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Communications expanded the horizons of the World Congress
on Information Technology, writes Miles
Clarke, with delegates connected by unprecedented access.
The days if being able to escape the real world by going
to a business conference are well and truly numbered. As former
US president Bill Clinton delivered the keynote address at
this month's World Congress on Information Technology in Adelaide,
delegates became among the first to receive messages from
fellow delegates, their offices and friends on a wireless
personal digital assistant (PDA) from Compaq as they sat in
the convention centre.
A wireless local area network (LAN) was established at the
Adelaide Convention Centre and nearby congress hotels, providing
24-hour access to the congress message system, internet and
email services - in full colour. Delegates needed only to
be in the vicinity of the network to receive the service.
Brisbane developer Smartype wrote the software and
integrated the internet with the congress message system,
allowing anyone anywhere to send a message to delegates, who
were notified by a scrolling list on plasma television screens
dotted around the convention. The messages could be retrieved
by PDA or in hard-copy form, and many of the 2000-odd delegates
made use of the system.
During the conference, the Minister for Communications, information
Technology and the Arts, Richard Alston, launched the southern
hemisphere's first 3G mobile internet access network along
Adelaide's North Terrace. This is the cutting edge of telecommunications
convergence, where internet, telephone, video and email all
come together. Handy only at this stage if you happen to be
in Adelaide armed with the right equipment, it's clear pointer
to what business travellers can look forward to.
WCIT2002 also showed what is possible for the extension of
business meetings beyond the conference hall. On conclusion
of their presentations, speakers went online to discuss their
papers with anyone connected anywhere to the net. There were
also a number of pre-scheduled online forums before and during
the conference.
Delegates could use the congress web site's Business Networking
facility to put themselves in touch electronically with other
delegates who shared similar business interests - invaluable
for large events where traditionally it is the luck of the
draw whom one meets at the various social functions.
"The fact that almost 2000 people took the trouble to make
it to adelaide showed that business travel and face-to-face
meetings will continue in spite of advances in technology,"
said conference manager Ian Stuart, of ICMS Australasia. "What
this technology is doing is helping make the time spent away
much more productive - effectively freeing them up to pursue
business opportunities while staying fully up to speed with
the office."
While that last bastion of escape from the pressures of business,
the intercontinental flight, is being breached with the arrival
of inflight email services and inflight telephone services
have been around for almost a decade, Vodaphone reports that
some 48,000 customers, mainly business travellers, took their
phones overseas with them in the June-September quarter last
year, an increase of 20% on the years before.
As the number of countries offering global roaming increases
to accommodate this trend, travellers need to be aware that
only a few handsets currently provide service on the spectrum
that services the United States. Handsets can be hired at
most international gateways. And, as using the mobile phone
overseas can be ruinously expensive with each call charged
at international rates, the best option is to buy a local
SIM card on arrival.
Reproduced
from The Bulletin,
March 19, 2002. Page 60.
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