Organizers of the Innoversity Creative Summit 2003 ‘made it’ through the two-day conference held in Toronto May 22-23 with a better-than-expected turnout given the current situation in Toronto and its nagging SARS scare.

According to acting executive director Andra Stevens, this year’s summit, themed ‘Making It,’ saw 670 delegates over the two days, all with the common interest of turning the social and cultural diversity of Canada into opportunities in entertainment and media.

‘We had hoped to get 750 people, but when you look back at where we were around the time the WHO made its [travel advisory] announcement, we didn’t even know if we should go ahead with it,’ says Stevens. ‘I think we did well – much better than we thought we would in the context.’

Despite the obstacles before it, the mandate of Innoversity never changed and the attendees left feeling ‘validated,’ says Stevens.

‘They had access to some of the best people in the business in their particular fields,’ she says. ‘We always focused our efforts on making space available for people who had the ideas; people who had talent to showcase and make themselves known to people who hire and commission product, and we succeeded.’

Among the highlights of Innoversity were a breakfast address by former Citytv president Moses Znaimer and the Commodifying Canadian Cultural panel moderated by National Film Board chairperson and Government Film Commissioner, Jacques Bensimon (who also delivered a keynote address).

The Commodifying panel also featured Canadian Consul General in L.A., Colin Robertson; producer/executive director of the International Council for Diversity in Film and Television, Paul de Silva; documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin; and Inner City Films producer Amos Adetuyi, all of whom discussed Canada’s ability to market its multicultural image worldwide.

‘Our message is a message the world not only wants to hear but should hear,’ said Robertson, speaking about Canada’s reputation as a consensus-builder and peacemaker.

Obomsawin, meanwhile, worried about the niche-marketing within Canada of multicultural programs.

‘It’s very important we address our own people, but if we only talk to our own people the rest of the country will not know who we are and what we want,’ said Obomsawin.

On the topic of exporting Canadian programming to the States, Bensimon said the U.S. often seems opposed to this country’s multicultural-minded broadcasting tendencies.

Meanwhile, Robertson shot down the increasingly popular notion that all Americans are right-wing conservatives. ‘There are more Americans that think like Canadians than there are Canadians,’ said Robertson.

De Silva put it in perspective on an international level, however, citing statistics that indicate many countries which could potentially air Canadian shows are limited from doing so due to a 15% cap on foreign-made programming. That 15% is usually taken up by big-ticket U.S. shows, which drive revenue. He added this is why producers need the Canadian government to ‘promote and agitate.’

Open door success

According to Stevens, the Open Door Pitch portion of the summit was a ‘fabulous success.’ Sponsored by the Ontario Media Development Corporation and a slew of broadcasters, winners of the contest received a cash prize and a commitment from the sponsoring broadcaster to further develop the pitched project.

Derek Luis and Anthony Stanberry won TVOntario’s Children’s and Teen’s Development Award ($2,000) for the animated kids show concept Latisha, while VisionTV awarded the best overall pitch prize ($2,000) to Shakura S’Aida for the video journal Me, Mom and Max.

CBC sponsored a number of prizes: the television documentary development award ($2,500, presented to Ngardy Conteh for Changes), the Ontario drama development award, co-sponsored with the Directors Guild of Canada ($7,000 to Shernold Edwards for the MOW pitch Deportee), and three radio awards (worth a combined $7,000).

CHUM put up $2,000 for its television arts and entertainment development award, which was presented to Gerry Atwell for his proposed musical variety miniseries North Stars!, and Alliance Atlantis put up another $2,000 for the lifestyle development award, presented to Andrew West for his cooking show idea Jazz it Up.

With files from Sean Davidson

-www.innoversitysummit.com