Imagine Solutions conference teaming with The Phil for 2013 comeback

Randy Antik, CEO of Searching for Solutions Institute

Photo by DAVID ALBERS, Naples Daily News // Buy this photo

Kathleen van Bergen, chief executive officer and president of the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, has a meeting with members of her staff in her office on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2011, in Naples. Van Bergen took over for Myra Janco Daniels as head of the philharmonic on Sept. 1. David Albers/Staff

A world-class ideas conference that had two successful winter sessions in Naples, only to be scuttled by the economy, will be making a comeback on a world-class stage.

Officials from Imagine Solutions and the Philharmonic Center for the Arts on Friday announced a strategic business partnership that will split annual programs over several affordable events rather than two intense, expensive days.

For 2013, that means a day of thought leaders' presentations at The Phil on Feb. 11, followed by an as yet unspecified number of single-evening programs through spring.

Original, two-day Imagine Solutions tickets were more than $2,000. The new alignment calls for $600 one-day tickets, with the evening programs costing $50 to $70.

Stressing plans are very tenative, Kathleen van Bergen, CEO of The Phil, and Randy Antik, CEO of Imagine Solutions, said the partnership capitalizes on past conferences' reputation for excellence and the arts center's role as a hub of continuing education.

"The Phil should be the convener of great thinking and stimulating conversation,'' van Bergen said.

They sense a market niche for speakers who are leaders in their fields of science and finance, for example, in a setting that encourages building networks for follow-through on solutions.

Van Bergen said the Naples Museum of Art may be involved with special exhibits. She and Antik envision a lineup of national sponsors such as CNBC and National Geographic, which may end up presenting and hosting programs.

The inaugural Imagine Solutions conference was hosted at The Phil in 2009 and moved to the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort last year.

The partners promised more details in a joint press release early next week.