News for and about the Internet2 community

["Andre Quenneville" <>]

For immediate release

Research and business leaders gather in Toronto - look to innovation and
"jobs of the future"

- Internet2 President and CEO Doug Van Houweling among keynotes

October 10, 2008 (TORONTO, Ontario) - Research and business leaders are
gathering in Toronto early next month to explore the impact and
potential of next-generation innovation and "jobs of the future" at the
CANARIE and ORION National Summit.

Global innovation guru Dr. John Kao is among a prestigious roster of
distinguished leaders coming together at "Powering Innovation - a
National Summit" at the Metro Toronto Convention Center November 3 and
4.  

Kao, dubbed "a serial innovator" by The Economist, is a leading
authority on organizational transformation and digital media. Kao draws
on his experience teaching at Harvard Business School and his
appointments at the MIT Media Lab, Yale College, and the U.S. Naval
Postgraduate School.

Former University of Toronto President Robert Birgeneau, now Chancellor
of the University of California at Berkeley, returns to Toronto as
opening keynote to set the stage for the conference, and address the
importance of innovation and cross-border collaboration in research.

The conference is hosted by ORION and CANARIE, Ontario's and Canada's
advanced research network organizations which link scientists,
researchers and innovators across the province, country and around the
world. Cybera, Alberta's Cyberinfrastructure for Innovation
organization, is contributing significantly to the planning and staging
of the national Summit.

The conference is expected to bring up to 250 delegates from
universities, colleges, research facilities, centres of excellence and
other organizations - including government and industry. 

"Developing innovative solutions for tomorrow's problems is an objective
around which we all can rally," says CANARIE President and C.E.O. Guy
Bujold. "Our conference program is designed to inspire the development
and encourage the use of network tools by Canada's researchers,
educators and business leaders."

"We have invited some of the brightest minds in the country to come to
the Summit and challenge them to take full advantage of new and emerging
e-science technologies that are driving innovation, scientific discovery
and jobs of the future, here and around the world," says ORION
President/CEO Phil Baker. 

Other keynotes include the President and CEO of Internet2 Doug Van
Houweling, the President of the Ontario College of Art & Design Sara
Diamond, host of CBC Radio's Spark Nora Young, Delvinia Interactive's
Adam Froman, and Ron Dembo, President/CEO of Zerofootprint.

Delegates will also engage with experts from e-science, virtual
organizations, network-enabled platforms, the greening of information
technology, visualization technologies, teaching and learning in a web
2.0 universe, and commercialization of innovation.  

The Summit also showcases advancements at the cutting edge of research,
from high-definition holographic printing, to IP-based television
platforms, to research collaborations using world-leading optical
networks like CANARIE's and ORION's that quickly transmit massive
amounts of data in seconds across Canada and around the world, allowing
our researchers to participate fully in international collaborations. 

The Summit will also give delegates a first look at national scientific
research projects that help position Canada among the world's leaders in
many fields, from global-scale high performance computing, to cancer
research, to climate change simulation. 

The summit is made possible by the generous contribution of our
sponsors, including gold sponsor Juniper Networks; silver sponsor
SHARCNET; bronze sponsors Bell, the Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning
Program; Cogent Communications, Colleges Ontario and IBM; and partner
sponsors Atria Networks, Auto 21, Cybera, the Ontario Centres of
Excellence, the Ontario College of Art and Design, Polycom, Tech Media
Reports and Ryerson University.  

Learn more at www.orioncanariesummit.ca. 

About ORION 
The Ontario Research and Innovation Optical Network (ORION) is Ontario's
ultra high-speed research and education network which connects all of
Ontario's universities, most colleges, several medical and other public
research facilities and a growing number of school boards to one another
and to the global grid of research and education networks. Stretching
5,800 kilometres over 21 communities throughout Ontario, ORION connects
over 1.3 million Ontario researchers, scientists, students, teachers and
staff to critical infrastructure for research, education and innovation.
Learn more at www.orion.on.ca. 

About CANARIE Inc.
CANARIE Inc., based in Ottawa, is Canada's advanced network
organization. It facilitates the development and use of its network as
well as the advanced products, applications and services that run on it.
The CANARIE Network serves universities, colleges, schools, government
labs, research institutes, hospitals and other organizations in a wide
variety of fields in both the public and private sectors. By promoting
and participating in strategic collaborations among key sectors, and by
partnering with peer networks and organizations around the world,
CANARIE Inc. stimulates and supports research, innovation and growth,
bringing economic, social, and cultural benefits to Canadians. The
national organization was created in 1993 by the private sector and
academia under the leadership of the Government of Canada. CANARIE Inc.
is supported by membership fees, with major funding of its programs and
activities provided by the Government of Canada.  www.canarie.ca.

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Media Contacts: 

Tamara Stoll                        
Communications Officer                          
ORION                         
(416) 507-9860 ext. 224             

            

Kim Dingwall
Manager, Communications & Performance Measurement
CANARIE Inc. 
(613) 943-5377