Toronto will get a major new book fair a year from now, the Star has learned. Organizers will announce Wednesday that the first edition of Inspire!, a.k.a. the Toronto International Book Fair, will open next November at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Typically it takes a long time for an ambitious new venture like this to move from feasibility study to real-world reality existence. But this time, plans have taken shape with the breathtaking speed of an amusement-park ride.

News of the fair’s launch comes just three months after the release of a feasibility study, funded by the Ontario Media Development Corp., which raised the tantalizing prospect of a reimagined Toronto book fair after six years without one.

The two people behind that study were Rita Davies, formerly the visionary executive director of culture for the city of Toronto, and John Calabro, an editor, writer and teacher who runs the small publishing company Quattro Books.

It might have taken years to get all the pieces in place, fill the organizational and financing gaps and get the show on the road — were it not for one fruitful meeting.

“One person I wanted to interview was Steven Levy,” Davies recalled this week. The reason Davies, an expert at cultural planning, wanted Levy’s advice: For years he has been the master of big consumer trade shows, showcasing the worlds of fashion, design, real estate and crafts. Among his top events is the One of a Kind show.

“Steven and I had coffee, and he got very excited,” she adds.

So instead of taking months or years to develop a complex business plan, Davies and Calabro took a short cut. They formed a partnership with Levy, thereby acquiring his know-how.

“With Steven, we got a walking business plan,” she says. “That’s why we’re ready to rock and roll so soon.”

BookExpo Canada, which ended five years ago, was an industry event. Unlike the old model, Levy says, that even while filling the gap left by the demise of BookExpo, the new fair will be 80 per cent public, with about 20 per cent limited to publishing industry insiders.

“In Toronto we have a large audience with a serious interest in both print and digital subjects,” he says. “And we have a highly diversified society, with many different languages and cultures. Our challenge is to create a number of unique events that will be entertaining and educational, and engage this audience.”

So it will be multicultural, trying to draw people from all parts of the GTA and beyond.

The annual budget is about $1 million. Investors have been secured but the fair will also be seeking government support. Target attendance for the first fair — which opens on Thursday evening, Nov. 13, 2014 and closes on Sunday Nov 16 — is 50,000.

“The fair will be an economic driver, help stimulate sales excitement and make sure the industry remains healthy and strong.”

So far the response from publishers has been strongly positive, say the organizers, who are in negotiations with the top 10 about renting space and planning events.

“They all sound eager, and so far no one has said no to meeting with us,” says Levy.

How will Inspire be different from Word on the Street?

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In the view of Davies, Levy and Calabro, the two events will be bookends of the literary season, complementing one another, rather than rivals.

Inspire! will go on for four days instead of one, and take place indoors (on the same turf as the Toronto Art Fair) instead of outdoors. It will be multi-faceted, with an extensive range of programming, including workshops for school kids and sit-down events with authors. And there will be more emphasis on the digital world.

“We love Word on the Street,” says Davies, “and we’re talking to them.”