IEEE Stablecoin & Agentic AI Forum

A one-day Calgary forum convening the practitioners, founders, and researchers charting what comes next at the edge of finance and AI.
About this Event

Join us for a one-day industry working session bringing together practitioners at the edge of stablecoins, payments, and agentic AI. This invitational forum convenes researchers, builders, and industry leaders to co-design a new research and talent-training program for an emerging technological era, one where programmable money and autonomous AI agents are reshaping how value moves and decisions get made.

Rather than a traditional conference, this is a collaborative working session. Attendees will help shape the direction of the program alongside speakers and conveners.

Event Details

• Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2026
• Time: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Mountain Time
• Venue: Indigo Room, Alt Hotel — University District, 482 McLaurin St NW, Calgary, Alberta T3B 2X9
• Format: Industry working session
• Cost: Free — registration required

Seating is limited. Please RSVP to secure your place.

Speakers

Practitioners working at the edge of stablecoins, payments, and agentic AI, in the room to co-design the program.

• Brian Ford — VP & Head, Business Solutions & Digital Assets, ATB Financial
• Kevin Zhang — Co-Founder, Loon
• Youssef Harkati — Co-Founder & CEO, BrightOnLABS
• Jade Alberts — Marketing Director, Blockchain Insurance Inc.
• George Bordianu — Co-Founder & CEO, Balance
• Koleya Karringten — Executive Director, Canadian Blockchain Consortium
• Julie Brunias — Cybersecurity Team Lead & AI Champion, Videotron
• More to be announced

Program at a Glance

A preview of the talks and panels planned for the day. The detailed program will be available closer to the event.

• Stablecoins and Digital Assets Industry in Alberta — Brian Ford, ATB Financial
• Next-generation Banking with Canada's Regulated Stablecoin — Kevin Zhang, Loon
• Introduction to the Canadian Blockchain Consortium and Blockchain Insurance — Koleya Karringten, Canadian Blockchain Consortium
• Keeping Stablecoin Transactions Safe in Agentic Environments — Youssef Harkati, BrightOnLABS

Open for Discussion: Co-Designing Fintech Talent Training

Because of Alberta's friendly cryptocurrency regulations, many prominent digital-asset companies, such as Loon and Stablecorp, are headquartered in the province. What talent-training programs can universities design to build the skills these fintech leaders need in Canada? Starting with small steps such as a certificate program or minor, co-designed with industry, this would provide convincing proof that our graduates are ready to work at fintech companies.

Why This Matters

Stablecoins are quietly rewriting payments while agentic AI reshapes how work gets done, yet Canada still has no curriculum for the engineers, researchers, and operators who will have to ship at that intersection, so this is the day we start drafting it. Rather than sitting through slides, attendees spend the day in working conversation with the practitioners, founders, and policy voices shaping how programmable money actually moves, in Canada and globally, and leave with relationships rather than notes. That conversation is grounded in a uniquely Alberta advantage: with the country's most accommodating regulatory and banking environment for fintech and blockchain ventures, founders and prospective founders can trace concrete pathways to support, capital, and partnership, from first idea to launch. And because the room brings together banks, payment processors, AI labs, and infrastructure firms already hiring at this frontier, students and early-career engineers connect directly with the internships and roles that turn a day of talk into a career.

Organizers

• Henry Leung — Professor, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary
• Steve Drew — Associate Professor, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary

Conveners & Sponsors

Convened by the University of Calgary (Schulich School of Engineering and Faculty of Science) and the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society, with thanks to IEEE and the Schulich School of Engineering for sponsoring this event!
For more information, please check https://stablecoinyyc.github.io/