General Secretary's Report

Brussels Conference update

The Conference Organising Committee met in Brussels at the end of February, hosted by VRT and RTBF, to advance the plans for this year's FIAT/IFTA Conference, which will take place there in early September. We will be putting the draft programme, registration details and hotel booking forms onto the website very soon but, in the meantime, here are some of the details of how the conference is developing.

The Conference will take place at the spectacular Metropole Hotel in the heart of the city, where accommodation and conference facilities are excellent. It is expensive, but we will get an extremely favourable room rate of 140 Euros. However, as this may still be too expensive for some, rooms have been reserved in another hotel, the Ustel, which is a brief and easy tram ride away (or a brisk and direct walk for those so inclined). The room rate here is 110 Euros. A tram ticket with enough rides for the week will be provided to delegates who book this hotel.

The opening reception on the Saturday night is kindly being offered by the Mayor of Brussels in the historic Town Hall in the Grand Place. There will also be a tour of the European Parliament and a reception on the Monday evening and the closing dinner and Awards ceremony will be in the Colonial Palace at Tervuren on the outskirts of the city on the Tuesday.

The registration fee, including all lunches, breaks and receptions, will be 250 Euros for the first delegate, 200 for others from the same company, 300 for non-members and 100 for accompanying persons (receptions only).

The theme of the Conference is television history and its title "The Future of History", reflecting the fact that our Belgian hosts, in common with many other members, are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year. Each day of the conference has a theme : firstly, on Sunday, Television History Day, including the Award screenings and sessions on academic access, film preservation and the making of history programmes ; Monday is International Projects Day, taking advantage of the fact that we will be in the administrative capital of the European Union but including examples of co-operative archive projects from around the world ; finally, on Tuesday, what we are calling Back to the Future Day, including a digital archive management tutorial, the digital newsroom, metadata and interactive TV amongst the topics.

The format will be plenary sessions in the morning, followed by workshops in the afternoon, though, in response to members' requests, there will be a choice of only two workshops at any one time. We are also hoping to organise lunchtime discussion groups.

A call for papers will be issued with the draft programme, but anybody with any ideas or proposals should contact the Conference Content Organiser, Sue Malden, at any time.

Steve Bryant
General Secretary
12 March 2003