The preliminary events leading up to the Let’s Talk TV Discoverability Summit will soon be underway in Vancouver as the regulator teams up with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) to discuss how Canadians can better discover Canadian content.

The Enroute to the Discoverability Summit will be held in on Dec. 1 at the Chan Centre for Performing Arts in Vancouver, with a key–note address by Tony Chapman, founder and CEO of Tony Chapman Creations and the former CEO of Capital C.

The discussions at this event, which will be hosted by CBC Radio host Nora Young, will focus on the English-language market and will be live-streamed on CRTC’s YouTube channel. A follow-up event on the French-language market will be held in Montreal. Both events precede the actual Discoverability Summit, which will be held in May 2016.

The above-mentioned series of events are meant to address challenges of “discoverability” in an age of abundant viewing options. The idea of a Discoverabilty Summit was introduced during this spring’s Let’s Talk TV decisions and although the press release issued today makes no mention of Canadian content, its focus at the time was to “invite a diverse group of participants including government and industry stakeholders to work together to develop strategies and mechanisms to improve the discoverability of Canadian programs.”

In the release – which first came to light last week in a mistaken missive from the regulator to the press – CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais suggests the Summit may have a wider focus. 

“We live in an era where content is everywhere,” said Blais in a press release. “Discoverability is paramount to ensure viewers can connect with content that is meaningful to them, and that creators can find audiences for their creative products. Discoverability is a challenge in Canada and all over the world.”