to Canadian and international projects, including Cutting Through Rocks, a 2026 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature. Julian also oversaw the Festival’s Distribution marketplace and industry sales platform. In addition, he is the founder of For Viola, the Hot Docs Cinema’s BIPOC-focused community screening series, named in honour of Viola Desmond. Prior to joining Hot Docs, Julian programmed for the Planet In Focus Environmental Film Festival, was an associate programmer at the Toronto International Film Festival, and a distribution consultant with the Documentary Organization of Canada.

Stephanie Wilson Chapin leads strategic partnerships in the entertainment, sports and news verticals at YouTube in Canada. She works with Canada’s largest media companies to build YouTube strategies that complement their overall business and position them for success in an increasingly complex streaming environment. Stephanie also routinely represents YouTube at industry events, speaking about the platforms’ evolution, its latest product innovations and best practices for building a thriving YouTube business.

Prior to YouTube, Stephanie worked at Bell Media in a number of roles, her last one as Senior Director of digital product for some of Canada’s biggest media brands including CTV News, CTV, TSN and Crave. In addition to YouTube and Bell Media, she enjoyed stints at The Globe and Mail, Harlequin Enterprises and Sympatico/MSN.

Marcia Douglas brings more than 25 years of leadership and hands-on experience across Canada’s screen industry, working across broadcasting, online, and emerging content formats. She is currently Executive Director of the Bell Fund, where she oversees strategic initiatives that support innovative content, production financing, and content creation for all platforms.

Previously, Marcia held senior roles at the Canadian Media Producers Association and the Canada Media Fund, as well as leadership positions at several other funds and industry organizations. With a background in production as a producer, production manager, and assistant director, she combines on-set experience with deep policy and funding expertise. Marcia is a strong advocate for equity, inclusion, accessibility, and environmental sustainability, championing frameworks that support a resilient, forward-looking screen sector.

Adam Fainman is an award-winning founder and CEO of Moonlite Labs, a Winnipeg-based creative technology company building an all-in-one AI platform for generating, editing, and sharing multimedia content. With a background spanning music, digital media, and computer science, his work sits at the intersection of creativity and technology. He holds degrees in Computer Science, Digital Media & Design, as well as a Master’s in Music Technology & Digital Media from the University of Toronto.

Before founding Moonlite Labs, Adam toured internationally as a beatboxer and recording artist under the name Beatox, producing albums, collaborating across genres, and managing tours and creative teams. That experience informs Moonlite’s mission to democratize creative tools and lower barriers to storytelling. His work has also been shaped by the influence of his grandfather, Jacob T. Schwartz, founder of the computer science department at NYU, who encouraged his early interest in both technology and creative exploration.

Dan Fill, Co-founder and President, Dark Slope. Dan Fill is the Co-founder and President of Dark Slope, an entertainment company that operates a 75,000 square foot virtual production facility. Under his leadership, Dark Slope has been heralded as a Realscreen Trailblazer for their impact on the scripted and unscripted industries through the use of LED volume production, and recognized in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500™.

Recent projects include Heated Rivalry, Hate The Player as well as shots for Eli Roth's Ice Cream Man, Gen V, The Boys and Netflix's BET; Dark Slope's location based games team has created activations at Disneyland Shanghai, Dave & Busters and Vertigo Games; and the animation team has produced hundreds of hours of motion capture animation content for Nickelodeon, NBC Peacock and TVOntario.

Prior to Dark Slope Dan was the Head of Multiplatform for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation where he was named the country’s top Digital Innovator for his role in commissioning Australia’s leading streaming service ABC iView, a service that now accounts for over 900 million streams a year.

Lisa Henderson is professor and recent past dean (2019-25) of the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. From 1994-2019 she was Professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she also served as Chair from 2009-13. From 2005-09, she was director of CISA, the Five College Center for Crossroads in the Study of the Americas. She is a radio producer by early training, co-founder of the International Communication Association's LGBTQ Studies Interest Group, and 2011 recipient of the Roy F. Aarons Award for outstanding contribution to GLBT education and research from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Her book Love and Money: Queers, Class, and Cultural Production (NYU, 2013) was a 2014 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. New work considers artist/scholar collaboration and multi-modal research practice--how scholars use images, sound, music, code, and performance to create knowledge on campus and off. With colleagues from five continents, she currently co-leads a project to develop guidelines for the academic support of multi-modal scholarship.

