The Theme of the Conference
      DIRECT INFORMATION
      The printed page no longer has the monopoly on information and the traditional broadcasting media (radio and television) is no longer capable of sufficiently meeting the information needs of society. The traditional route between primary information, 'intermediaries' and the consumer is not as fixed as before. Information is always more easily obtained directly from the source. The time to market of news is nullified and information consumers are becoming producers. 'To be wired or not to be' in the words of one American expert.
      Electronic instruments, from the television to the computer, and the systems of personal communication (telephone, fax, BBS, internet, etc.) have, in fact, radically altered the relationship between information and its user.
      From being on the periphery of economic and social activities, information has now become the protagonist that 'glues' society together. Indeed, it is no coincidence that international experts, most recently the European Community, define contemporary society as the 'information society'.

      NEW PROTAGONISTS
      The top information operators are faced with structural choices that will determine their future and perhaps their very survival. Side by side operators in sectors, until recently, far removed from the information sphere (information society, telephone companies, industrial groups, etc.) are taking their first steps into the field of information services, setting the scene for a market whose boundaries have yet to be clearly defined.

      REDEFINING THE ROLE
      The traditional media has therefore had to 'enter the fray' and redefine their role in order to create, with their knowledge and experience, information services and products able to meet the requirements of the new markets. To do this, an exchange of ideas amongst those already operating in the field and those who are in the process of entering into the field of information from diverse sectors, is necessary. Their contribution to technological innovation, indeed their capacity to devise new tools for the user, closer to his or her sensibilities and needs, will certainly be determined on the market scenario that lies ahead and in the way in which the traditional media will transform their products and services.
      As has clearly emerged from the recent G7 conference in Brussels (25/2/95) dedicated to this topic, the access and use of direct information will be the 'key to the future prosperity and the information infrastructure will be important for the economy of the twentyfirst century just as the railway was in the nineteenth, and the aeroplane in the twentieth.' (Sir I. Vallance, Chairman British Telecom).

      THE THEMES OF THE CONFERENCE