Sunday June 9
Opening Reception and CESEF Benefit Silent Auction
17:00 – 19:00
Convention Floor, Ontario room
Ticket included in your Conference registration
Kick-off the conference by greeting old and new friends and colleagues, as well as helping the CES Educational Fund (CESEF) make this year’s benefit auction the best yet! Tapas and a selection of drinks will be provided, and a cash bar will be available. The CESEF benefit auction, an annual tradition, has unique items generously donated by individuals and businesses from Canada and abroad. Proceeds from the silent auction support scholarships, awards, and educational opportunities to individuals wishing to pursue a career in the field of Program Evaluation.
Monday June 10
Rise ‘n’ Shine Yoga and Walking or Jogging Groups
06:30 – 07:15
See notice posted by conference registration desk for location
Meet the Authors Networking and Book Signing
12:00 – 13:30
Convention Floor, Ontario room
Ticket included in your Conference registration
Drop by to connect one-on-one or in small groups with leading Canadian and International evaluation authors who are participating in CES 2013 as keynote speakers, panel and session presenters, and workshop facilitators. They are looking forward to chatting with you about CES 2013, their publications or any evaluation topic of interest to you. And, if you wish, you can order evaluation titles at 30% off, and out authors will sign a book plate for you.
We have an exciting line-up of evaluation authors for you to meet, including:
- Gail V. Barrington – Consulting Startup and Management – Sage 2012
- E. Jane Davidson – Actionable Evaluation Basics – Real Evaluation 2012
- Stephanie Evergreen – Presenting Data Effectively – Sage 2013
- David Fetterman – Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Village: Hewlett-Packard’s $15 Million Race Toward Social Justice – Stanford 2013
- John Mayne – Enhancing Evaluation Use: Insights from Internal Evaluation Units – Sage 2013
- Hallie Preskill – Evaluating Social Innovation – FSG 2012
- Robert Schwartz – Evaluating the Complex: Attribution, Contribution, and Beyond – Transaction 2011
- Ricardo Ramirez and Dal Brodhead – Utilization-focused Evaluation: A Primer for Evaluators (Southbound, 2013)
- 1. From the Field, to the Ivory Tower, and Back Again: Promises (and Pitfalls) of Full-Cycle Evaluation Research — Bernadette Campbell, Andy Thompson, Shevaun Nadin and Katherine Gilhnooly; Carleton University
- 2. Results of the 2013 CES Professional Development Needs Survey: Let’s discuss — Simon Roy (Goss Gilroy Inc.), Benoit Gauthier (Circum Network Inc.), Shelley Borys (Audit and Evaluation, PHAC) and Natalie Kishchuk (Natalie Kishchuk Evaluation and Research Inc.)
- 3. EvalPartners: A Global Evaluation Movement — Martha Mcguire, IOCE and Jim Rugh, EvalPartners, Veronica Olazabal (The Mastercard Foundation), Joe Dickman (The Mastercard Foundation), Suzanne Field (Right to Play)
- 4. Speed Mentoring for New Practitioners & Students — CES-ON New Practitioners and Students group
You may even WIN one of the authors’ publications in a raffle!
Student Case Competition
Presentations
12:30 – 16:00
Convention floor, Canadian room
Ticket included in your Conference registration
Curious about the next generation of evaluators? CES and CESEF invite you to be part of the audience for the Final Round of the 2013 CES Student Case Competition. This session is always a highlight of the Conference! The winning team will be announced at tonight’s reception.
Awards Reception
18:00 – 19:00
Convention Floor, Ontario room
Ticket included in your Conference registration
You are warmly invited to this reception at which the winning team for 2013 will be announced.
Hospitality Suites
19:30 – 22:30
Ticket included in your Conference registration
Continue the conversation! You are invited to mix, mingle, network and re-charge after a stimulating conference day. See notice posted by conference registration desk for hosts and location.
Tuesday June 11
Rise ‘n’ Shine Yoga and Walking or Jogging Groups
06:30 – 07:15
See notice posted by conference registration desk for location
Fireside Chats: 4 Critical Conversations to Seed and Foster Communities of Practice
14:00 – 15:30
Ticket included in your Conference registration
Site Visit: Pathways to Education @ Regent Park
16:00 – 18:00
Meet next to the clock in lobby
Ticketed event $35* + taxes (transportation included, capped at 48 participants)
To buy your ticket online, go to http://cestoronto2013.ca/registration/
*Portion of proceeds will be donated to Pathways to Education
Participate in a unique experiential learning opportunity in one of Canada’s most exciting urban revitalization projects! Toronto’s Regent Park community, a social housing project, is also home to the Pathways to Education program which aims to reduce poverty by helping young people finish high school and go on to obtain post-secondary qualifications. For more information on this urban revitalization project, please visit http://www.pathwaystoeducation.ca/en/toronto-regent-park
The site visit includes a guided tour through Regent Park by program alumni, followed by a World Café process led by program staff and the evaluation team to explore key research and evaluation questions. This is an exciting opportunity for CES 2013 conference delegates to share and contribute their expertise and thought leadership to program development and future evaluation.
