ACTRA national president Ferne Downey on Wednesday night ran around like a den mother in the Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, tending to performers from 75 countries that have gathered for the 20th World Congress of the International Federation of Actors (FIA).

“When you get everyone in the room, the information flows,” Downey said as the FIA converges on Toronto over the next four days to develop policies to support performers worldwide.

She told Playback that the globalization and digitization of the entertainment industry made it crucial for performers to cooperate across borders.

“If actors want fair remuneration, the only way to have that globally is to protect each other’s backs,” Downey urged.

Hot button issues this week at the FIA conference include bolstering the intellectual rights of performers.

Here ACTRA is looking to get new rights for performers contained in the Beijing treaty concluded at the recent World Intellectual Property Organization’s diplomatic conference into Canadian copyright legislation.

And the global performers’ guilds will be looking to tackle unionization issues surrounding big-budget film and TV shoots like Peter Jackson’s upcoming The Hobbit films shot in New Zealand, and the Vikings mini-series, an Irish/Canadian co-production shot in Ireland that includes indie producer Take 5 Productions.

The FIA 2012 conference continues to Sunday.