9797 Jasper Ave,
Edmonton, Alberta T5J 1N9, Canada
May 3, 2026 - May 5, 2026
09:00AM - 04:30PM MDT
Taking place in May 3-5th 2026, the Alberta Aerospace & Defence Summit is the must-attend event in Western Canada for the aerospace and defence community.
With investment in defence on the rise, Alberta has become a key hub for innovation, manufacturing, and strategic collaboration. This milestone summit brings together leaders, contract holders, and innovators from the land, marine, air, and space sectors to explore opportunities in Alberta’s rapidly growing defence market.
Attendees can expect exclusive industry tours, B2B meetings with top decision-makers, and insightful presentations from Canada’s leading defence and aerospace experts.
Join us to connect, collaborate, and help shape the future of Canada’s defence and aerospace industries.
Breakout Sessions exploring industry priorities, emerging technologies, and opportunities in aerospace, defence, marine, drones, and AI.
Networking & Gala Events that foster meaningful relationships and celebrate innovation and excellence across the industry.
Cross-Sector Networking under one roof with the Canadian Aircraft Maintenance Competition (the largest in Canada) and the Aviation Summit, providing a unique chance to engage with industry professionals, students, and defence partners.
Participate in pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings through the B2B2GO platform. This is a key opportunity to form partnerships and explore collaboration with industry leaders.
Priority access will be given to defence contractors, companies, and sponsors.
Experience Alberta’s innovation firsthand through exclusive visits to leading education, manufacturing, and defence facilities.
Celebrate excellence and connection at the Alberta Aviation, Aerospace & Defence Summit Evening Gala. Enjoy a formal dinner, live entertainment, and an evening dedicated to recognizing achievement and building new relationships across the sector.
Prime contractors, aerospace and defence companies, advanced manufacturers, innovative tech firms, SMEs, Canadian Army Forces representatives, Department of National Defence members, and anyone interested in Canada’s defence industry.
Your Aerospace & Defence Summit ticket includes full access to the Alberta Aviation Summit and free entry to the Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Competition.
Gain a three-day experience with site tours, networking events, gala, prime presentations, and B2B meetings.
Join industry leaders, innovators, and decision-makers to gain valuable insights, explore new opportunities, and strengthen your position in Canada’s growing aerospace and defence ecosystem.
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| Description: | Experience Alberta's aerospace and defence innovation firsthand during a full day of exclusive industry tours! Visit leading education and innovation centers, explore state-of-the-art maintenance and manufacturing facilities, and connect with defence organizations that excel in expansion and collaboration. Priority will be given to defence contractors and sponsors, but spots are limited, and a waitlist will be available. Don’t miss this opportunity to witness Alberta’s aerospace and defence capabilities up close! Experience Alberta’s aerospace and defence innovation up close. Visit leading education, manufacturing, and research facilities, and connect with organizations driving growth and collaboration across the sector. Please see the full tour schedule our website at www.albertasummit.com. 8:00 – 8:15 AM: Arrival and networking (NAIT-hosted warm buffet breakfast) 8:45-9:00 AM: Bus to NAIT 9:00-10:30 AM: NAIT Tour i) NAIT Productivity and Innovation Centre: 10:30-11:00 AM: Bus to U of A 11:00 AM-1200: U of A Tour i) Microwave, Millimetre-Wave, and MetaDevices (M3) Laboratory (Professor Ashwin Iyer) ii) Laboratory of Turbulent Flows (Professor Sina Ghaemi) 12:00-12:45 PM: Lunch and Presentation at U of A Ecosystem Development Program Presentation, by Ian Smith, Director of Business Development & Founding Member of the Centre for Applied Research in Defence and Dual Use Technologies (CARDD Tech) 1:00-1:30 PM: Bus to YEG with On-bus Information Session by Margeaux Maron, Director, Government and Corporate Relations, YEG 1:30-3:15 PM: YEG Tour i) Airport Operations Facility (AOF) ii) Canadian North Training Centre (EFC Hangar 2) iii) Lockheed Martin Drone Demonstration 3:15-3:45 PM: Bus back to hotel. |
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| Description: | For industry leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and emerging professionals to connect, exchange ideas, and explore opportunities for collaboration in advance of the May 4-5 summit programming. Refreshments will be provided. |
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| Description: | This event offers a unique opportunity to hear from a select group of leaders about the latest trends, initiatives, and innovations shaping aviation, aerospace, and defense. Our theme, Women Transforming the Future, highlights the vision and impact of women driving progress across these industries. |
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| Description: | Discover how Alberta is bringing its aviation, aerospace, and defence sectors together. From breaking down silos to creating a unified industry voice, this dynamic group of speakers offer a high-level look at the province’s shared vision and the opportunities it creates for everyone in the sector. Be inspired by what’s next for Alberta’s industry. |
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| Description: | Humans are not inherently the weakest link—poor system design is. When organizations align training, incentives, and tooling with human behaviour, people become a dynamic detection layer capable of identifying anomalies long before automated systems respond. As connected technologies—from electric vehicles to personal wearables—become embedded in daily life and enterprise environments, the human attack surface expands significantly. |
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| Description: | Join us for coffee and refreshments at the Fidelity Lounge. |
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| Description: | This session will provide an overview of Canada’s new Defence Industrial Strategy and its implications for the national defence and security ecosystem. The speaker will outline the strategy’s core objectives, including strengthening domestic industrial capacity, enhancing supply chain resilience, supporting innovation and export growth, and aligning industry capabilities with evolving Canadian Armed Forces requirements. The talk will highlight how the strategy is expected to shape future procurement approaches, partnerships, and investment priorities, offering attendees insight into what the new framework may mean for Canadian companies, research institutions, and allied collaboration. |
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Fidelity Manufacturing
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| Description: | Fragmented security tools create systemic blind spots; integrated architecture—linking cyber, physical, intelligence, and operational layers—is now essential for protecting critical and defence infrastructure. Interoperability and shared situational awareness matter more than standalone technological superiority. |