Credentialing Information Session
17:30 – 18:30
Main Mezzanine, Québec room
Ticket included in your Conference registration
Are you an experienced evaluator? At this information session you will learn more about the CES Credentialed Evaluator (CE) designation, and what qualifications are required to apply.
Mama Kin – Experience Toronto Social Event
19:00 – 22:30
Meet next to the clock in lobby
Ticketed event $60 + taxes
Reception (cocktails and food) at 19:00, show begins at 20:00
To buy your ticket online, go to http://cestoronto2013.ca/registration/
“Mama Kin, Mama Kin, Mama Kin…those cool guys from Canada!!!” – Steven Tyler
Join us at the Hard Rock Cafe for Mama Kin, a world-renowned Aerosmith tribute band. The Hard Rock Cafe overlooks Toronto’s busiest intersection of Yonge and Dundas, and features historic memorabilia from artists such as Madonna, Depeche Mode, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and more. Mingle with your fellow delegates, dine on delicious food in your own VIP area and experience the sounds of a band that has been praised by members of Aerosmith themselves.
Getting there: Ride the Rocket: the Hard Rock is a short ride on the TTC from the Royal York hotel (Union Station northbound to Dundas Station.) Alternatively, join us for a fun walking tour through the heart of the City’s financial district. Departure information will available on-site at the registration desk.
Wednesday June 12
Thematic Breakfast Roundtables
08:00 – 09:00
Convention floor, Canadian room
Ticket included in your Conference registration
On behalf of the CES-ON, Eval Café Toronto invites you to perk up breakfast through networking, exploring questions, and sharing your experiences in evaluation! Anyone is welcome to join. Led by a volunteer facilitator (see below), these informal groups discuss a shared interest in a particular area or topic of evaluation.
Eval Café Toronto is an informal networking and knowledge sharing event for professionals working in the field of Program Evaluation. It’s a chance to meet new people, share ideas and build a sense of community among evaluators in the Toronto area. Visit us at http://www.meetup.com/Evaluation-Cafe-Toronto/ to become a member!
1-Mobile Data Collection – facilitated by Kylie Hutchinson (Community Solutions Planning & Evaluation)
Mobile data collection on smart phones and tablets is quickly gaining popularity in a variety of contexts. This thematic session will provide an informal forum for participants to discuss the uses of mobile data collection in evaluation, along with some of its associated advantages and disadvantages.
2-How to take the complexity out of strategy and make it simple – facilitated by Brett Huttman (Toggle Consulting)
Is your organization’s strategy sitting in a binder on the shelf collecting dust? Let’s talk about how to leverage popular models like the balanced scorecard, Porter’s 5 forces, and the discipline of market leaders in strategic planning, to position evaluation as a way to help turn vision into action.
3- Evaluation that seriously gets to the point, and conveys it brilliantly – facilitated by Jane Davidson (Real Evaluation Ltd) and Stephanie Evergreen (Evergreen Data)
We’ll discuss how to unlearn the eight worst habits we picked up from the social sciences that are absolutely killing our ability to make great sense and deliver the value we could be. We’ll share our top tips for how to do real evaluation and awesome reporting that blows stakeholders’ minds with its clarity and insight. Asking the right questions and conveying the answers in a memorable way are two key steps toward evaluation use.
4- Evaluating Policy – facilitated by Marla Steinberg (Independent Consultant)
Increasingly evaluators are called upon to develop strategic evaluations of “big picture” evaluands like strategies, policies, and horizontal or comprehensive initiatives. The purpose of this discussion will be to explore what we know about evaluating policy, generate an understanding of whether or how these types of evaluations differ from program or project evaluations, talk about how best to approach evaluation of such large scale interventions, and surface resources that can help in the development of evaluation methodology.
5-What is the value of evaluation? A storytelling session – facilitated by Rochelle Zorzi (Cathexis Consulting)
As evaluators, we believe there is value in evaluating things. If we didn’t, we would have left the profession long ago. We’ve learned from the evaluations in which we have participated, and our clients tell us they have benefited from evaluation. But what are the benefits? How are they expressed? During this breakfast, we will share our stories about evaluations that have made a difference, and – through our stories – begin to explore some of the factors that contribute to making evaluation more or less valuable.
6- Is formative and summative passé in a world of strategic learning? – facilitated by Shawna Hoffman (The Mastercard Foundation)
Traditional formative and summative evaluation sought to answer primarily accountability-related question. Increasingly, however, funders are seeing evaluations as unique opportunities for strategic learning and reflection. This session will discuss whether and to what extent is it possible to truly balance traditional evaluation approaches with new emergent learning approaches.
