14TH WORLD CONGRESS ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ATHENS, MAY 19-21, 2004

«The vision of SEPE to showcase the technology leadership of SE Europe has finally become a

reality»

George Newstrom, WITSA ChairmanDuring the Opening Ceremony

WCIT 2004 in numbers:

•Over 2.000 attendees in 4 days•1.200 registered delegates•160 press representatives•67 countries represented

WCIT 2004 in numbers:

•12 sessions•47 speeches•22 speakers from IT & Telecom•11 speakers from Academia•22 speakers from Organizations•Ministers from 17 countries•4 pre-congress fora

An impressive internet presence

•22.4 million visits from January 2004•392.000 hits during the Congress

www.worldcongress2004.org

Spectacular Opening!•A warm welcome•Profound admiration for the Athens Concert Hall•Keynote speeches by significant political figures•Beautiful music by Manos Hadjidakis’ “Orchestra of Colours”

WCIT 2004 Highlights• Endorsement of the “Political Leaders’ Declaration on Technological Developments in the Service of the Citizen” by 17 ministers.

«[…] Electronic government […] should be further promoted within a context of concrete action plans; e-government policies should be formulated and evaluated upon their capacity to produce a more inclusive, pluralistic and participatory system of governance, both at national and at the global level […]»

WCIT 2004 Highlights• Official launch of Access2democracy, a new, non-governmental organization with global reach and aspirations aiming at fostering e-democracy.

Michail Bletsas, Director of Computing, MIT Media Lab: «Access2democracy is an opportunity to bring politicians, businesses and citizens together».

WCIT 2004 Highlights• Commemorating Michael Dertouzos, one of the true visionaries of Information Technology, who inspired countless scientists and researchers.

WCIT 2004 HighlightsThe “Michael Dertouzos Awards”

• 1st Prize, €15,000Marco Escobedo, Mexico“VoIP services for rural networks”• 2nd Prize, €9,000Christos Doulkeridis, Greece“Data access using mobile devices”• 3rd Prize, €6,000Michalis Anastassopoulos, Greece“Software product lines for pervasive computing”

WCIT 2004 HighlightsWITSA Global IT Excellence Awards

• Public Sector Awards•Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Romania•Yokosuka City

• Private Sector Awards•Terra Payments (Canada)•East Japan Railway Company Suica System

• Digital Opportunity Award•PEOPLink/CatGen, USA•Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity and Promotion

• Chairman’s Award•United States Agency for International Development

What people said about WCIT 2004

Bill Zikou, President SE Europe, Ericsson«It is an excellent event, very well organized. It has gathered many of the industry leaders that will help us understand what the future is like and what we should wait for»...

Nicholas Negroponte, Founding Chairman, Media Lab MIT«It’s an absolutely full house. I’ve never seen such a full, huge auditorium. Clearly people are interested».

Memorable social events“A Walk down (a computer’s) Memory Lane”An extremely successful congress party, in front of the neoclassical Zappeion Megaron, which ended up with speakers, delegates and WITSA officials proving to be excellent dancers…

“WITSA 2004 Gala Dinner”A fabulous event, hosted in the Athens Hilton Ballroom, with Greek traditional dances, delicious cuisine and live music which “fired up” the delegates…