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Convergence: Creating the Future 24-26 November, Brussels Congress Centre  Register Now |
| The technological convergence stemming from digitalisation is triggering the convergence of industries - publishing, telecommunications, broadcasting, IT - that have until recently been largely separate. |
| Convergence offers massive opportunities for the development of new services and the expansion of consumer choice, and is making possible changes in the way we work, play, trade, learn, and socialise. The outlook for new interactive services - such as interactive TV, or selling via the Internet - is the subject of intense research and a multitude of field trials. The many new, cross-sector alliances resulting from convergence are leading to pressures for the adaptation of the regulatory framework. Moreover, serious concerns have been raised about how, or even whether, to govern the nature of the content disseminated, and over publishing and access rights to the new forms of media. |
| These many aspects of convergence provide the focal points for this year's sessions by invited speakers on Monday and Tuesday, which are opened by Jorma Ollila, the president and CEO of Nokia Group, and closed by the keynote speaker, Nicholas Negroponte, the director of MIT's Media Laboratory. |
| The European IT Prize Awards, presented on Tuesday afternoon by Jacques Santer, president of the European Commission, give public recognition to innovation in the field of IT. |
| The Awards presentation, with Christine Ockrent as MC, will be immediately followed by a demonstration of the PROSOMA service, recently launched by the Commission to accelerate the take-up of the results of the Esprit and other research programmes. |
| In "Altered States", later on Tuesday afternoon, some of the political and regulatory issues raised by convergence will be given a lively airing under the auspices of the International Institute of Communications. |
| Etienne Davignon, chair of Société Générale de Belgique and former research and industry Commissioner, will make a keynote speech on Wednesday morning as the introduction to a presentation of the new Information Society Technologies programme, part of the EU's coming Fifth Framework Programme of Research and Technological Development. This kicks off Wednesday's set of workshops, mini-conferences and forums on topics such as Space Technologies, Multimedia Content, IT for Mobility, the Web and the Knowledge Society, and Electronic Commerce. |
| The Exhibition will present leading-edge technologies and products stemming from work in the Esprit programme, and demonstrate the outcome and potential of Esprit's take-up actions. The exhibition will include the Planet Esprit cybercafé and feature the European IT Prize Awards finalists. |
| In Access to Finance and the IT Investment Forum, EITC 97 will introduce IT innovators looking for venture capital to the financial markets through a range of workshops, case-studies and presentation opportunities. An intensive tutorial on What Venture Capitalists Expect - and What They Actually Get takes place on Wednesday morning. |
| FULL PROGRAMME |
This document is located at /esprit/src/eitc97an.htm
It was last updated on 16 September 1997, and is maintained by the EITC 97 Secretariat - eitc97@dg3.cec.be