Marilyn Panayi Odense University panayi@nis.sdu.dk

IST ‘98 was the first in a series of comprehensive annual events which will cover the EC’s Information Society Technology (IST) Programme. The IST Programme is one of the major components of the European Commission's proposed Fifth Framework Programme (FP5); it will integrate and extend the current ACTS, Esprit and Telematics Applications programmes into a single programme that reflects the convergence of information processing, communications and media.

IST ’98 focused on the technologies underpinning the Information Society, and the regulatory and socio-economic issues arising from their use. 3,800 people descended on the beautiful city of Vienna in Austria, in search of the technologies that affect our society today and to catch a glimpse of those that will impact our future.

At the conference, three hundred invited speakers covered a range of ‘hot topics’ including third-generation mobile systems, new ways of working, harnessing creativity, computer games and interactive toys, breakthrough technologies, ICT in sport, health and the living-room, electronic commerce, raising finance for emerging ICT companies, the economics of information exchange, intelligent agents, interactive satellite communications systems, learning technologies, new industrial paradigms, gender and cyberspace, language technologies, consumer product design, digital libraries, standardisation, cybercommunities, and IPR management. Panel discussions and workshops generated a lot of lively debate.

The exhibition space had over 135 stands, and included demonstrations by the European IT Prize and the EuroPrix MultiMediaArt prize finalists. Exhibition demos covered topics such as medical applications, satellite applications, new interfaces, wearable computers, simulation in engineering, Internet security, education and culture, interactive multimedia systems, management and control systems, speech and sound systems, virtual reality, and entertainment and broadcasting applications. i3 was represented by Campiello, Presence, Escape, eRena and i3 network.

The electronic Cybersapce cafe at IST: a small oasis within all the hurly-burly.

IST prizes

The aim of the European IST Prizes is to reward excellence and stimulate innovation. The winners of the prestigious grand prizes, which include a trophy and 200,000 ECU each, were chosen from a list of 25 finalists.

This year's IST grand prize winners were:

• iD2 Technologies (Sweden)
• MLS LaserLock International Inc. (Greece) and
• Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC) /Sistemas Radiantes F. Moyana S.A. (Spain)

For more details: www.it-prize.org. Video clips from the winning companies are available, please contact Peter Vekinis (peter.vekinis@cec.be).

IST Investment Forum
www.cordis.lu/ist98/invopen.htm

IST 99 — "Exploring the Information Society:
Business, People, Technology" will take place from
22-24 November 1999 at the Helsinki Fair Centre.
Web:www.ist99.fi
IST: www.cordis.lu/ist

Pick of the workshops: the IST ‘98 Investment Forum At this workshop, 45 handpicked companies seeking investment or equity finance presented their business plans and described their products to interested investors and business advisors. Over 100 representatives of leading financial and industrial investment groups from across Europe and the USA attended, including venture-capital and private-equity investors, business angels, commercial and investment banks, and institutional and industrial investors.