When NASA cancelled the launch of the space shuttle Endeavour earlier this month and rescheduled the mission for tomorrow, Allison Munro, conference coordinator of ideaCity 2009, had to start working on her own Plan B. The delayed launch meant that Dr. Pete Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Centre, wouldn't be able to make the trip to Toronto for the three-day conference, which starts Wednesday.
But rather than fill the spot with an alternate presenter, Munro made other arrangements. "We'll be broadcasting him live from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida post rocket launch," she said. "We accommodate where we can." Worden is one of 50 presenters slated to address a sold-out crowd of 497 guests during the prestigious conference—dubbed Canada's premiere meeting of the minds—which takes place at the Isabel Bader Theatre on the University of Toronto campus.
He is among a group that includes doctors, designers, filmmakers, inventors, politicians, musicians, and scientists. "This year is our tenth anniversary, so our lineup is just out of this world," said Munro, who noted that conference producer Moses Znaimer (co-founder and former head of CityTV) has the final say on who'll present each year. "Moses is the mastermind. He comes to the table with an idea of how he'd like the conference to look."
The event is not designed around any one topic or issue—and there are no scheduled speeches. Rather, presenters get 20 minutes on stage to discuss any topic of their choosing. And although the conference carries a steep ticket price—$3,300 in advance, $4,000 at the door—the event was sold out weeks ago. "We've actually been lucky in that way because we get such a strong buyback for the conference at the previous year's event," Munro said.
"It's a really interesting makeup," Munro said of the crowd. "The price point of the ticket brings in a lot of upper-level executives from the G.T.A. and all over Canada. Our audience tends to be just as diverse as what's happening on stage." Munro said the size of the conference has been debated, but maintains that "one of the things that's special about ideaCity is the intimate atmosphere that's created by having a smaller group. We may expand it a bit, but you're never going to find ideaCity in the Air Canada Centre."
The event also includes "legendary" parties each night, Munro said, noting that the social events—scheduled to take place at the Rosewater Supper Club, C Lounge, and the Suites at 1 King West this year—provide attendees with an opportunity to mingle with speakers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance; Albert Nerenberg, a laughologist for CBC Radio; and Laura Archer, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders who was kidnapped in Darfur, Sudan.
To mark the tenth anniversary, this year's conference will include a session on robotics. "The DaVinci Surgical Robot will be on display in the lobby," Munro said. "We've also invited some of our past presenters back this year...people who left a good impression on the ideaCity stage. There will be a bit of a reunion feel." Returning presenters include Kennedy, former opposition leader Preston Manning, genetics investigator Josef Penninger, and human rights expert Irwin Cotler.
