Close to 300 people filled the Isabel Bader Theatre at the inaugural

conference of The Canadian Positive Psychology Association on

July 20 and 21 in Toronto

The conference was held at the historic Victoria College, a unit

of the University of Toronto – a beautiful oasis within the hustle

and bustle of Toronto’s downtown.

CPPA board member

and Conference Chair,

Lisa Sansom welcomes

the delegates the first

morning of the

conference.

CPPA President, Louisa Jewell welcomes the crowd and

introduces Dr. Bob Vallerand

Dr. Bob Vallerand, President of the International Positive

Psychology Association, delivered the first morning’s keynote

address in which he summarized his research on passion.

An internationally renowned expert in appreciative inquiry, Maureen

McKenna helped make the conference an interactive event by, for

example, organizing a dream wall on which delegates wrote their visions

of the future of positive psychology in Canada.

Our ever-present conference volunteers wearing bright green shirts

helped delegates register, find rooms, keep sessions on time, and

generally make the conference an overwhelming success.

Surpassing our wildest expectations, the inaugural

conference brought delegates from around the world

including India, UK, Australia, Africa and Asia!

Richard Miller, a former Wall Street investment banker who now runs

a London-based consulting firm, presented an enlightening talk on

wellbeing and the creative economy.

Louis Alloro, one of the first graduates of the Masters of Applied

Positive Psychology Program at the University of Pennsylvania,

discussed his work on using positive psychology to help develop

leaders into change agents.

In addition to global experts, the conference featured a small number

of promising students discussing their research in positive psychology.

Here, Sarah Bassett, a student from the University of Kansas studies

her notes before delivering a talk on happiness in pre-teen girls.

Daniel Bowling, a Senior

Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law

School and a Visiting Scholar at

the University of Pennsylvania

Positive Psychology Center,

discussed the question of

whether happy lawyers make

better lawyers?

Conference participants in discussion mode during one of the sessions

Canadian Certified Counsellor Lara Cross answers the question

‘Where did theory come from?’ in her presentation on theoretical

perspectives in contemporary positive psychology

Lunch continued our interactive theme. Groups made up of

attendees with shared interests were asked to discuss positive

psychology topics amongst each other.

CPPA Board member, Dr. Greg Evans ponders a question from the

audience during his presentation on the success of the Applied

Positive Psychology Program

Dr. Kate Hefferon, who runs the MSc. Program in Applied Positive

Psychology at the University of East London discussed the overlooked

role of the body in positive psychology

The duo of Jan Sparrow and Scott Asalone explained how

positive psychology can be used to foster high performance teams

CPPA honorary board member and co-founder of positive clinical

psychology, Dr. Tayyab Rashid enjoys some give-and-take with the

audience during his session on positive psychology interventions

Dr. Itai Ivtzan, from the University of East London speaks with

delegates after his presentation on how mindfulness meditation

impacts the gap between people’s actual and ideal selves.

The morning keynote address on the second day was delivered by Dr.

Gary Latham from the University of Toronto. Dr. Latham had the

audience members on the edge of their seats during his presentation on

unconscious processes in goal setting.

One of the world’s leading experts on eudaimonic well-being,

CPPA board member Dr. Veronika Huta explained where the field

needs to go in the future.

It’s standing room only before Louisa Jewell

and Shannon Polly’s session on building resilience

Skyping in from the U.K. where he was covering the summer Olympics

for CTV, Dr. Greg Wells delivered the closing keynote address

on the topic of achieving peak performance.

Conference participants enjoying some social time at our cocktail

hour at the end of the day

CPPA board member, Dr. Tami

Kulbatski gives out raffle prizes during

the cocktail hour.

We did it! At the end of the

conference CPPA President

Louisa Jewell holds up her

arms in celebration. The

inaugural CPPA conference

was an over-the-top success!

We’re looking forward to the

next conference which will

be held in Ottawa

July 16th to 18th, 2014!