Right now in Toronto, Moses Znaimer’s ideacity11 conference is in full swing. Also known as “Canada’s Premier Meeting of the Minds,” ideacity reminds me of a three-day TED talk for “the 600 privileged to attend.” Those unable to be there can watch featured talks and more from the website.

I’m thinking of the very first time I heard of Moses Znaimer. He spoke at a Promax confab. The co-founder of Citytv so rocked everyone’s world with what he had to say, that he honored the group with an encore performance –this is the one I witnessed. Not that I wouldn’t have gone to his original gig; I remember being drawn to his photo in the program (to the left). I just wasn’t allowed to go at the time. Which is fodder for another post.

Nevertheless, Moses did not disappoint. Back then, he was leading a “Television Revolution,” presenting his ideas about media production, punctuated with innovative Citytv video expressing his theories in action:

Television is the triumph of the image over the printed word.

Print created illiteracy. TV is democratic. Everybody gets it.

The true nature of television is flow, not show; process, not conclusion.

As worldwide television expands the demand for local programming increases.

The best TV tells me what happened to me, today.

TV is as much about the people bringing you the story as the story itself.

In the past, TV’s chief operating skill was political. In the future it will be -it will have to be-  mastery of the craft itself.

TV creates immediate consensus, subject to immediate change.

There never was a mass audience, except by compulsion.

Television is not a problem to be managed, but an instrument to be played.

It was exhilarating at the time. Much still tingles today, doesn’t it?

For those of the thinking persuasion, it’s not only a desire, but a passionate need to meet with others of their tribe and -well- think together every once in a while. Author and teacher Robert Grudin calls it, The Grace of Great Things. At least for me, it is.

Moses may like the sound of that, too.

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