A Conference Update from the CCA

CCA Bul­letins 13/06

Feb­ru­ary 27, 2006

KEYNOTE SPEAKER ALAIN GOURD TO ADDRESS KEY QUESTION AT CCA’S NATIONAL POLICY CONFERENCE: How can the cul­tural sec­tor work most effec­tively with the new Con­ser­v­a­tive gov­ern­ment to ensure its pri­or­i­ties are on the national agenda?

Cur­rently top of mind for every­one in the cul­tural sec­tor, this ques­tion will be the focus of a pre­sen­ta­tion by keynote speaker Alain Gourd at the CCA’s National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence on Sat­ur­day, March 4.

A cul­tural author­ity in a num­ber of dif­fer­ent fields, Alain Gourd was Deputy Min­is­ter under Mar­cel Masse dur­ing a for­ma­tive time in Cana­dian cul­tural pol­icy devel­op­ment. He was also Deputy Clerk and Asso­ciate Sec­re­tary to the Cab­i­net and, as such, was an insider to gov­ern­ment tran­si­tional peri­ods remark­ably sim­i­lar to the cur­rent one – that is, both the Trudeau-Turner-Mulroney and Mulroney-Campbell-Chrétien tran­si­tions. In the pri­vate sec­tor, Mr. Gourd has served as Pres­i­dent of BCE Media, Chair­man and CEO of Bell ExpressVu, and Chair­man of the Cana­dian Asso­ci­a­tion of Broad­cast­ers, among numer­ous other posi­tions. He is cur­rently Pres­i­dent of Alain Gourd Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Inc., a com­pany spe­cial­iz­ing in strate­gic plan­ning, reg­u­la­tory and gov­ern­ment affairs as well as rela­tions with cul­tural industries.

The con­fer­ence also fea­tures keynote speaker Paul Hof­fert, musi­cian, writer, and hi-tech “wun­derkind”, who will kick off the National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence on March 3 with a break­fast speech focus­ing on new tech­nol­ogy trends he sees chal­leng­ing the cul­tural sector.

*****************************************************

In addi­tion to these dynamic speak­ers, cre­ativ­ity will be infused into all aspects of the con­fer­ence ensur­ing the pro­ceed­ings are not just talk­ing heads! These include:

Graphic Facil­i­ta­tion – David Has­bury (www.cocreation.ca), a noted con­sul­tant in orga­ni­za­tional and com­mu­nity devel­op­ment, will facil­i­tate the con­fer­ence. Has­bury uti­lizes “group graph­ics” to cap­ture the words and moods of the dis­cus­sions in a visual way. Has­bury draws the themes and out­comes of group dis­cus­sions on a vast wall chart, enabling par­tic­i­pants to lit­er­ally see what they are saying.

Impro­vi­sa­tional Rap­portage – Greg Frank­son, aka “Ritallin” (www.ritallin.com), has exploded on the Cana­dian scene as a spo­ken word artist, writer and moti­va­tional speaker. He has just com­pleted work on Alexa McDonough’s suc­cess­ful re-election cam­paign and is emerg­ing as a leader within Canada’s artis­tic and Black com­mu­ni­ties. “Ritallin” will per­form impro­vised poems at var­i­ous points through­out the National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence that will reflect his inter­pre­ta­tion of the discussions.

Inter­ac­tive Dance – Inde­pen­dent dance artist Mau­reen Shea will lead an inter­ac­tive dance com­po­nent dur­ing the President’s Recep­tion on March 3. Shea insti­gated the Grasshoppa Dance Exchange (www.artengine.ca/grasshoppadance) in 2002, and has led and par­tic­i­pated in count­less Hops and Dance Farms in Ottawa, Toronto, Mon­treal, Mass­a­chu­setts and Italy. A per­former and arts edu­ca­tor, Shea will enliven the recep­tion with inter­ac­tive pieces from her “City Project” work, engag­ing par­tic­i­pants in unex­pected ways.

Both the Chalmers Con­fer­ence and National Pol­icy Con­fer­ence are com­pletely sold out! The event promises to be an ener­getic gath­er­ing of cul­tural sec­tor rep­re­sen­ta­tives from across the coun­try. See you there!