SOCAN sponsored a delegate reception with a keynote speaker, presented a panel, and hosted a booth in the exhibition hall at the 23rd annual Ontario Council of Folk Festivals (OCFF) conference, held Oct. 15-18, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Ottawa.

On Friday Oct. 16, SOCAN hosted the early-evening opening delegate reception, which included keynote speaker Bob Ezrin, the veteran music producer (KISS, Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd) whose musical education began in the 1960s folk clubs of Yorkville in downtown Toronto, and who recently returned to those roots to produce Pete Seeger's 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Gardens in New York City. At a jam-packed reception in the penthouse Pinnacle Room of the host hotel, Ezrin challenged the representatives of Ontario's folk festivals to better market themselves and to share best practices with each other so that the province's folk community as a whole can benefit.

The reception also presented networking opportunities for singer-songwriters and musicians from throughout Ontario, as well as booking agents, managers, publicists, festival programmers, artistic directors, club bookers, and other folk music industry representatives from across Canada and around the world.

On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 17, in the Joliet Room of the host hotel, SOCAN presented a case study panel on "Breaking the U.K.," moderated by SOCAN’s Rodney Murphy, and featuring panelists Luke Doucet (Canadian musician), Helen Britton (manager, Six Shooter Records), Howard Monk (The Local, London, U.K.) and Andy Cooper (Tom Tom Music, U.K.). Feedback from attendees indicates that the packed session—-which covered everything from touring to publicity to finding an agent—provided an extremely useful and realistic look at the U.K. market.

On Friday and Saturday afternoons, Oct. 16 and 17, SOCAN's Craig Brockie hosted the SOCAN booth at the exhibition hall in the host hotel, where he addressed many musicians interested in learning about royalties and finding out what SOCAN can do for them.

In addition to Murphy and Brockie, SOCAN’s Peter Fera, Kit Wheeler, Dan Greenwood and Dan Kershaw (the last two of whom are members of the OCFF's board of directors) also attended the OCFF conference. The OCFF conference is funded in part by the SOCAN Foundation.

As part of the conference, David Leask and Bruce Madole won the English Songs From The Heart (SFTH) Award for the song “While I Still Breathe,” while Cindy Doire and Colin Linden won the French SFTH Award for “Pêché de la mer.” Kyrie Kristmanson won the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award for "Song X," while Sharon, Lois and Bram won the Estelle Klein Lifetime Achievement Award.