TELECOM 95 WRAPS UP TODAY

Geneva, 11 October 1995 — Today was the final day of TELECOM 95, the seventh world telecommunications Exhibition and FORUM, which was held from October 3 - 11 at PALEXPO.

This year's event attracted 154,671 visitors, who came to see the latest technology on display from 1,066 exhibitors from the telecommunications, information technology and audio-visual entertainment fields.

The theme of this year's event - "Connect!" - aptly summed up the main trend of the show - that of the rapid convergence between the computing, telecommunications and broadcasting industries.

The ground-breaking technologies on show this year reflected three principal developments:

the rapid pace of inter-industry convergence
true global connectivity across systems
true global mobility - whether voice, data or systems management

The event attracted industry leaders at the highest level, from ambassadors and government ministers, to the CEOs of the front-ranked market players as well as the most respected industry analysts and commentators. A total of 3,912 people took part in the FORUM programme, which encompassed the Strategies and Technology Summits and the Internet weekend. The Summits focused on both new technological developments, and the problems of communications in the developing world. Special emphasis was placed this year on the need to include the less developed nations in the newly-emerging Global Information Infrastructure. There was also much interest in the two-day Internet weekend called internet@telecom95. The special sessions attracted important keynote speakers such as Vint Cerf, known in Internet circles as 'the father of the Internet', and Jim Clark, the founder of Netscape.

The show also offered a number of innovative new services to exhibitors, visitors and the media, including the ability to access a range of TELECOM 95 information via the World Wide Web, and a worldwide e-mail system known as the Global Messaging Service, which was accessible via almost 200 PCs located around the show and in the Press Room.

TELECOM 95 also featured a spectacular opening ceremony sponsored by Intel Corporation, which included keynote addresses by Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission, Andy Grove, President and CEO of Intel, Kaspar Villiger, President of the Swiss Confederation, and Olivier Vodoz, President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.

Final television coverage is expected in over fifty countries in all regions across the world.

Other highlights of this year's event included the Programme for Development, the NIC Pilot Project, and the '1-in-10 Smart House'.

The Programme for Development provided invitations to 170 engineers and human resources specialists from 85 countries to come to Geneva on a fellowship from October 7 - 14, in order to visit the exhibition, participate in the FORUM, and concentrate on issues of immediate importance to their specific countries via a special three day workshop. The Programme intends to foster skills transfer and gives participants the opportunity to learn about the latest technological developments and how they can be applied.

The NIC Pilot Project provided exhibition space free of charge for 13 companies from newly-industrializing countries. The companies were selected because of their success in their home markets, and their innovative products. The aim of the project was to provide exposure to worldwide markets, to the benefit of both the companies themselves and those interested in viewing the latest technological developments.

And the 1-in-10 Stand, otherwise known as the Smart House, was constructed to demonstrate the latest innovations which can be used in the home for the benefit of the elderly and the disabled.

TELECOM 95 statistics are as follows:
189,671 participants ¹ (not including children) with the following breakdown:
127,711 visitors who purchased a ticket
19,551 visitors who were invited by exhibitors
692 VIPs
2,143 media representatives
3,912 FORUM participants, who also took the opportunity to visit the exhibition
662 FORUM speakers
35,000 Exhibitors' representatives

This represents an increase of 17.9 per cent on the 1991 particpants (160,830).

TELECOM 99 will take place at PALEXPO in Geneva from 8 to 17 October 1999.

¹ A participant is a physical person. For example, a person who buys a season ticket which represents eight entries has been counted only once. The same rule applies to FORUM participants. A participant who registered for both summits of the FORUM was counted only once.