Despite the weak economy and an anticipated drop in registration, Canadian Music Week is set to take over two floors at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel (and various other downtown venues) on Wednesday for four days of programming, including a conference, a film festival, four award shows, and the nation's largest new music festival, Canadian Music Fest. “We’re the largest [music industry event]. No one has the extent of programming that we do," conference director Verle Mobbs said Monday.
However, Mobbs admitted the recession has made planning for the 2009 installation of C.M.W.—an industry event during which participants can register at any time—a little tricky for organizers who are unsure as to just how many people might attend the event, which runs through Saturday. “We are anticipating there might be a reduction in registration, so we can’t operate like every other year…it’s hard sometimes when it comes to this event," Mobbs said. “The word we’ve gotten from other conferences similar to ours is that they noticed a decline in registration because of the economy. So we’re anticipating we may experience some of that. Although we won’t know until afterwards."
The uncertainty regarding the number of attendees can make things difficult. "Are we planning for the usual 800, or will that drop to 700? We just go by gut when it comes to finalizing our numbers,” Mobbs said. “In terms of the conference, we are expecting 2,000, maybe 2,500. For the festival we have more than 500 bands in 45 venues, so we will probably have in the neighbourhood of 50,000 to 75,000 people attending the festival events."
Mobbs said the event came together smoothly in terms of planning this year. "But because of the economy, all of the sponsors are now watching what they do in terms of sponsorship dollars and allocations, so that was a bit of a challenge. Because of that budgets were reduced accordingly," she said. Although organizers don’t pay speaker fees, talent fees have been cut. “All of that is reduced somewhat this year."
Despite that, C.M.W. will be packed full of speakers, award presentations, and concerts. “We have over 400 speakers that participate in the seminars. One of the highlights this year is Gene Simmons. He’s doing a keynote on Thursday," Mobbs said. This year's conference, which has a focus on up-and-coming artists, also includes the sophomore outing of C.M.W.'s Music for the Screen Film Festival. “Last year was a soft start. This year we have a full day of programming for the festival," Mobbs said, noting films will play all day Saturday at the NFB Cinema.
Mobbs has also been involved in planning C.M.W.'s four award shows, including the Crystal Awards, the Music & Broadcast Industry Awards, the Canadian Radio Music Awards, and the Indies. Lawrence Gowan hosts the Music & Broadcast gala on Thursday, when John Roberts and Chuck McCoy will be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Burton Cummings will perform.
C.M.W. is also shining a spotlight on China this year. "We have 34 companies from China that are participating this year…last year we did a spotlight on Latin America, but not to this extent," Mobbs said. "We partnered with the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and because of their sponsorship we are able to do this mission full tilt."