Joan Jenkinson is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Black Screen Office, an outspoken advocate who leads efforts to dismantle anti-Black racism and advance Black storytelling in Canada’s screen industries. Under her leadership, the BSO founded the Collaborative Network and was named 2022 Changemaker Organization of the Year by Playback. As Vice President of Independent Production at VisionTV, she commissioned over 140 hours of programming annually and launched the DiverseTV initiative, which helped launch the careers of several Black filmmakers. Her first screen industry role was as Executive Director of WIFT-Toronto, where she introduced mentorship and training programs that shifted the focus from job-seeking to long-term career-building.

Joan has been awarded WIFT+ Toronto’s 2025 Innovation Trailblazer Award. In 2025, she was recognized by The Hollywood Reporter as one of Canada’s 25 Top Dealmakers and Decision-Makers. That same year, she and the BSO were spotlighted by TIFF as the Impact Support Agency. Her past honours include the Reelworld Visionary Award, the Afroglobal Television Excellence Media Award, and recognition as one of Shifter Magazine’s Outstanding Black Women in Canada.

Natassia Morris is the Business Manager of the Black Screen Office’s Research and Action Centre (RAC). She brings extensive cross-sector experience spanning arts and culture, not-for-profit, education, and corporate environments.

With a strong background in business communications, marketing, and project management—grounded in long-standing relationships with Black, Caribbean, and artistic communities—Natassia is uniquely equipped to lead the RAC and advance measurable, sector-wide change within the Canadian screen industry.

In her role at the Black Screen Office, Natassia works closely with industry leaders and decision-makers to support their DEIA commitments. She connects organizations to the RAC’s evidence-based research, tools, and service offerings, translating insight into action and accountability across the sector.

Nisha Pahuja is an Oscar®, Peabody, Grierson and Emmy-nominated filmmaker. Her latest film, To Kill a Tiger, had its world premiere at TIFF where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Since then, it’s garnered 30 awards including the Best Documentary Feature, Palm Springs International Film Festival, three Canadian Screen awards and the DGC Allan King Award for Best Documentary Feature, 2023. The film grew out of a long career of addressing various human rights issues, notably violence against women in India. In 2015, she won the Amnesty International media award for Canadian journalism after making a short film about the Delhi bus gang rape for Global News. Pahuja’s other past credits include the multi-award-winning The World Before Her (2012 Best Documentary Feature, Jury Award Winner, Tribeca Film Festival; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; TIFF’s Canada’s Top Ten; Best Documentary nominee, Canadian Screen Awards, the series Diamond Road (2008 Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series) and Bollywood Bound (2002 Gemini Award nominee). In 2024, Pahuja was invited to be a Member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Producer’s Guild of America. She is currently working on a new film, Send Us Your Brother as well as leading #StandWithHer a movement to end gender-based using storytelling, art interventions and media campaigns.

Mark Rendell is an economics reporter with the Globe and Mail, covering economic policy, the Bank of Canada and trade. Mark joined the Globe in 2018. Before that, he worked for the Financial Post, CBC North and several small publications in Yellowknife.

Moyra Rodger, Founder and CEO, Magnify Digital. Moyra Rodger is a media innovator and founder of Magnify Digital, a strategy agency and software company redefining how content connects with audiences. An award-winning producer turned tech entrepreneur, she equips creators, producers, and platforms with the tools to build and sustain engaged communities.

Rodger launched ScreenMiner™— an audience intelligence platform that turns engagement data into practical insights—after years of working directly with media organizations struggling to understand and scale their audiences. Her company now delivers digital strategy services, training, and software used by creators, media companies, and funders alike.

Dr. Afsoon Soudi is an Assistant Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University and the Director of Creative AI hub at The Creative School. With a PhD in Physics, she led machine intelligence teams to develop an audience analytics platform and recommender systems enabling discoverability and personalization in digital media products at CBC. Dr. Soudi is a tech-based entrepreneur, as co-founder and VP of R&D of an award winning software company (which was later acquired), she led a multidisciplinary team of researchers and developers on technology commercialization and developing ML products for B2B applications. Dr. Soudi holds multiple patents and published numerous peer-reviewed papers in high-impact journals. Her current research interests intersect Responsible AI, and audience analytics. Dr. Soudi's research focus is on emerging fields in media and communication, particularly those related to the ethical implications of machine learning algorithms and digital platforms. She leads innovative interdisciplinary projects that address contemporary challenges in AI, media, and human-centered design. More specifically responsible development of recommender systems from the perspective of content creators as well as audience engagement with digital platforms. As an educator, she brings that commitment to her research and teaching through inclusive curriculum and supervision developing inclusive creators of the future.

