Final count-down for the FIAT/IFTA World Conference in Santiago de Chile!

Lasse Nilsson
Photo: Ove Whalqvist

When you hold this issue of the Newsletter in your hands it won't be more than a month to the Conference "take off"! It has been a busy Summer - or Winter - depending on where you happen to have your office, for us in the Santiago Conference Organizing Committee (COC). What happens and have happened behind the scene when you eager for new audiovisual archiving findings arrive at the Santiago-Merino Benítez are all the practical preparations. What you should meet are hopefully a well-functioning organization and a tempting programme worthwhile travelling for.

We have found a perfect conference venue in the Hotel Carrera and negotiated reasonable hotel rates and catering. There have been hundreds of mails between the COC and prospect speakers to build the programme you expect to find. Also there are the preparations for marketing and press, for tours, Award ceremony and final dinner. Not to mention the sometimes tedious work with essential bureaucracy like registrations, hotel reservations and confirmation of hundreds of details.

I think you will find the programme substantially developed. At the screening on Sunday morning October 3rd you will have the chance to meet the producers of the three shortlisted programmes for the FIAT/IFTA Award. The Sunday afternoon sessions are constantly developing. Among the speakers on the Documentation session you will find for example a contribution from Informix on "Audiovisual Asset Management in the 21st Century" and you will get to know the very latest about the digitizing of the NHK archives. The afternoon contains presentations of "New World" projects, among others from Mexico and Argentina. An important issue is how to transfer old card catalogues. There will be presentations on different ways to approach these problems.

Those of you with a special interest in the technical aspects of audiovisual archiving must not forget the workshop with Jim Wheeler on video preservation Monday afternoon: Digital versus analog, is DVD the solution? What are the implications of wide screen for audiovisual collections? The morning session on Tuesday October 5th covers aspects from technical and documentation to research and rights. Archive programming will have a highly interesting spot on the programme also on Tuesday morning, with invited producers specialized in this area of programming. These items on the programme are only a few "teasers" chosen by me at random. Check the updated programme below for your special areas of interest; archive management.

In the afternoon we board the buses for a tour to the Santa Rita vineyards, the Award ceremony and the final dinner.

About hotels, you will find a change since the preliminary invitation from the El Conquistador to the Tupahue as the budget alternative. Still within walking distance from the conference venue Hotel Carrera, both conveniently situated in the very center of the city and close to the airport bus terminal. Check the map below.

Don't forget to check the FIAT/IFTA website for the latest information on the conference, programme updates, papers etc. The address is: fiatifta.org.

I'm looking forward to meeting you all in Santiago in October

Lasse Nilsson (lasse.nilsson@svt.se)
Secretary General FIAT/IFTA and Chair Santiago Conference Organizing Committee