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[FYI] IST 99 - Explore the Information Society



CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 1999.  

Record Control Number: 13761  

Date: 1999-10-12  

Category: Event  

General Information:  

How radically will the revolutionary development of the Information 
Society transform our everyday lives? What are the likely changes 
brought by the information and communications technology applications 
that are being developed at breath-taking speed? How can we obtain 
full benefit of the new technologies in terms of new jobs, quality of 
life for people of all ages, prosperity and competitiveness? How to 
assure better security? Answers to these questions and many many more 
will be sought in Helsinki, from 22 to 24 November, on the occasion 
of the IST 99 Conference, organised by the Information Society 
Directorate General of the European Commission, in cooperation with 
the Finnish National Technology Agency (TEKES).  

A great number of the world's leading IT specialists, industrialists, 
politicians and Internet gurus have been invited to the Finnish 
capital to debate during three days the visions and actions needed to 
shape the future of the Information Society. The IST 99 conference, 
expected to be the largest Information Society-related conference in 
Europe, will be opened by Mr Erkki Liikanen, Member of the European 
Commission responsible for Enterprise and Information Society, 
together with Mr Erkki Tuomioja, Finnish Minister for Trade and 
Industry.  

IST 99 is organised in Helsinki under the Finnish Council Presidency 
following the success of the IST 98 Conference held in Vienna. As in 
the previous year, the conference is expected to attract a great 
number of representatives from leading information technology 
companies, academia and government. It will open windows on the 
future of the Information Society in terms of technologies and 
applications, legal and regulatory frameworks, visionary scenarios of 
how people will live in the future, emerging job opportunities, how 
business will be competitive, and how governments will serve the 
citizens. Together with the 4000 square metre exhibition, the IST 99 
Conference will offer a vast array of information to anybody 
interested in discovering how tomorrow's society will look like.  

Parallel sessions and workshops cover a myriad of interesting themes 
such as globalisation/localisation, education, youth, work, 
employment, inclusion of old and disabled, international cooperation, 
electronic commerce, policy and regulatory aspects, health, quality 
of life etc.  

The exhibition, which is open to everybody, will demonstrate the 
results from EU R&D programmes in information and communications 
technologies. The results of some 80 projects will be on show. 
Special villages, pavilions and Info Stands will cover different 
themes such as support actions and services of a horizontal nature, 
partner search for collaborate R&D, and the European IST Prize. 
Important Finnish technology applications and research activities 
will be presented in the 'Meeting Finland' pavilion. In addition, 
several non-EU countries will present their research activities and 
some highly interactive music and image generating technologies will 
be hosted in the 'Interaction Café'.  

The Investment Forum, organised in parallel with the conference 
sessions and workshops offers an opportunity for promising European 
Information Society Technology ventures to come together and to meet 
leading investors, advisors and industrialists. IST companies seeking 
capital can apply to present their business and fund-raising plans. 
The Forum will also include discussions on Europe's high-tech 
investment prospects, processes and policies.  

Another highlight of this three-day event will be the 1999 European 
IST Prize Award Ceremony organised on 23 November 1999 with the 
participation of high level representatives of the European 
Commission and the Finnish Government, and Sir Derek Roberts, 
Chairman of the Executive Jury. This year's prizes of 200,000 euros 
each will go to the most 'Novel products with a high information 
technologies content and evident market potential'. The European IST 
prize is recognised for its excellence, objectivity and immediate 
relevance to business. It is organised jointly by the EU's 
Information Society Technologies programme and Euro-CASE, the 
European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering.  

Data Source Provider: European Commission, Information Society 
Directorate-General  

Document Reference: IST 99 - Event announcement.  

Programme Acronym: FRAMEWORK 5C; IST  

Subject Index Codes: Information, Media; Information Processing, 
Information Systems  

Contact Person:  

To register for the IST 99 Conference, please see the website, at:  

                    http://www.ist99.fi/ 

                    or contact: 

                    European Commission 
                    IST 99 Conference Secretariat 
                    Fax + 32-2-296-9037 
                    E-mail: ist99@cec.be 

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