The Boys Will Be Summit

Super early bird is not about the line-up. It is your buy-in to the vision – a signal that you believe this work matters and you want to help shape where it goes. Seats are limited. More to come!

Early bird: save 15% with code EARLY_BIRD at checkout. Ends S̶e̶p̶t̶e̶m̶b̶e̶r̶ ̶3̶0̶ October 10th

Bringing a team?
If four or more people from your organization are coming, email us at info@nextgenmen.ca before you register and we will set you up with a group rate – 10% off each ticket.

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Somewhere tonight, a fourteen-year-old is learning what it means to be a man – from a stranger on a screen, and no adult who loves him knows.

If you lead a school, a sport program, or a community organization working to reach boys like him, you know the feeling of being outmatched. Not because you don't care. Because this work still happens in scattered pockets, is moving fast, and with too little shared knowledge of what actually works.

This November, Next Gen Men is bringing those people into one room for the Boys Will Be Summit – a national gathering shaped by the field, not by our assumptions. More than 50 organizations have answered our survey and told us what they need: practical strategies that work, a clearer way to measure impact, honest talk about what boys are facing online, and most of all, each other. Seven in ten told us they aren't well-connected to others doing this work. This is the day that closes that gap.

Why now
Nearly two in three young men spend time in the "manosphere", the online world of influencers selling a rigid, often misogynistic script. Around 40% say they trust one or more of these figures. Most of the people working to counter it are doing it alone, rarely comparing notes on what works.

"Most boys and young men aren't seeking out misogynistic content … they're looking for purpose, belonging, and practical guidance." – survey respondent

As the Government of Canada develops its first Men and Boys' Health Strategy – a process many of you contributed to – this is a chance to connect across the sector, share what's working, name the common challenges, and turn what you helped shape into practice.

Who this is for
This is a working day for senior leaders and decision makers – principals and superintendents, executive directors and program directors, and leaders across schools, community organizations, sport, public institutions, and the funders who back this work. They come from across the country. For one day they stop working in isolation and start building a shared playbook.

We hold a limited number of seats for graduate students and independent practitioners building their work in this field.

For companies and funders: digital wellbeing, preventing extremism, gender-based violence, stronger and more connected communities – if your organization already invests in any of these, they all trace back to one question: how a boy learns what it means to be a man. This is the room where the people doing that work across Canada set the agenda together. Come see the field you're backing – and help shape where it goes.

What you take home

1. Practical, tested ideas you can put to work across your programs.
2. Peers and partners across the country, so you never lead this work in a silo again.
3. A clear way to show whether your work is making a difference.
4. A sharper read on what boys are facing right now, online and off.

Because of you, a boy somewhere gets a better answer. That is what this day is really about.

Why Next Gen Men
For eleven years, we have built the expertise, then shared it. We have reached more than a million people, delivered 800-plus training sessions to over 200 organizations, and had our work independently evaluated. The Summit is that expertise in one place – the whole field, in one room, building one plan.

"This is the kind of education needed today – a powerful message, delivered in a way that made our group of young men want to listen." – Educator, I.E. Weldon Secondary School

The agenda

• 8:00 - Registration & breakfast
• 9:00 - Welcome | Opening & land acknowledgement
• 9:20 - Opening plenary | Session: How Boys Are Really Doing
  Two-thirds of the 60+ leaders we surveyed named the manosphere their single biggest worry for boys. We open right there – the online reality and the health data behind it, so the whole room starts on the same page.
• 9:50 - Catalyst spotlights | What's Working, In-person
  Only 3 in 10 leaders we surveyed feel clear on what actually works with boys. So here it is: real Canadian programs, ten minutes each, no slides – just the thing that works and how to borrow it.
• 10:30 - Break
• 10:50 - Breakout Session · Two Tracks | Getting in the Door
  Reaching boys was the single thing our respondents most asked to learn about. So how do you actually get in – through the people they trust, or the feeds they never put down? Two rooms, two answers.
  
• 11:50 - Lunch
• 1:00 - Afternoon Plenary | Session: Engineered for Engagement
  In our survey, only 1 in 5 leaders felt confident talking with boys about what they're seeing online. This is the session that changes that – how the algorithms hook them, and what it takes to compete for their attention.
• 1:55 - Catalyst Spotlights · Online | What's Working
  Leaders told us the manosphere is winning boys' attention. These are the programs winning it back – meeting boys on Discord, in the DMs, in the group chat, and the concrete thing each one does.
• 2:35 - Break + move to breakout rooms
• 2:50 - Breakout Session · Two Tracks | Making It Count
  Getting a boy's attention is the easy part. Knowing whether it worked is the hard part – and 4 in 10 of the leaders we surveyed asked for help with exactly that. Two rooms: keeping them engaged, and proving it mattered
  
• 3:40 - Youth Panel | In Their Own Words
• The young men we plan around all day, finally talking back – what reaches them, what's fake, and where adults get it wrong. Bring questions.
• 4:10 - Closing Circle & Remarks
  Only 1 in 4 leaders we surveyed feel truly connected to others doing this work. You won't leave that way – one thing to try, one person to call, and a network that stays.
• 4:30 - Close → cocktail reception

About the hosts
Next Gen Men is a Canadian non-profit building a positive vision for masculinity – shifting the culture, equipping the parents, educators, and mentors in boys' lives, and running programs with boys and young men themselves, online and offline.

The Summit is supported by the McCall MacBain Foundation.

Boys will be what we help them become. Join us on November 5.