The e2002 (eBusiness and eWork)
conference opened in Prague on Wednesday 16 October. The event
was the third in a series of annual conferences but this was
the first time that it had been held outside the European Union.
Consistently attracting over 500 delegates, the conference series
has become a major European event for eBusiness, eWork and Internet
technologies.
Delegates to e2002 in Prague
were welcomed by Petr Krenek, Director International Department,
Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. In her reply,
Dr Rosalie Zobel, European Commission Director for the Information
Society responsible for New Methods of Work and Electronic Commerce,
said that the Commission was delighted to support e2002, an event
that helped to motivate better project results and new proposals.
She said that was sure that all delegates would greatly benefit
from the exchange of knowledge about progress in research and
new ideas. Dr Zobel, who chaired the opening sessions, said that
she was heartened to see that among the projects selected for
presentation there were many funded by the European Commission
under its IST Programme of support for research. e2002 was timely
in view of the impending launch of the European Commission's
new 17.5 billion euros Sixth Framework Programme for research.
The conference plenary sessions
were addressed by key figures from leading companies either supplying
or applying new Information Society technologies and systems.
The plenary keynote presenters were:
Sergio Giacoletto, Executive
Vice President EMEA, Oracle who spoke about: How eBusiness can
make Europe more profitable;
Peter Herrmann Vice President of Solutions Consulting Central
EMEA, EDS who spoke about: Security and privacy services - defending
Europe's critical infrastructure;
Vlastimil Vesely, Co-founder & Content Director First Tuesday
CZ who spoke about: Building communities in the era of information
economy;
Jeet Khaira, Chief Executive, Video Arts who spoke about: Unleashing
eLearning;
Geoff Sutton, Director, MSN.co.uk who spoke about: The future
of digital marketing;
Thomas Schauer, Faw of Germany who spoke about: Internet refusers
- a risk to the digital economy?
Rosalie Zobel, Director, The European Commission who spoke about
Work and business in the eEconomy - Technology and Policy Issues.
The e2002 programme included
workshops and discussion groups with eight streams of parallel
sessions. Among the topics addressed in the sessions were Supply
Chains, Knowledge Management, Mobility, Industrial Applications
and Management Issues. Accompanying the presentations was a selected
display of twenty posters and twenty-four demonstrations of significant
project results.
A spokesperson for the European
Commission said, "It is vitally important for the future
prosperity of its peoples that Europe makes a success of Information
Society technologies. Information Society technologies are already
contributing to business changes and success. e2002 brought together
more than 500 of Europe's leading developers to learn about current
projects and to exchange information about their work with delegates
from around the world."
The eBusiness and eWork events
are the conferences for RTD projects in Key Action II of the
IST Programme. Key Action II of the IST Programme is also the
primary sponsor of the eBusiness and eWork conference series.
The major sponsors of e2002 are Canon Europe, InternetOnline,
and the Technology Centre (Czech Republic).
Ends
|