FITUG e.V.

Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

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