Luke Stark is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies and Co-Director of the Starling Centre for Just Technologies and Just Societies at Western University (London, ON, Canada). He is also an Azrieli Global Scholar with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)’s Future Flourishing Program. His work interrogates the historical, social, and ethical impacts of computing and artificial intelligence technologies, particularly how these technologies mediate social and emotional expression, make inferences about people, and are reshaping, for better and worse, our relationships to collective action, our selves, and each other. He is currently working on his book project, Reordering Emotion: Histories of Computing and Human Feelings from Cybernetics to Artificial Intelligence, which unpacks a history of affective computing and the digital quantification of human emotion from cybernetics in the 1940s to today’s social media platforms and AI technologies.

Stephen Stohn is currently serving as chancellor of Trent University, and a founding partner in the entertainment law firm Stohn Hay Cafazzo Heim Finlay LLP; chair of Orange Lounge Recordings; and a director of the Toronto Music Experience, the Canadian Retransmission Collective, ISAN Canada, and the Producers Audiovisual Collective of Canada. He is chair of the Artificial Intelligence Working Group of the Canadian Media Producers Association.

He is a longtime executive producer of the television franchise Degrassi, amongst several other series. For nearly twenty years, Stephen was a director and then chair of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences and executive producer of The Juno Awards, Canada’s national music awards show.

A member of the Order of Canada, Stephen has been nominated four times for Primetime Emmy Awards, was inducted into the Canadian Music & Broadcast Industry Hall of Fame in 2011 and is a winner of the Peabody Award. He has received 28 nominations for Canadian Screen Awards (formerly the Gemini Awards) and won 14 times. He and his wife Linda Schuyler recently received a Star on Canada’s Walk of Fame on behalf of Degrassi.

Stephen's industry experience includes being a partner for 10 years in McCarthy Tétrault. He is the author of Whatever It Takes: Life Lessons from Degrassi and Elsewhere in the World of Music and Television (Dundurn Press).

Steph Tablizo (they/she) is a Toronto-based director, producer, and multi-hyphenate filmmaker with over 15 years of experience across film, television, commercials, and digital media. Working both internationally and within the Canadian market, Steph has collaborated with major global brands, a diverse slate of broadcasters, and production companies, bringing creative vision and production leadership to a wide range of formats across multiple countries.

Over the past two years, they have expanded into short-form and vertical storytelling, contributing to the production of over a dozen vertical series. They have directed multiple hit projects spanning rom-coms, stylized dramas, and elevated genre storytelling, with titles licensed across major global platforms and ranking at the top of their categories. Known for bringing cinematic craft, emotional depth, and intentional storytelling to mobile-first formats, Steph’s work challenges the idea that short-form content is disposable and pushes the boundaries of what the format can be.

Steph is passionate about the evolving creator economy, platform innovation, and elevating quality while advocating for sustainable, equitable, creator-led models for the future of storytelling.

Julia Werneburg is legal counsel to the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). She has over a decade of experience as an intellectual property lawyer protecting creator rights. Her current portfolio includes government relations, music licensing, and copyright enforcement. Prior to joining SOCAN, she acted as in-house counsel at another national copyright collective and practiced intellectual property law in Ottawa.

Carolyn Wilson is an award-winning educator, author and consultant. She is the Executive Director of the McLuhan Foundation for Digital Media Literacy, and a Lecturer in media literacy at the Faculty of Education at Western University, Canada.

Carolyn has over 30 years of experience in public education and academia, and for the last 15 years has been leading international initiatives in media and information literacy.

Carolyn was the first Chair of UNESCO’s Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Alliance, and a Chair of the UNESCO/UNAOC International University Network on Media and Information Literacy and Intercultural Dialogue.

Carolyn has worked extensively with educators, governments and media industries in the Asia-Pacific Region, in South Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean, and across Europe and North America.

Most recently, Carolyn was elected to the first Global Board for UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy Alliance.

