Welcome to the IST 2004 Event - Participate in your future !

This year's edition of the most important European Information Society
Technologies (IST) event is organised under the EU's Dutch Presidency by the
European Commission in partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Economic
Affairs. The event will include a conference, an exhibition of research
results and networking facilities for the about 4000 participants. The
overall themes are "People" and "Economy". This IST Event should appeal to:

* Industry, SMI and SME
* Businesses
* Public sector decision-makers
* The research community and academics
* Interested citizens, including young people and students

The Conference - with 30 sessions- will look at ways to harness information
and communication technology (ICT) to enhance the prosperity, security and
quality of life for all Europeans.

The Exhibition - with around 130 stands on an area of 8500 sq. m- will show
how ICT enables new ways of living, working together, communicating,
entertaining, and ensuring that every citizen benefits from the
knowledge-based economy.

The European IST Prize will showcase a selection of 20 innovative
information technology driven products.

The Networking Sessions - about 50 sessions- will bring participants
together to discuss project ideas, research activities and business
partnership.

IST Work Programme 2005-06 and Proposal Submission: This session will
present the IST Work Programme for 2005-06: the Strategic Objectives, the
priorities, the instruments and the details of how to make a proposal.

This event is "a must" for any researcher, industrialist or citizen
interested in EU funding for information society technology research,
development and applications.

For further information see IST 2004 at a Glance , at the site:
http://europa.cec.int/information_society/istevent/2004/index_en.html


Call for Ideas for Networking Sessions is open now !

Networking Sessions complement the conference and exhibition and contribute
to one of the prime objectives of the European Commission in the area of
Research and Development - to encourage forward-thinking collaborative
initiatives that support the development of the European Research Area.
Call details are available from Networking Sessions.

Please be aware that you have to register before being able to submit a
proposal. The call will be open until October 29.


** 2 Calls for Ideas for the Conference Workshops and the Exhibits (closed
since 4 June)

The 2 calls for Ideas for the Conference Workshops and the Exhibits were
again a big success: Over 200 submissions regarding the Conference were
received and over 170 regarding the Exhibition.

As in previous years, the IST 2004 Calls were open to all - submissions were
treated equally during the evaluation, whether or not they were related to
projects funded by the EU's Information Society Technologies (IST) research
programme. A priority was given to 'integrated proposals' involving workshop
discussions and research exhibits.

The Commission: pre-defines some of the conference workshops and exhibits
(note that the Conference Workshop Proposal Form allowed you to propose
either a complete workshop or your own participation within a workshop);
spotlights a set of Topics in which it is  particularly interested. This
said, proposals in other areas were welcome and was considered on their
merits. 

Further Information
The above referred website will continue to evolve, with details of the
accepted workshops and exhibits appearing after the evaluation in June.

Until then:
Subscribe to the IS-newsroom to stay up to date throughout the year;
short films on IST 2003 are available for download from the IST 2003
website;

IST 2004 is organized within the framework of the Dutch EU Presidency by the
Commission's Directorate-General for the Information Society, the Dutch
Ministry of Economic Affairs and the The Hague region.