Upcoming Conferences in the Wired World

March 14-17
SXSW Interactive '98
Austin, Texas

"You get drunk and eat ribs with people who are somewhat important – that's the way business is done there," reports one online rock critic who makes the annual pilgrimage to South by Southwest. Now in its fifth year, the conference's interactive portion draws its fire from the established music and film festivals of the same week. And now the digital panels are gaining ground as settings for multimedia artists, Web producers, and designers to talk and drink beer. Of course, you'll have to run to the barbecue table to beat Austin native and celebrated game-soundtrack creator the Fat Man.

T&#234te &#224 T&#234te Potential High
Geek Factor Medium
Idea Takeaway Medium
Star Power High

Registration: US$175 through February 13, $225 after. Contact: +1 (512) 467 7979.

March 22-25
PC Forum
Tucson, Arizona

The doors have been thrown open on Esther Dyson's rarefied gathering of digital movers and shakers. The price is high and space is limited, but registration is no longer exclusive to subscribers of her Release 1.0 newsletter. This year, speakers such as 32-year-old direct-marketing billionaire Michael Dell, GeoCities founder David Bohnett, and Purple Moon cofounder Brenda Laurel will look at new companies and ideas under the theme "Let's Be Clear: Identity, Transparency, and the Net." Says conference organizer (and Dyson's business partner) Daphne Kis, "The Net makes company boundaries fuzzier. The opaque walls that used to keep everyone out are now transparent."

T&#234te &#224 T&#234te Potential High
Geek Factor, Low
Idea Takeaway High
Star Power High

Registration: US$3,900. Contact: +1 (212) 924 8800, fax +1 (212) 924 0240.

March 25-27
Ethicomp98
Rotterdam, the Netherlands

If you're concerned about the moral implications of computer-enabled employee surveillance and other workplace dilemmas, you might want to take a crash course at this fourth international conference on ethical issues in information technology. This year's topic, computing in the workplace, brings academics, policymakers, developers, and users together to talk about the potential rub between financial goals and social responsibility. A few of the speakers – like Deborah G. Johnson (Computer Ethics) and Duncan Langford (Practical Computer Ethics) – literally wrote the book on the subject. They might help you walk the straight and narrow in the information economy.

T&#234te &#224 T&#234te Potential Medium
Geek Factor Medium
Idea Takeaway High
Star Power Low

Registration: US$500, students $100. Contact: +44 (116) 250 6143, fax +44 (116) 254 1891.

March 25-27
Marketing on the Internet: The 1998 Conference
Phoenix

"The event's focus is on a personal, measurable connection between your company and its customers," says conference organizer Sandy Totzke, who might emphasize measurable to further distance this con- fab from the squishy online marketing efforts of the past. Under the battle cry "Separate the Hype from Reality," top marketers of the Net – including Strategic Interactive Group head Kathleen Biro, FedEx VP Michael Janes, and HotWired's Rick Boyce – will discuss how to research, plan, and profit from your next interactive campaign.

T&#234te &#224 T&#234te Potential High
Geek Factor Low
Idea Takeaway Medium
Star Power Medium

Registration: US$1,295. Contact: (800) 323 0310, fax +1 (612) 922 2320, email register@iconferences.com, on the Web at www.interactivehq.org/az98/.

March 29-April 2
Infocom '98
San Francisco

Infocom '98, sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is the place to discuss lofty theoretical concerns among the cream of the network research community. "This is definitely not for wannabes," says one organizer, "though there are tutorials for people with a general interest in networking." A leading theoretical topic at Infocom '98 is active networks, which not only transmit data, but serve as a distributed programming system. It's no accident, then, that Alan Baratz, head of Sun's JavaSoft division, keynotes the show. Java, of course, provides proof-of-concept for mobile code and could, proponents say, pave the way for next-generation Internet services, such as mobile computing and bandwidth bartering. At any rate, active nets won't be coming to a provider near you anytime soon, so they're a perfect topic for debate.

T&#234te &#224 T&#234te Potential Medium
Geek Factor High
Idea Takeaway High
Star Power Low

Registration: US$500 through March 10, $600 after. Contact: +1 (202) 371 1013, fax +1 (202) 728 0884.

The Current Roundup (see Wired 5.12)
February 4-7 Interactive Newspapers '98; Seattle. February 8-11 Milia '98; Cannes, France. February 9-11 International Conference on Computational Intelligence and Multimedia Applications 1998; Churchill, Victoria, Australia. February 18-20 Computers, Freedom, and Privacy Conference; Austin, Texas.

This article originally appeared in the February issue of Wired magazine.

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