Broadcast execs will be thinking ahead when they converge on Winnipeg next month for the annual powwow of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which will focus on how new technologies are changing the future of TV and radio.

‘The pace of change has accelerated dramatically,’ says CAB president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell. ‘Over the past 12, 18 months we’ve found ourselves, more often than not, facing an accelerated pace of new technologies coming to market.’

He points to mobile videophones and the recent announcement that Apple is making a video iPod. O’Farrell says these new technologies are set to ‘change the landscape of how programs are acquired and broadcast, the matter of exclusive rights and the fragmentation of media.’

Attendees will convene at the Winnipeg Convention Centre, Nov. 6-8, getting officially underway with a keynote by Dr. Andrew Lippman of the MIT Media lab.

Other panelists and speakers include Corus Quebec president Pierre Arcand, TSN boss Phil King, CTV News head Robert Hurst, CanWest Global editor-in-chief Steve Wyatt and a CRTC delegation including chairman Charles Dalfen, commissioner Barbara Cram, vice-chair of broadcasting Michel Arpin and exec director of broadcasting Mark O’Sullivan.

Last year’s convention in Ottawa was marked by heavy criticism leveled against the CRTC, which had, at the time, made its now famously unpopular decisions relating to Al-Jazeera, Italian broadcaster RAI and CHOI-FM.

There also was a lot of back and forth – from Heritage Minster Liza Frulla and Conservative leader Stephen Harper, among others – about the prospects of the newly formed Liberal government.

This year’s convention looks to be less political, although Heritage critic Bev Oda and a number of area MPs are expected to appear.

On Nov. 7, a session about how to best reach consumers of emerging ‘personalized media’ follows the keynote by Lippman, and leads into a related hour-long talk (‘New Models, New Rules’) about how personal media are covered (or not) by current regulations and copyright law.

On Nov. 8, a session about the ongoing rollout of HDTV (‘High Expectations’) runs opposite ‘The Future of News’ – looking at how mobile TV, blogs, podcasts and the like are changing the newsroom.

O’Farrell notes that, while on a recent trip to Chicago, he kept up with the news on RDI and CBC Newsworld through his cell phone, pulling Canadian signals into the U.S. and raising significant questions in the process.

‘Do the sources that are providing that content have the rights for my consumption of that in a territory other than Canada?’ he asks. ‘When Newsworld acquires footage from other sources, that’s a big business practice.’

A closing session will wrap up all the issues. As always, CAB will also hand out its annual Gold Ribbon Awards at a gala on Nov. 8. Among the nominees:

Citytv Toronto and Citytv Vancouver are both up for best community service, running against the CanWest-owned CHEK. TVA’s CFTM in Montreal is twice nominated for best drama – for its Fortier and Lance et Compte series – running against OMNIs 1 and 2 in Toronto, which share a nomination for the primetime soap Metropia.

CFTM is also nominated twice for best entertainment programming, for its Occupation double and the reality smash Star Académie. It will square off against another Montreal outlet, TQS’s CFJP, up for its Soir de fête avec Isabelle Boulay.

Michael MacMillan, executive chairman of Alliance Atlantis Communications, will receive the Gold Ribbon Award for Broadcast Excellence.

www.cab-acr.ca