7- Organizational learning and capacity building in developing countries – facilitated by Suzanne Field (Right to Play)
With finite resources to work with, we often feel compelled to separate our evaluation objectives into two buckets: the must-do’s (often driven by accountabilities to donors or communication needs) and the wish-list (often including both the list of exploration questions that would ultimately inform innovations, strategic decisions and future planning, and the incorporation of participatory evaluation approaches for the purpose of capacity building). In this forum, we will explore the realities of these two buckets within a developing country context, share current practices in the field for addressing both, and discuss strategies and practices for maximizing the learning and benefits gleaned from our evaluation work.
8- Broader influences on evaluation in the 21st century – facilitated by Jody Fitzpatrick (AEA President, University of Colorado)
This discussion will explore broader influences on evaluation such as citizens’ expectations of government, accountability; values of stakeholders; education and training of evaluators; and certification in Canada.
9-So You Want to Be A Consultant? – facilitated by Gail Barrington (Barrington Research Group)
Are you thinking about hanging out your shingle? Do you have what it takes to be an independent consultant? We will discuss some key questions you will need to address if you want to survive this in challenging but rewarding career.
10-Working with big datasets? – facilitated by John Gargani (Gargani and Company)
By some estimates, the world produces 2.5 exabytes of data—that is 1018 bytes—every day. That is the equivalent of filling 7 four-drawer filing cabinets for every person on Earth every 24 hours. This fantastic rate of data production is relatively recent, with perhaps 90% of all the data in the world having been produced in the past two years. And the rate is increasing. What does this mean for evaluation and evaluators? Are the implications different for those who specialize in qualitative or quantitative methods? Will more data help or hinder our efforts to understand and solve longstanding social problems?
11- CES’s role in the international evaluation arena and ideas for participation in the International Year of Evaluation in 2015 – facilitated by Martha McGuire (Cathexis Consulting, CES past president)
EvalPartners is facilitating a global dialogue among regional and national evaluation actors, evaluation offices of International Organizations, including UN agencies and the World Bank’s IEG, OECD/DAC and developing countries, private foundations and other key stakeholders. The aim of the dialogue is to designate 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation (EvalYear) in order to advocate and promote evaluation and evidence-based policy making at international, regional, national and local levels. At this point, it is anticipated that an announcement will be made in September, 2013 designating 2015 as the International Year of Evaluation This round table discussion will explore the role of CES and Canadian evaluators in contributing to this dialogue and helping to stengthen the international evaluation community.
12- Is your program, project, policy or initiative ready to measure its effectiveness? – facilitated by Sandiran (Sandi) Premakanthan (Symbiotic International Consulting Services)
This topic addresses the importance of program readiness for evaluation. The focus is on managing data collection readiness. How do know if you have the right processes in place to conduct an evaluation?
13- The benefits, opportunities, and challenges of using regression discontinuity designs – facilitated by Paul Bakker (Social Impact Squared)
During this session, we will review evaluation designs that use cut-off scores for delivering service (i.e. regression discontinuity designs). Using a cut-off score for delivering services has benefits for resource efficiencies and for measuring effectiveness. However, such designs are infrequently used. We will discuss the opportunities and challenges in using these evaluation designs.
14- Ethics in evaluation – facilitated by Robert Czerny (Agora Management Associates)
In a 2010 survey conducted by Heather Buchanan and Wayne MacDonald it was found that three quarters of the 455 respondents had experienced ethical challenges in their evaluation work. The authors concluded that “Ethics is a serious issue for Canadian evaluators, especially concerns over integrity, neutrality and conflicts of interest.” What ethical issues do you encounter in your evaluation work? How do you respond?
15- What is the evaluator’s role in infusing evaluative thinking in organizations? – facilitated by Keiko Kuji-Shikatani (Ontario Ministry of Education)
Evaluative thinking is systematic, intentional and ongoing attention to expected results. It focuses on how results are achieved, what evidence is needed to inform future actions and how to improve future results. (Patton 2013)
Collaborative Town-hall Session
10:00 – 11:00
Convention floor, Canadian room
Ticket included in your Conference registration
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, opening the High Level Meeting on UN Results: Are we achieving them? How do we know? on April 16, 2013 stated: “All of us share a responsibility to strengthen the evaluation function. We have to tackle the challenge at several levels.”
Help respond to the challenge! As you engage in conference activities, consider the following questions, and bring your comments and opinions to share with your colleagues and partners on Wednesday morning:
• What challenges do you face as an evaluator?
• How do you think Evaluation as a field/practice might need to evolve over the next 10 years in order to remain viable?
• What is our role as practitioner evaluators in this process?
Following Wednesday’s keynote address by John Gargani, and led by John and Sanjeev Sridharan, join us to explore these questions and develop a declaration to drive the process.