And so it is over: 24 days, 38 lectures, 21 concerts and performances. From wireless to the Wright brothers, fashion to philosophy, jazz to Judaism, EinsteinFest dug deep into a wide spectrum of human activity sparked by the 1905 era and was met with a resounding, thundering response that was beyond my wildest dreams or expectations.

Attendance at EinsteinFest topped 28,000 over the past three weeks, with people sometimes queuing up in the rain and cold to grab hold of a precious few tickets to lectures on special relativity or superstring theory.

One-hundred and seventy-five dedicated volunteers efficiently guided the inquiring visitors towards ticket booths, science demonstrations, exhibits and other destinations throughout the four-storey research complex.

The weekends rolled by and still the people, families and school groups kept coming. They came from across Ontario and throughout Canada. Some dropped in from much further afield: from Germany, England, Japan, the U.S., Australia, Brazil and beyond, combining a trip to EinsteinFest with a visit to relatives, Oktoberfest or general tourism.

Of course, there were some disappointments. There were a significant number of people, particularly at the beginning of the festival, who reserved free tickets and did not show up, thereby preventing others from attending events.

We are dealing with this issue in a variety of ways, but suffice it to say that, as determined as we are to keep events free to encourage one and all to attend, we will be forced to make changes in the future if sufficient numbers of people do not act responsibly.

By and large, the national media were also a disappointment. While The Record provided exemplary coverage of the festival throughout, the major national newspapers were conspicuously absent, mired in an often Toronto-centric cultural myopia that is both irresponsible and, sadly, all too frequent.

I was assured by journalists from Germany to China that the scope, scale, intensity and diversity of this festival was at the highest international level. There simply was nothing like it in the world.

Even CNN International took note of this and via Kitchener-Waterloo's CTV station, which provided thoughtful local coverage of their own, I was allowed to hook-up to a camera and share the good news from EinsteinFest with the outside world.

Given this was Canada's most ambitious contribution to the United Nations endorsed World Year of Physics, it is a pity that, like so much in this country, one has to first be recognized outside of Canada before the national media start paying attention.

When I first moved to this region more than five years ago, I remember being struck by the copious quantities of local pride, the likes of which I had never seen. If this could only be harnessed, I remember thinking, it might be possible to do great things here, transformative things.

While just one event in the overall scheme of things, EinsteinFest represents a glorious validation of my greatest hopes: Waterloo Region has adopted Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and our outreach mandate with the fervent endorsement and burning pride that separates this region from so many others, enabling us to aim ever higher towards providing the highest quality programming in the arts and sciences.

The response over the last three weeks has convinced me that we will definitely do this sort of thing again -- not three weeks and four weekends, perhaps -- a Herculean feat that almost finished off Michael Duschenes, Perimeter Institute Director of Programming, and his magnificent team -- but something with the same level of excitement, breadth and substance over, say, a 10-day period with two weekends.

Last night, I had another in a long line of conversations with some visiting representatives of the Ontario government who were shaking their heads with wonder at how Kitchener-Waterloo and area, with a small fraction of the population, could pull off something that seemed completely impossible in the nation's largest city, a mere 100 kilometres away.

There is no secret sauce, I told them, no magic bullet. The key is to find great people who can dedicate themselves to a worthy cause and aim for the stars.

The public, I have always maintained, want this. Through the dedicated efforts of the volunteers, institute staff, corporate sponsors, guest speakers, The Record and an enthusiastic, engaged community, Waterloo Region has emphatically demonstrated this point and spurred us on towards our goal of becoming the world's most dynamic and innovative research and outreach-oriented scientific institution.