Meet our Speakers, Panelists and Moderators!

Colin Angus is the first person to circle the world exclusively by human power. A leading adventurer, filmmaker, bestselling author, and named by Outside magazine as one of the “World’s Top 25 Bold Visionaries,” Colin shares his strategies for achieving the seemingly impossible, increasing efficiency, maintaining motivation, and risk management, while delighting audiences with his thrilling stories of life off the beaten path. Angus has had a life full of transformative experiences. He spent five years sailing the Pacific Ocean, exploring countries including French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, and Papua New Guinea; he and two friends rafted down the Amazon River, braving treacherous white-water rapids and even gunfire from guerilla fighters; he survived being lost in the Mongolian wilderness with no tools for survival while seeking to navigate the Yenisey River; and, in perhaps his greatest accomplishment, he walked, biked, skied, paddled, and rowed more than 43,000 kilometers, crossing three continents and two oceans to complete the first human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth. Other feats include the fastest human-powered circumnavigation of Vancouver Island in a rowboat; rowing 7,000 kilometres from Scotland to Syria; and, most recently, a National Geographic Expedition searching for the origins of the olive tree.

Angus is the author of five books, and his writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Explore, enRoute, and Reader’s Digest, among others. He has also co-produced four documentaries, which went on to collectively win more than ten awards at international film festivals.

Currently, Colin is continuing to push boundaries as an entrepreneur.  Along with Julie Angus, the pair cofounded Angus Rowboats and Open Ocean Robotics, a company producing autonomous boats.  He is the father of two boys and lives in Victoria, BC.