NWT/NUNAVUT - The Inuvik Petroleum Show. The Geoscience Forum. Start Your Engines.

The North is host to a bounty of business conferences and trade shows, not to mention the various gatherings held in Alberta and other parts of Canada, where issues relating to the Northern economy are discussed among delegates.

But the former minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the current president of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce are teaming up to organize a symposium they hope will feature focused, productive discussion about various value-adding infrastructure projects in both the NWT and Nunavut.

Last week, Brendan Bell and Patrick Doyle released the agenda for the 1st Annual Strategic Northern Infrastructure Symposium, to be held in Yellowknife on October 14 and 15.

The central mandate of the conference is to make sure discussion about Northern issues takes place in the North, said Doyle, who is also president of Twilite Security, employer of approximately 100 people in the NWT and Nunavut.

"Many of these important things get talked about at a lot of other places, not that that's really a bad thing. But we wanted to repatriate it and bring it North," said Doyle.

"All conferences have their purpose, but for us, we wanted to bring as many decision-makers, both private and public, and talk ... and see if we can't get some consensus on a few of these things moving forward."

The agenda suggests Doyle and Bell have largely succeeded on that front. Robert Gannicott, CEO of Harry Winston Diamonds, is a confirmed keynote speaker, as is Chuck Strahl, minister of Indian and Northern Affairs.

"We were fortunate in that, for pretty much every topic that we wanted to address, people who were involved were more than happy to be involved," said Doyle.

Those topics, as listed in the agenda, include: infrastructure development in the three territories; government and industry collaboration; the regulatory process; mines new and old; roads; Northern gas pipelines; community infrastructure; marine infrastructure; and energy infrastructure.

Each topic will feature a panel of three or four government or industry leaders, with opportunities for questions from the floor after each panel discussion.

"We have had some interest from small business," said Doyle. "We're a little concerned with the cost of it, particularly (for) smaller businesses. We want to be as inclusive as possible."

To that end, Bell and Doyle - who are financing the symposium themselves with no guarantee of financial return, admitted Doyle - have offered a discount to small business owners, as well as offered 50 per cent off for non-profit and community organizations.

Though hard-pressed to pick a topic he thinks will be much-discussed at the conference, Doyle admitted, "I did have a couple people say, 'We'd attend alone just to talk about the pipeline.'"

Bell, speaking to News/North about the conference last month, said that despite all the projects that people would like to see happen, stakeholders will have to be choosy about which ones actually see the light of day.

"Everybody's acknowledging that there's this wonderful potential in the North; but with the infrastructure gap and the infrastructure challenges we have, many of them can't get off the ground," said Bell.

"If what we have are hundreds of priorities, I think we can all accept that probably none of them will get built. We need to prioritize."