Ryan Lo & Alana Mercury

 Ryan Lo (he/him) is the Co-Executive Director of Urban Minds. He works to bridge the gap between youth and decision-makers by developing youth engagement strategies with municipalities and community partners. He has extensive experience in facilitating engagement events for urban planning and transportation projects across Canada and the US. His consulting work includes youth engagement initiatives for the municipal governments of Toronto, Markham, and Mississauga, as well as organizations such as Evergreen, Toronto Metropolitan University, and Centennial College. He also mentors high school students in civic leadership through Urban Minds' 1UP Youth City Builders program.

Throughout Alana’s almost 20-year career she has led projects for an array of private, public, and non-profit sector clients such as Samsung Canada, SickKids Foundation, City of Toronto, Canada Basketball, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and The Hudson Bay. She has overseen large-scale events such as Nuit Blanche (in Toronto), that attracts over one million attendees. She has supervised multiple nation-wide events, which include scheduling event programming and producing a VR concert experience, production managed a nationally broadcasted and ticketed 6-day Basketball Tournament. Alana is highly skilled in project management and event operations and logistics with a keen sense of detail and the ability to effectively produce impactful events that reach audiences in a memorable way.