The Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) is growing this year.

Masthead has announced an expansion to COPA, dubbed COPA+ Digital Publishing Conference, with a slate of keynote speakers and presentations to complement the awards program, now in its third year.

Speakers, moderators and hosts confirmed for the Oct. 24 event at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto so far include:

• Staffan Ekholm, chief executive officer of Moving Media+ in New York and Stockholm Geoff Teehan, co-founder of Teehan+Lax in Toronto and co-creator of Tweetmag
• Bob Atkinson, publishing consultant of digital monetization strategies (U.S. and Canada)
• Duncan Clark, vice president of digital media for National Post in Toronto
• Candice Faktor, vice president of strategy and new ventures for Torstar Digital
• J.P. Fozo, general manager of digital, current affairs and business for Rogers Publishing in Toronto
• Christopher Frey, editorial director of TorontoStandard.com
• Jerry Brown, associate partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers
• and Nora Young, host of Spark: Technology and Culture on CBC Radio 1.

The COPA+ Conference kicks off Oct. 24 at 9:15 a.m. with consecutive presentations. The COPA Café & Market starts at 2:15 p.m. along with product and service demonstrations beginning at 2:30 p.m. The COPA awards ceremony begins at 5 p.m.

COPA+ is geared to inform publishers, editors, designers and marketers from the ranks of Canada’s digital publishers, including those from newspaper, magazine, broadcast and digital-only backgrounds. The event venue features free wireless throughout, relaxed workspaces and networking zones, and food and drink.

Registration will open soon. For updates, sign up for a free weekly Masthead Express newsletter, follow Masthead on Twitter, or visit and bookmark the COPA website for full schedules and registration information.