"The price is aggressive, but not wildly out of line," Moses Znaimer told the National Post a few weeks ago." But how much would you pay to rub shoulders with the top dogs of the Internet?

A few months ago a friend of a friend called me from Vancouver, wondering if she should shell out $3,000 for a ticket to Znaimer's upcoming Internet schmooze-fest, TEDCity. Partly out of fear that she'd want to crash on my couch during the conference (unlikely to spend another $1,000 for a hotel in Toronto's prime season), I recommended she give it a pass, and maybe hold out for the next original TED event in the United States.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, and founder Richard Saul Wurman has been holding similar conferences since 1984. "Summer camp for hip intellectuals," they've been labeled, and CityTV/MuchMusic founder Moses Znaimer decided to snap up the rights to a Canadian version. It's being held in Toronto, June 7 to 10 at St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.

My pal is in the web biz, and my initial instinct was: Znaimer's not. And he tends to adopt the most pretentious poses at such public events. And now that I see the actual lineup of guest speakers, the topics are straying far from technology and more to arts and politics, and she could have been sorely disappointed. Canadian invitees include Bruce Cockburn, David Crombie, Garth Drabinsky, Atom Egoyan, William Gibson, Barbara Gowdy, Michael Ignatieff, Arthur Kent, Robert Lantos, Don McKellar, Jason Priestley, Heather Reisman, Robbie Robertson, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, John Turner, Natalie McMaster. I'm sure that all of these people have something to contribute on the topics of technology, entertainment and design, but am not sure how much expertise they will bring to the table.

What do you think? Check out the TEDCity website and tell us whether you think this is worth $1,000 a day!

New Media & Digital Arts
Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Lou Reed's going be rocking in Vancouver tomorrow night. Reed could be hawking his new CD (which is really quite fine), but I can't help but hope the Coney Island Baby will transport the audience back to the late 60s and early 70s with classics like Sweet Jane and other tunes from Reed's days with The Velvet Underground.

Lou Reed
June 3 - Vancouver
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
(604) 280-3311

More Power to the Spoken Word
The Ottawa Storytellers' are getting together this Saturday to explore how Homer's Iliad contributed to both the oral tradition and contemporary storytelling. This gives participants the chance to study the historical impact of the Illiad, as well as examine how it has affected storytelling today.

Ottawa Storytellers
National Library of Canada, Ottawa
Room 156 395 Wellington Street Ottawa
For further information, please call (613) 599-9386.
Price of admission is $30.

Drop me a line.