Every year, dynamic idealists gather at Koerner Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music,Toronto for a powerful meeting of minds. There was no triskaidekaphobia at Moses Znaimer’s 13th ideacity presented by Blackberry, which even began June 13 with the theme “Lucky 13.” It turned out to be a lucky event with plenty of opportunities for chance meetings with some of the world’s greatest thinkers and extraordinary trailblazers. This year’s roster of 50 speakers included guitar legend Liona Boyd, illusionist Simon Coronel, politician Preston Manning, Wealthy Barber author David Chilton, singer Jann Arden, pianist Michael Kaeshammer, possibilian David Eagleman, and so forth. Most of the speakers stayed throughout the conference and enjoyed hearing one another and mingling with each other and the guests, many of whom were extraordinarily successful or interesting in their own right.
Moses Znaimer addressing the audience
Liona Boyd was particularly delighted because when she met the The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario The Honourable David C. Onley, O.Ont. at ideacity, he promptly invited her to receive one of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Awards being awarded this week.
The networking lounge
This year’s ideacity theme was “The End is Nigh” or TEOTWAWKI, which stands for “The End of the World As We Know It.” Recognizing that “every new beginning comes from other new beginning’s end,” ideacity found that its audience was 81% optimists and their cheerful outlook and hopeful nature did not change over the course of the conference.
Some of the most memorable moments included sexologists Ogi Ogas & Sai Gaddam calling poutine “the shemale porn of international cuisine”; illusionist Simon Coronel seamlessly making a card appear and disappear from a variety of places; composer Tod Machover creating – in collaboration with key Canadian musicians – live on stage the genesis of A Toronto Symphony, a work he is composing with the entire city of Toronto; one week job worker Sean Aiken reminding us that at any age we can work toward finding our true life passion; David Jay sharing his story of Asexuality and discovering that 3% of ideacity attendees were asexual; Dignified Death advocate Wanda Morris speaking of respecting an individual’s right to determine the nature and timing of their death; the entire audience performing Kabalah Yoga with Audi Gozlan, Shimmy belly-dancing with Shivaun Corry and bhangra-ing with BollyFit’s Reshmi Chetram.
Pinball Clemons (L) with author T. U. Dawood (R)
It’s not surprising that the crowd was so happy because in addition to being constantly mentally stimulated by the jam-packed speaker roster, each guest received their own Blackberry playbook with the ideacity app preloaded, was given a trendy Roots leather bag filled with goodies, was pampered with Aveda aromatherapy neck massages, enjoyed decadent networking delectables including oysters and shrimp hors d’oeuvres, and socialized at the famous afterparties at some of Toronto’s poshest hot spots including Spice Route, C-Lounge and Rosewater Supper Club.
A worthwhile and unforgettable conference that the guests look forward to all year.
