Deductible Junkets
Headed to AST?
Denmark needs a good PR firm. Seriously, what does Denmark bring to mind? Vikings? It's just not '90s. What about Danish? A sticky pastry, right? But with the right PR you might think, Denmark - peaceful, picturesque, and not as pricey as Scandinavia proper! Composed of the Jutland peninsula and more than 400 islands, the country is a hauntingly beautiful world of Renaissance castles and quiet fishing villages, Viking legend and fairy tales.
The capital city of Copenhagen, located on the largest island, Zealand, has an even bigger image problem than Denmark, with no Eiffel Tower or other well-known icon. Nonetheless, this city of medieval churches and modern clubs will impress even the most jaded junketeers.
Wander the winding back streets of the inner city (Indre By) and stroll down the Strøget, a cobblestoned pedestrian boulevard lined with shops and cafes, stopping at Chokoland for a taste of the local licorice. (One lick is enough, however.) When your feet are fatigued, snag a seat in the sun at the Café Europa, on Amagertorv, and do a little low-tech surveillance of Copenhagen culture.
Further down the Strøget lies Tivoli Gardens, the grande dame of amusement parks, with its old wooden roller coaster and regular firework displays. More amused by art? Amble over to the The Museum of Decorative Art (Kunstindustrimuseet) on Bredgade to see their exhibition of 20th-century Danish furniture design. Modern art lovers should also make the hike to Humlebæk, to visit the Louisiana Museum, an impressive collection of modern art housed in a 19th-century villa by the sea.
When your stomach summons, dine a la Danish at the traditional Cap Horn. Take a slice of brown bread and pile that smørrebrød high with marinated herring, liverwurst, meats, and cheese. For a light lunch or a cool Carlsberg in the inner city, choose Café Sommersko, a popular destination during the day and after dark. Or opt for Café Dan Turrell, a social spot packed with unstudious students in the evenings.
The Danes delight in jazz, or at least the cosmopolitan Copenhageners do. Stop by the Montmartre, the city's major jazz venue, or the Copenhagen Jazz House, a Cinderella jazz joint, which turns into a disco at midnight.
Though you won't find much rotten in the city of Copenhagen, take the train north to Helsingør to visit Kronborg Slot, said to be the site of Hamlet's Elsinore Castle. Shakespeare never visited Kronborg, but that hasn't stunted the local Hamlet souvenir industry.
It's truly a trek, but anyone who's played with those colorful plastic bricks should visit Legoland Park, built with more than 38 million Legos, in Billund on the peninsula.
More than enough Denmark data? Just one final fact: early in the Nazi occupation, the Danes smuggled 7,000 Jews across the Baltic Sea to Sweden in one night, saving 93 percent of the Jewish population! Not many countries could pull that off. The truth is, they don't need an Eiffel Tower after all.
Jessie Scanlon
August 16-20
ONE BBSCON; Tampa, Florida
The Online Networking Exposition and BBS Convention is the offline event of the online world. For small BBS operators and big-time telecom execs alike, this is the how-to, what-to, when-to, and why-to of networking, from demos of the newest and the fastest products to workshops on building online communities. Registration: US$250 before August 1, $325 after. Contact: +1 (303) 693 5253, fax +1 (303) 693 5518.
September 3-7
ICMC'95: Digital Playgrounds; Banff, Canada
Hundreds of composers, musicians, and other multimedia artists come out to play at this annual event, sponsored by the International Computer Music Association. The conference includes concerts, multimedia soundscapes, and virtual audio exhibits. Even Chuck Berry would roll over at some of this music. Registration: CAN$530, students CAN$260. Contact: +1 (403) 762 6669, fax +1 (403) 762 6665, e-mail icmc95@banffcentre.ab.ca.
September 4
Advanced Surveillance Technologies; Copenhagen, Denmark
It's time to get smart. This small, one-day conference, sponsored by the Washington, DC-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, will focus on those unregulated technologies that threaten privacy. Speakers and attendees alike will discuss advanced surveillance satellites, microchip implants, and other technologies that Maxwell Smart only dreamed of. Registration: US$175 for organizations, $75 for individuals. Contact: +1 (202) 544 9240, fax +1 (202) 547 5482, e-mail pi@privacy.org.
September 6-8
International Workshop on Information Processing in Cells and Tissues; Liverpool, England
Cells 'n' chips are the subject of this gathering of biologists, computer scientists, and other researchers. The workshop concerns the nature of biological information and how information is processed in biological and computational systems. When the cells 'n' chips chat is over, let the fish 'n' chips begin. Registration: unknown at press time. Contact: fax + 44 (151) 794 3715, e-mail tissues@csc .liv.ac.uk, on the Web at .
September 7-8
InfoWarCon '95; Arlington, Virginia
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," goes the saying, but these information warfare experts don't agree. The first annual InfoWarCon, sponsored by the National Computer Security Association, highlights personal privacy, industrial and economic espionage, and global information warfare. Winn Schwartau, author of Information Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Highway, will deliver the keynote address. Registration: US$595. Contact: +1 (717) 258 1816, fax +1 (717) 243 8642, e-mail 74774.1326@compuserve.com.
The Current Roundup (see Wired 3.06)
July 23-25 Spotlight 95; Dana Point, California
July 25-29 Electronic Imaging and the Visual Arts; London
July 27-31 The Fourth Quinquennial Science Studies Workshop: Humans, Animals, Machines; Bath, England.
August 4-6 DEFCON III; Las Vegas.
August 6-11 SIGGRAPH; Los Angeles.
Out on the Range
__September 17-24 ISEA '95; Montreal. Contact: +1 (514) 990 0229, fax +1 (514) 842 7459, e-mail isea95@er.uqam.ca, on the Web at [. September 23-October 1 Practice and Future of Autonomous Agents: ASI-AA-95; Ticino, Switzerland. Contact: + 41 (1) 257 43 20, fax + 41 (1) 363 00 35, e-mail pfeifer@ifi.unizh.ch.
October 12-14 MEDICAL; Charleston, South Carolina. Contact Richard Saul Wurman: +1 (401) 848 2299, fax +1 (401) 848 2599.
Got a good junket? E-mail junkets@wired.com.](http://isea95.comm.uqam.ca/isea95.html)__
