URI to hold conference on E-commerce
Sept. 27 through 29

KINGSTON-September 21, 1999 -- If you want to know more about E-commerce - what works and what doesn't or what is going on locally as well as globally, then you should attend the Conference on Telecommunications and Information Markets starting Sunday, Sept. 26.

Sponsored by the University of Rhode Island, its Research Institute for Telecommunications and Information Marketing and its College of Business Administration, the conference will run through Wednesday, Sept. 29 at the Biltmore Hotel in Providence. The theme is "Electronic Commerce: Behaviors of Suppliers, Producers, Intermediaries & Consumers." Industry sponsors are Deutsche Bank, Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, Motorola, NORD/LB, and Sun Microsystems.

The opening remarks will be given Monday, Sept. 27 at 8:30 a.m. by David Beier, chief domestic policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore. Beier advises Gore on technology, science, telecommunications and the internet, and chairs the Interagency Working Group on Electronic Commerce. John Swen of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation will provide an update on what the state is doing to encourage business for this emerging sector.

For registration in advance, call 401-874-2170 (URI conference office) or you can register at the door. Cost is $595.00 for three days of sessions plus the opening reception Sunday night, Sept. 26 from 6 to 8 p.m at the Boathouse Restaurant, Waterplace Park.

Please see the website at http://ritim.cba.uri.edu/COTIM99/ and for registration: http://ritim.cbad.uri.edu/COTIM99/Registration.

There are two business panels focusing on local and global businesses. The first panel on E-banking will feature speakers from Fleet Bank and Fidelity Investment as well as Deutsche Bank (Germany) and SE Banken Sweden. A senior analyst from Gartner Group will share research on E-banking trends. The second panel will be on E-retailing and feature speakers from Hasbro, CVS, Ross-Simons and Gartner Group.

Among the business speakers and their talks are: Michael Gordon, founder and president of The Venture-Preneurs Networks and president of Quantum Ventures, "E-commerce Ventures: Establishing Differential Advantage."

Joseph S. Kraemer, senior vice president at PHB Hagler Bailly, Inc. a consulting firm that specializes in capital intensive industries undergoing severe structural change, "Managing the transition to a Data-Centric World: Follow the Money."

Judy Reed Smith, chief executive officer of ATLANTIC-ACM, the Boston base of a leading international consulting firm, "E-commerce in France."

Among the academic speakers are national and international experts:

Ravi Kalakota, chief executive officer of eBusiness Strategies, director of the Center for Digital Commerce and GCATT Endowed Chair Professor of Electronic Commerce at Georgia State University, "E-commerce: the Next Wave"

Alvin J. Silk, the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, "Restructuring in the U.S. Advertising Media Industry."

Nikhilesh Dholakia, associate director of the URI Research Institute for Telecommunications and Information Marketing and professor of marketing at URI, "Can we see Daylight through the Amazon Canopy? Cutting through the retail E-commerce Business Model Thicket."

Wolfgang Fritz, professor of marketing and head of the Department of Business Administration and Marketing at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, "Electronic Commerce: What is Different in Germany."

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For More Information: Dave Lavallee 401-874-2116