ICCR-19 Industry Symposium

Bridging the ‘Digital Divide’ – Key Considerations to Support Bringing Product Labelling into the 21^st Century

Date: Thursday, July 10, 2025
Time: 1:00 – 4:00 pm EDT
Location: Fairmont Château Laurier, 1 Rideau St, Ottawa
Fee: This is a Complimentary Event. There is no registration fee.

The world is changing, and the way that consumers interact with products, and expectations regarding how to seek information on products is readily evolving to accommodate rapidly changing digital advancements. Product labelling regulatory frameworks around the world are largely predicated on an old paradigm hyper-focused on the physical label and the conveyance of consumer information ‘on pack’ to facilitate purchase decisions. Today, consumers are making purchase decisions without necessarily interfacing with a physical product label until after a transaction is completed.  Digital information exchange can offer a more effective means of sharing critical consumer information in a manner that anticipates evolutions in technology and enhancing the overall consumer experience.  Ensuring and facilitating access to digital information will also be a critical need to advance.  However, accessibility should not be seen as a barrier to modernization, but rather as a key opportunity to drive innovation and engagement.  The ‘Digital Divide’ is closing, and the time is now to turn these challenges into opportunities.  

Join us at the ICCR-19 Industry Symposium to share and explore some key considerations and challenges as we look to explore opportunities to facilitate brining product labelling into the 21st Century. Working together to change the conversation and encourage bold evolutions in thinking that can shape future regulatory dialogue and advance regulatory policy making that anticipates the needs of the future and looks to support and respond to technological innovations.

Preliminary Program

• NielsenIQ: Speaker TBC – Understanding Changing Market Dynamics and how Consumers are Engaging with Digital Marketplaces
• Ms. Franca Palazzo, Executive Director, Canadian Internet Society – Engagement with the Internet and Evolving User Demographics – Output from 2024 Digital Policy Forum
• Dr. Wendy Cukier, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Ted Rogers School of Management at Toronto Metropolitan University; Founder and Academic Director, Diversity Institute;
  Academic Director of the Women Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (WEKH); Academic Research Director of the Future Skills Centre – Digital Divide:   Opportunities and Challenges
• Dr. Lanre Jerry-ljishakin, User Experience Researcher/CX Accessibility Designer, UX Research Professor @ Algonquin College/Sr UX Researcher @ Emids – Interaction Design, Bringing Product Labelling into the 21^st Century
• GS1: Speaker TBC – Emerging Digital Technologies and the Retailer Community

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