Shubhita Aggarwal, Senior Analyst, Nordicity. Shubhita Aggarwal is a Senior Analyst at Nordicity, working within the global media sector at the intersection of audience insight, strategy, and creative-economy finance. She supports film, TV, and digital media clients with research and advisory on market trends, business models, and investment readiness—including how social finance tools can help creative and cultural projects move from concept to capital.

Prior to Nordicity, Shubhita worked in theatrical distribution at Mongrel Media in Toronto and led integrated campaigns for global brands at network agencies in Mumbai, including Netflix India and MTV. She holds an MBA and Graduate Diploma in Arts, Media & Entertainment Management from the Schulich School of Business, and a BCom in Financial Accounting from the University of Mumbai; her graduate research explored social finance mechanisms for arts and culture.

Budhaditya (Budha) Mukhuty, Consultant, Lord Cultural Resources. Budhaditya (Budha) Mukhuty is a Consultant at Lord Cultural Resources with expertise in analytical research and business planning. He delivers data driven insights and strategic solutions that help organizations make informed decisions and drive impactful change.

Prior to joining Lord Cultural Resources, Budha worked in a myriad of creative roles. He undertook creative projects as a photographer and film director, documenting stories for commercial as well as human interest. His editorial photography projects have found a home in reputed publications globally. He has also served as a public relations consultant, providing additional perspective towards the business and operations of nonprofit organizations.

Budha holds a BA in Journalism and Communication from the School of Communication, Manipal University in India, and an MBA specializing in Strategy and Arts, Media, & Entertainment Management from the Schulich School of Business, York University, in Toronto, CA.

Marlene Murphy (Presenting), Ph.D. candidate in Communication and Culture at York University; former Producer at CBC News. Marlene Murphy is a PhD student in the Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture at York University and Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research is looking at the role local television news has played in Canada, and its evolution since the 1980s.

Prior to academic life, she was a journalist at the CBC, working as a writer, editor and producer on various daily news programs, including The National, News Network and Midday. She was also the producer of the video syndication service providing local newscasts and external clients with coverage of major Canadian and international news.

She has a B.A. (Hons.) from McGill University and an M.A. in Journalism from Western University.

Stephen Ilkiw (Presenting), PhD Student & Principal, Bedford Hill Consulting. Stephen Ilkiw is a PhD student in Communications and Culture (York University and Toronto Metropolitan University), leveraging 20+ years in Strategy, Communications, and Marketing.

He founded and managed Bedford Hill Consulting, specializing in senior financial executives as well as member, and sport organizations. Previously, he spent nearly a decade at PwC, leading national brand, sponsorship, communications, and marketing initiatives. An early investor in LumiQ (a CPD/CPE podcast platform for finance professionals), he holds degrees from Western University and the University of Western Sydney.

Clara Leite (Not Presenting), Business Affairs Regional Lead for Canada and LATAM at Edelman. Clara Leite is the Business Affairs Regional Lead for Canada and LATAM at Edelman, where she advises on complex brand partnerships, talent and influencer agreements, and risk management across integrated, digital, experiential, and content-driven campaigns.

Her film and television experience includes work with Blue Ant Media, Reel One Entertainment, HBO, Netflix, Warner Bros., and O2 Filmes. Her expertise includes structuring creative and commercial agreements, managing regulatory compliance and clearances across various platforms. She holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University, specializing in Arts, Entertainment, and Media Management.

Avneesh Mehta, Director of Business Development for Media, Environics Analytics. Avneesh Mehta has accumulated a decade of experience working in the Canadian Media Landscape as a research and sales professional across broadcasters, agencies, and advertising solutions companies. He's passionate about translating data into actionable insights that drive business growth.

He completed his HBA at the Ivey Business School and is currently pursuing his MBA part-time at the Schulich School of Business, with a specialization in Arts, Media, and Entertainment Management. He's a huge film and TV buff and loves following the Oscars, box office, and all industry news and trends.

Parmeet Singh Bhatia, Inside Sales Representative, Uber Technologies. Parmeet Bhatia is an honors MBA graduate from the Schulich School of Business, who brings a strategic lens to the intersection of marketing, arts, and media.

With a career defined by a strong track record in people-facing roles, leveraging a background in hospitality and sales to master the art of engagement and relationship building. This professional expertise is complemented by a lifelong devotion to creative culture—from a deep love of music and film to a technical curiosity for game design, spanning both the digital world of video games and the tactical world of TTRPGs.