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| Description: | The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) are undergoing a critical modernization to remain agile, interoperable, and ready in an increasingly complex security environment. This session will examine key CAF modernization priorities across air, marine, ground, space, cyber, and defence platforms, including capability renewal, digital transformation, and workforce evolution. Panelists will explore what modernization means in practice—how new technologies, partnerships with industry, and innovative procurement approaches are reshaping Canada’s defence posture—and what opportunities this creates for Alberta’s aviation, aerospace, and defence sectors to support and enable the force of the future. |
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| Description: | Join us for coffee and refreshments at the Fidelity Lounge or walk the tradeshow floor. |
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| Description: | Join the excitement and be a spectator at the Pitch Competition, where startups, SMEs, researchers, and industry teams with Emerging Disruptive Technologies (EDTs) pitch their solutions to industry experts and leaders, gain valuable exposure and feedback, and explore opportunities for collaboration. The top 2 pitchers will complete their final pitch at the Evening Gala, with an opportunity for the audience to engage in live voting for the winner! Background: Through the READI (Rapidly Enabling and Advancing Disruptive Innovation) Project, funded by Canada's Department of National Defence, Alberta AAD will explore the following question: What EDT trends could the Defence Team anticipate and how could they be addressed in defence policy development? |
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| Description: | As global security dynamics rapidly evolve, NATO and NORAD are adapting to a more complex and contested aerospace domain. This session explores how these cornerstone defence alliances are modernizing to address emerging threats—from hypersonic weapons and space-based risks to cyber warfare and Arctic security. With a focus on aerospace and defence innovation, the discussion will highlight Canada’s strategic role, opportunities for industry collaboration, and what evolving NATO and NORAD priorities mean for Alberta’s aviation, aerospace, and defence ecosystem. Attendees will gain insight into how allied defence frameworks are shaping the future of aerospace capability, resilience, and deterrence. |
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| Description: | Financial institutions sit at the intersection of economic stability and national security, making them prime targets for sophisticated, state-aligned cyber operations. The next phase of financial cybersecurity will be defined by ecosystem-level defence, not firm-level compliance. |
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Fidelity Manufacturing
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| Description: | An opportunity to watch the two finalists pitch and vote for the winner! |
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| Description: | In this talk, Dr. Junaid OOsman takes the audience from a simple but urgent question, what happens to garbage in space to a NASA-validated answer built right here in Edmonton, Alberta. He shares the story behind Waste Parrot Technologies, why waste management is one of the most overlooked challenges in long-duration space missions, and how autonomous AI, robotics, and additive manufacturing are turning that problem into a platform. Equal parts founder story and technical vision, this session shows what it looks like when a backyard dream becomes a lunar reality. |
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Fidelity Manufacturing
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| Description: | Operational resilience now hinges on secure, distributed ERP systems and robust data protection—not just infrastructure. Ukrainian energy and natural resource leaders have demonstrated how resilient ERP environments enable continuity under extreme disruption. This Speaker Series session will showcase real-world examples from Ukraine’s major industry players, highlighting how these systems performed under live operational stress. |
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| Description: | Innovating in a defence ecosystem: doing more together. Discussion of the various perspectives on innovation and how the ecosystem can work together to do more for Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces. |
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| Description: | Modern conflict is no longer defined by standalone platforms but by the strength of interconnected systems. The integration of drones, unmanned ground vehicles, electronic warfare, and cyber capabilities has shifted advantage toward forces that can operate as adaptive, resilient networks. In this environment, success depends on real-time data exchange, interoperability, and the ability to sustain operations under constant disruption. The battlefield is now a dynamic ecosystem—where trusted partnerships, decentralized capabilities, and system-level resilience determine operational effectiveness. |
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| Description: | Join us for an in-depth session exploring the current state of defence and security in the Arctic and why Alberta is so critical to the sovereignty of the North. This presentation will provide an overview of existing supports and resources, identify gaps and priorities for growth, and highlight the pivotal role Alberta, and Western Canada, plays. |
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| Description: | In 2026, artificial intelligence is evolving from analytical support tools into systems that sense, fuse, prioritize, and act at operational speed. In aviation, aerospace, and defence environments, this shift directly impacts mission assurance, targeting cycles, cyber resilience, and human–machine command structures. At the same time, emerging technologies such as quantum sensing and quantum-secure communications are beginning to reshape how data is generated, protected, and trusted in contested operational environments. This discussion explores how organizations can maintain decision dominance while integrating adaptive AI, balancing autonomy with control, speed with oversight, and innovation with operational accountability. |
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| Description: | Space has become a critical domain for economic resilience, national security, and technological leadership. Space superiority—the ability to access, operate in, and protect space-based assets—directly impacts aviation, defence, communications, navigation, and logistics here on Earth. This session will explore why space superiority matters to Canada and Alberta, highlighting how emerging space technologies, in-situ manufacturing, and space logistics are shaping the future of exploration, defence, and industrial capability. Speakers will discuss Alberta’s growing role in advanced aerospace and space-based manufacturing, and how innovation developed locally is contributing to global space infrastructure and next-generation supply chains. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of how space capabilities support sovereignty, security, and economic growth—and why space is no longer a distant frontier, but a critical part of our industrial and defence ecosystem. |
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| Description: | Join Kendra for the official wrap of the 2026 Summit with special announcements. |
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Fidelity Manufacturing
Arcfield
Executive Flight Centre
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