KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Thursday, May 31
Daniel J. Caron - Opening Keynote Speaker
Mr. Daniel J. Caron joined the federal public service in 1982. In 2009, he was appointed Librarian and Archivist of Canada. One year after, he launched the modernisation initiative in order to ensure the institution would be able to embrace the multiple challenges of the digital environment. This initiative is a call for collaboration, epistemologically grounded institutional policies and policy driven decisions. In addition to his organizational experience, Mr. Caron is a seasoned author and speaker on public administration and issues related to information and memory both in Canada and abroad. Mr. Caron has also taught in several Canadian universities. He holds a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Economics from the Université Laval, and went on to obtain a doctorate in Applied Human Sciences from the Université de Montréal.
Friday, June 1
Ingrid Parent – Plenary Speaker
Ingrid Parent is the University Librarian at the University of British Columbia, a post she took up July 1, 2009. From 1994 to 2004 she was Director General of Acquisitions and Bibliographic Services at the former National Library of Canada. With the formation of Library & Archives Canada in 2004, Parent became Assistant Deputy Minister for Documentary Heritage Collections, and was responsible for the development, description and preservation of Canada's documentary heritage. Parent has represented Canada with the International Federation of Library Associations for more than 10 years. In August 2011 Ms Parent assumed the role of IFLA President for the term 2011-2013.
Saturday, June 2
Closing Keynote Speakers
Join renowned journalists Evan Solomon, Rob Russo, and Lawrence Martin in a wide-ranging discussion of all things politics. Get a look inside Ottawa with these Ottawa insiders!
Lawrence Martin, Ottawa public-affairs columnist and author
A longtime Globe and Mail journalist, he has served in the Montreal, Queen’s Park, Ottawa, Washington and Moscow bureaus. He opened the newspaper’s first Moscow bureau in 1985 and won recognition as one of the first Western journalists to attest to the validity of the Gorbachev reform movement.
He is the author of 10 books. His most recent, the best-seller Harperland, was nominated for several awards and voted in a poll as one of the best Canadian political books of the past 25 years. He is the author of a two-volume study of Jean Chrétien and two books on Canada-U.S. relations, including The Presidents and The Prime Ministers. Other works include Breaking With History, a book on the Gorbachev revolution, and The Red Machine, a history of hockey in Russia, as well as a biography of hockey legend Mario Lemieux.
He has degrees from McMaster University and Harvard. Among his honours is being named a recipient of McMaster’s Lifetime Leadership Achievement Award.
His Globe and Mail column has been appearing weekly or twice weekly since 2003.
Rob Russo, Ottawa bureau chief, Canadian Press and Broadcast News
Robert Russo began working for United Press almost three decades ago after obtaining a history degree at the University of Toronto and a journalism degree at Carleton University. He loved federal politics but was quickly moved to Quebec City, where he covered the disintegration of Rene Levesque's government.
He made his way to Montreal for The Canadian Press where he covered crime, culture, politics and his beloved Canadiens. He unabashedly celebrated their Stanley Cup win in 1986 before concentrating again on political coverage.
Ottawa beckoned in 1988, where he covered constitutional issues, the free trade election of 1988, and the Mulroney PMO. Covering the Mulroney PMO took him around the world. He went back to Montreal to co-ordinate The Canadian Press's coverage of the 1995 referendum.
His reward was a seven-year stint as U.S. correspondent based in Washington. He covered the second term of the Clinton presidency as well as George W. Bush's first term.
He likes to say that meant he covered the United States as it went from thongs to theocracy.
For the last seven years, Rob has been Ottawa bureau chief for The Canadian Press. In 2010, he was awarded the Charles Lynch Award for outstanding coverage of national affairs by his colleagues in the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
He regularly provides political analysis for CBC television and radio.
Evan Solomon, CBC Television Broadcaster, Journalist & Author
Two-time Gemini award winning broadcaster and journalist, Evan Solomon is the host of the most watched national political affairs TV show in the country, CBC News Network’s Power and Politics with Evan Solomon. On the daily broadcast, Solomon interviews all the key politicians and powerbrokers who affect your life.
Solomon was the co-host of the Gemini award winning programs CBC News: Sunday and CBC News: Sunday Night, the weekly current affairs news shows. He covered events all over the world, from the recent elections in Iran, the navy’s battle against piracy in the Persian Gulf to the immediate aftermath of the Tsunami in Bandeh Acheh, Indonesia.
Solomon has also hosted the CBC shows Hot Type and the Gemini award-winning CBC show Futureworld, which explored the latest developments in technology and innovation. He produced and hosted a series called The Change Makers, and a series for PBS in America, called Masters of Technology.
He was the co-founder and for eight years the editor-in-chief of Shift magazine, an award-winning international magazine about technology and culture.
A published author, Solomon’s books include the best-selling Fueling the Future: How the Battle Over Energy Is Changing Everything, which was nominated for the National Business Book Award and the National Science Book of the Year, and Feeding the Future: From Fat to Famine: How to Solve the World’s Food Crisis. Both books were recently re-released as Food and Fuel. He is also the author of the best-selling novel Crossing the Distance and two children’s books published by Penguin Books.
Solomon has worked as a journalist in North America and Asia, giving him a global perspective on the topics he addresses, from how technology will shape the way we are headed to the role politics plays in shaping our present and future.