Events

AI and deepfake technologies are rapidly evolving tools with significant potential for positive impact. However, they are increasingly being misused to create harmful and exploitative content. Join us for a workshop exploring how sexual violence intersects with technology. We’ll examine how this emerging technology is having extreme real-world impacts on often unknowing victims.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping teaching, learning, and assessment in higher education. While AI offers new opportunities for innovation and efficiency, it is also introducing complex challenges related to student well-being, accessibility, academic integrity, and meaningful human connections. Grounded in universal design, trauma-informed practices, and student-centered approaches, this session emphasizes actionable strategies that center on empathy, maintain professional boundaries, and foster inclusive pedagogy in our technology-rich learning environments.

This session will provide a solutions-focused, evidence-based, and compassionate approach to understanding menopause and its impact on body shape and size, muscle health, and bone strength. Participants will gain practical strategies to navigate these changes with confidence and clarity, supported by the latest research and actionable tools for everyday life.

Many of us find ourselves wondering: Where do I fit? What’s my next step? How do I show up in a meaningful way when so much around me is shifting? In a time of evolving structures, shifting priorities, and ongoing change across campus and beyond, these questions can feel both important and overwhelming. This workshop offers space to explore how our personal career stories intersect with Waterloo’s evolving institutional story, and to begin orienting and finding our way by identifying the stories that truly serve us.

Grounded in Waterloo’s long‑term vision and informed by real sentiments shared by staff from across campus, this session invites you to examine which stories are currently serving you, which may no longer fit, and how you might reimagine or adapt your narrative as you move forward. Through movement-based activities* and brief conversations with colleagues, you’ll be introduced to practical strategies and tools to support you in wayfinding your career at Waterloo.

Food costs and average global temperatures are rising, but there still is hope. In this workshop hosted by Food Services and the Sustainability Office, you will learn how to reduce your food carbon footprint and food waste, while saving money. Participants will also have the opportunity to sample a curried lentil soup and make and take a soup kit to cook at home.

Panel of three experts from supporting units on campus (Catering and Event Services, W Print, W Store Custom Orders) answer questions about how to run events smoother. Planning events at UWaterloo can be complex. Timelines shift, resources are limited and budgets don’t always stretch as far as planned. This session is designed to help staff plan with confidence by combining a high-level overview of key campus services with real, practical examples of how those services support successful events.

Discover how a grassroots community of practice centered around data has reshaped how staff connect, collaborate, and engage with University resources. The Data Analyst Forum was formed after the pandemic with two simple goals: build a sense of belonging among staff and share knowledge to improve our work. Through real “data stories” participants will learn how data literacy grows through knowledge sharing and how collective learning can spark cultural change. The stories will also showcase examples of connecting data from different sources, practical ways to keep data safe, and how to find and use institutional data and resources more effectively. You don’t need to be a data expert—this is about how data becomes a shared language that brings people, units, and ideas together. Join us to see how knowledge sharing can reduce duplication, improve quality, and create meaningful connections across the University.

Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming part of everyday work and life, and learning to use it responsibly is essential. This workshop offers a practical approach to help University of Waterloo staff build confidence with AI tools while protecting privacy, data, and personal well‑being. Participants will explore a 5‑step framework—rooted in the University’s AI Principles—for responsible AI use, with guidance on understanding purpose, navigating privacy requirements, and keeping people in control when working with university data. A short optional hands‑on activity will give participants a chance to try a simple AI prompt and practice applying key concepts, with alternate resources available for those without a laptop or who prefer not to participate interactively. The session will also touch on emerging AI‑related risks that can affect personal digital wellness, and will direct staff to appropriate mental‑health and cybersecurity support resources.

One's sixth decade, or 50s, can be an important time of tremendous change and loss, but also opportunity! As in our teens and 20s, we have time to take stock, set goals, and go after our dreams. However, this time around we've got the advantages of wisdom and experience to apply, we are better resourced, and we know time is precious! Through sharing her own story of moving from evading exercise to teaching yoga, fearing risk to seeking mountain adventures, and grieving losses to finding her way back into love, fun, and purpose, Cynthia wants to inspire you to look at the later stages of life in a new and hopeful way.

This session focuses on how university staff handle data in their everyday work and why privacy matters beyond rules and compliance, especially when using digital and AI enabled tools. It looks at who staff are protecting trust for, including students, faculty members, research, colleagues, partners, and the public, and how routine data decisions can create risk if not handled responsibly and carefully. Using practical university examples, the session shows how data reflects responsibility and values, and where legal and ethical concerns often arise when information is shared, reused, or processed manually or through technology. Participants will learn to recognize common privacy risks, understand the difference between legal obligations and ethical responsibility, and leave with practical guidance for using data and emerging technologies responsibly in their day-to-day work despite their roles.