Small World Music (SWM) has announced the details for its annual Global Toronto conference, held online from June 20-22, with pre-conference activities being held in Toronto in person from June 7-10, including a diverse selection of international and cross-country delegates. Global Toronto is a music showcase and conference rooted in re-imagining a sustainable, equitable, and accessible future for the music sector, and a platform to create connections and professional contacts, while building community and creating a space to discuss and make change. More than just a marketplace, Global Toronto is also a meeting place, a global gathering in the tradition of SWM, which has been a site of coming-together for millennia.

Registration is now open and available on the Global Toronto website. Watch the official launch announcement here.

“From our many community consultation sessions, through working with the Jury, who chose the Spotlight Artists, and the Programming Committee, who established the theme upon which Global Toronto 2022 (GT22) will be built and the conversations and sessions to come, GT22 is truly a team effort,” says SWM Head of Programs, Mercedes Caxaj. “We think that GT22 is going to be a fantastic experience on the artistic front, and will continue to move the music sector forward. After asking, last year, 'Now What?' this year, we dig into the ways that we don’t just re-build: We drop the 're' and get to work on something new, together.”

“Partnerships remain at the heart of GT. The local partners that created the 2018 foundation: Royal Conservatory of Music, Lula Lounge, Aga Khan Museum and others. The international organizations enabling international Spotlight Artist performances: Fluvial (Chile), Wind Music (Taiwan), Planea Musica (Paraguay), ASEAN Music Showcase (SE Asia) and International Indigenous Music Summit (IIMS),” adds Jonathan Campbell, Head of Programming Operations at SWM. “GT22 is where we show the world not just the diversity of music onstage here at home and around the world, but champion and learn from those folks behind the scenes pointing the way forward.”

The in-person conference (June 7-10) will provide an opportunity to experience a plethora of showcases, and networking amongst delegates through a variety of informal, engaging gatherings. Visit the website for a full list of the Canadian and international Spotlight Artists.From June 20-22, online panels, keynote addresses, organizational and regional spotlights, workshops and conversations will take place online on the Minode’e (the Anishinaabe word for "good-hearted") platform, which was created with Small World Music's partner, IIMS. The online element includes broadcasts of edited versions of the showcases alongside the probing conversations for which GT is well known.

During the official media launch at Small World Music Centre in Toronto, the team unveiled all of the news, including the reveal of the GT22 Spotlight Artists, theme, partners, and more. In addition, the GT22 Jury was announced, comprised of five music professionals who underwent a long, difficult, amazing, and intense selection process, through over 200 applications: Chris Wilson (Drake Hotel/Somewherelse - Toronto, Canada), Kim Temple (High Priestess Publishing/Six Shooter Records - Toronto, Canada), Maria Carrascal (Agitando Cultura -  Buenos Aires, Argentina),  Reem Kassem (Cultural Foundation/Basita.live/Agora - Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates), Vox Sambou (Artist - Montreal, Canada). Head to the website to learn more about each member.

GT21 was an immense success. Held online, in June 2021, the conference welcomed 1100+ participants from over 70 countries, nearly half of whom reported they were experiencing their first Canadian music industry event. You can read a full recap of the events here.

“We’re proud of the way our role has evolved from being among GT’s founding partners to leading the production of the event for the last three years, and growing things online during the most challenging period in recent history,” says SWM Executive Director, Umair Jaffar. “GT is where our organization’s mission to break down walls through the power of music, and our work with and for equity-deserving communities onstage and behind the scenes, has local and global impact. We know that this will continue at GT22 – and beyond.”

Behind the GT22 theme in Small World Music's own words
After an early-pandemic pause at GT20 to acknowledge opportunity and envision the future, in 2021, we asked “Now What?”, looking to artists and arts organizations’ approaches to making space and enacting change. But sustainability remains out of reach across the sector. As a post-pandemic near-future emerges, glimmers of hope for the return of live music are clouded by the old structures and practices that are once again establishing themselves as the norm.

With GT22 we emphasize forward momentum, transcending what came before. Words matter in this project: We are wary of calls to simply rebuild, as it gives power to models that even before the pandemic weren’t working for most of us. To interrogate the idea of “re-”anything, we’re dropping the prefix. We choose to claim our future, connect our community, build our industry. Together.

For more information, go to www.smallworldmusic.com.

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