Web message links make Sydney debut

BRISBANE An Australian computer software developer for the first time has integrated a conference message system with an internet browser, allowing friends and colleagues to contact delegates at a meeting from anywhere in the world. Message systems to allow conference organisers to communicate with delegates as well as delegate-to-delegate communications have been familiar service at larger conferences for almost a decade. Typically it consists of a sponsored booth where messages are left for delegates who are then notified by monitors located plenary halls and at strategic locations around the convention centre. Often the names will scroll in meeting rooms as delegates arrive and depart for sessions. Brisbane design studio Smartype programmer Mr Kevin Seeley, developed the system for Sydney conference managers, ICMS Australasia, for the World Congress of Intelligent Transport Systems in Sydney, a meeting of 2,000 of the world's leaders in high technology transport systems. "We were keen that every aspect of the meeting employ appropriate communications technology and the conference message system was simply an extension of that philosophy," ICMS Australasia IT manager Mr Francois Houbert said. "Like most major conferences we had an internet café for the delegates, but it was often fully utilised. "By simply giving the delegates a link they could send to their home bases, people anywhere in the world with access to the internet could send them a message and their name would instantly appear on the scrolling monitors around the convention centre." Unlike the regular message boards at conferences where messages can be scrutinised by anyone, privacy is assured as all messages print out automatically and are placed in an envelope for collection. "For the Intelligent Transport Systems conference, we put a button on the conference website inviting people to use the system and we had upwards of a 1,000 messages received over the three days of the meeting," Mr Seeley said. "This was with minimal advertising, so one can only imagine how useful this will be for future meetings."