CES Ontario Virtual Conference: Politics, Progress and Possibility
2025-10-21 09:00 - 15:30 UTC
Join us for a conference on the theme of Politics, Progress and Possibility! Network, learn, and grow with evaluators like you!
The Canadian Evaluation Society Ontario Chapter (CES Ontario) is pleased to invite evaluation practitioners, researchers, academics, emerging evaluators, and students to join us for CES Ontario’s 2025 Virtual Conference.
Evaluation is a constantly changing field of practice, informed by new and emerging technologies, approaches, and political pressures. We will survey these topic areas, explore their interplays and connections, and discuss how to integrate them into our work.
Topic Areas:

New and next approaches to program evaluation: new evaluation processes, frameworks, and models, alternative funding models, and decolonized evaluation approaches
Technology: how AI (and other tools!) are changing evaluation, and considerations of utility and equity
Political considerations: evaluation politics in Ontario, Canadian, and international contexts, as well as managing projects and stakeholders

Conference participants will:

Gain a deeper understanding of current trends, innovations, opportunities, and challenges for enhancing and integrating approaches in evaluation.
Gain important evaluation skills to address current and future trends.
Enhance connections with other evaluators, networks, and organizations.
Contribute to discussions about the importance of evaluative thinking and evaluation practice in the areas of new approaches, technology, and politics.

Visit our Virtual Conference website for session descriptions, speaker bios, and more!

Eval Café: Games & Mingling Night
2025-11-20 17:30 - 20:30 | The Dylan Bar, 1276 Danforth Ave, Toronto, Ontario, M4J 1M6, Canada
Join us for a relaxed, social Evaluation Café where we’ll mix purposeful networking with a couple of light, laughter-friendly games to help folks connect across projects, sectors, and roles. Expect easy icebreakers (think Human Bingo / Speed-Friending energy), evaluator-adjacent shenanigans, and plenty of time to chat.
What to expect

5:30–5:50 Check-in, grab a bite, casual intros

5:50–6:25 Game #1: quick mixer to meet new people

6:25–6:55 Game #2: small-group fun (zero prep required)

6:55–7:30+ Open networking

Food & drinks: Light snacks provided; drinks available for purchase at the bar.
Who should come: Evaluators, researchers, data/strategy folks, students, and anyone evaluation-curious.
Vibe: Friendly, low-stakes, come-as-you-are.

Eval Café: Evaluation Trivia
2026-01-07 12:00 - 13:00
To start the new year, let’s have a bit of fun together. Join us for some trivia about evaluation and your peers!

Evaluation Cafe Ontario online events are an opportunity for us to network and learn from our colleagues across the province. Anyone can join whether from Ontario or not, but presenters/facilitators will always be from Ontario.

We have a continuous open call for topics, activities, discussions, etc. Whatever you want to share, do, discussion with peers from across Ontario, you let us know, and we make it happen.

To RSVP, join the CES Ontario Groups.io group and RSVP online.
