Beyond the official agenda at this year’s Canadian Association of Broadcasters annual convention, hot topics among execs and advocates are likely to be the newfangled television policy and the digital domain. Broadcasting ’99, taking place this year at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, kicks off Oct. 31 with an opening party at the Just for Laughs Museum, and runs to Nov. 2.

With 500 delegates expected, the three-day conference is action-packed with panels, roundtables, renowned keynote speakers, breakfast sessions and parties.

First thing on Monday, Nov. 1, speaker Andrew Lippman of MIT Media Lab will talk about going beyond ‘linear’ network thinking in a presentation entitled ‘Always ON!’. He will encourage broadcasters to stop thinking of the Internet as a mere distribution system and start treating it as a conduit to the digital community.

In the next presentation, ‘FuturePlan: Beyond 2000,’ futurist Jon Ken Goldstein will give delegates a first look at cab’s FuturePlan, followed by a panel discussion.

Later that day, a seminar involving experts from around the world will tackle the question ‘Digital Television: What’s it Going to Take?’ Naturally enough, the session will describe our domestic situation and look at what needs to be done to transform the analog fare currently on Canadian viewers’ screens with high-end, digitally produced and transmitted images.

cab will then hold its annual business meeting, followed by ‘Face-to-Face: Small Market Radio and Television Broadcasters’ Session with the crtc,’ hosted by Rick Arnish, small market special delegate to the cab exec committee, and Marc-Andre Levesque of Radio Roberval.

Highlights for Tuesday, Nov. 2 include: the Industry Scholarship and Awards Luncheon with keynote speaker Francoise Bertrand, crtc chairperson; a plenary session with keynote Michael J. Wolf, author of The Entertainment Economy, who will discuss how the media and entertainment industry has become a driving force of the global economy; and a final session, ‘Charting the Future of the CAB. Have your say!’

Earlier on Tuesday, there will be a panel discussion on specialty services and digital distribution, ‘Digital Distribution: The New Business Reality;’ thriving on the world state, ‘Going Global: New Business Opportunities;’ and French-language channels competing in a global environment, ‘Going Global: New Business Opportunities for French-Language Services.’

Heritage Minister Sheila Copps and Pierre Pettigrew, minister of international trade, have declined invitations to speak at the conference, but Montreal Mayor Pierre Bourque is scheduled to make a keynote address at the opening breakfast.