Avatars 97 Presenter Information

Avatars 97 Presenter Information:
Letter from the Chair

Dear Avatars 97 speaker, coordinator, or artist,

Here is more important information on the upcoming conference
and your part in it.

  o CONTACTING YOUR PANELISTS or CO-PRESENTERS
  o BRING YOUR BIO!
  o YOUR A/V
  o REGISTRATION, PROGRAM and DIRECTIONS TO THE CONFERENCE
  o HOTELS
  o YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A PRESS STATEMENT
  o KEY THEMES TO CONSIDER: your place in the history
    of Cyberspace

CONTACTING YOUR PANELISTS or CO-PRESENTERS

If you are coordinating a panel or would like to reach
anyone else in your session and do not have email contact
for them, let us know and we will connect you. We encourage
correspondance between your co-presenters or coordinator
as this makes for a much more integrated session. Of course,
many of you know each other already!
The Full Program details are posted at:
http://www.ccon.org/conf97/program/prbook.html


BRING YOUR BIO!

Your bios are posted on our website at:
http://www.ccon.org/conf97/program/speakers.html
Please bring your bio with you so that panel coordinators
can read them off to introduce you to the audience. You can
find your bio by clicking on your name. Once you have found
your bio, just print the current page out and bring it along.
If your bio is not posted, please send it to us and bring
along a copy. Panel coordinators can also bring up their
presenter's bios through this web page.


YOUR A/V

Thank you all for responding to the A/V questionnaire. If you
have not already, please return this or respond to this email
with your A/V needs.


REGISTRATION, PROGRAM and DIRECTIONS TO THE CONFERENCE

If you have not done so, please register yourself
for the conference by visiting:
http://www.ccon.org/conf97/regform.html
and filling in our form (check off the minimum $35
fee if you would like the lunch/event ticket package).
We must receive this by Monday at 5pm or your badge
may not be available when you check in.

The main conference registration period is 10am to 1pm
Wednesday October 22. Please visit rooms 8/9 on the second
floor of the conference building (see directions below).
If you are arriving Thursday or Friday, come to room
2604 on the 26th floor to pick up your package and badge.

Sessions begin at 1:00pm Wednesday. 7pm Wednesday evening will
be our opening plenary panel at the Yerba Buena Gardens
Theater in conjunction with the NTT New Media Minds Forum.
This is at a different location than the conference. It
is several blocks away (walking distance) at:
3rd and Howard.

For a full guide to the program, see:
http://www.ccon.org/conf97/program/progrids.html

The conference is being held on two floors of an office tower
in Downtown San Francisco. This is the SFSU Multimedia Studies
Program. For directions and a map (and public transportation
directions), see:
http://www.ccon.org/conf97/location.html

Briefly, by car:
From 101N, get off at Fifth Street/Bryant, and go east
on Bryant. Left on 3rd Street, going north on 3rd.
Right on Mission Street, eastward.
From the Bay Bridge, take the first exit into San Francisco, turn
left and travel north on Fremont. You may want to turn right on
Mission and right again at the next block to swing around to
the ample parking lots, then walk to the conference building
at 425 Market on Fremont.

Parking:
Park at Mission and Fremont or in that general area.
There are a lot of parking lots at Bryant and Fremont
under the Bay Bridge approach. After you park, walk
north on Fremont street. 425 Market will be one block
north of the Mission/Fremont intersection, on your left.
If you're using the 425 Market garage directly under the
building (this is more expensive), go left onto
Fremont from Mission, and look left for a black sign that says
SFSU Multimedia Studies Program and turn left into the
ramp to the underground parking.


HOTELS

Hotel rooms are in great demand in San Francisco. We are
still holding some rooms at the Harbor Court Hotel but we will
release these by Monday, so make your reservation today.
Information on this and other hotel options can be found at:
http://www.ccon.org/conf97/hotels.html


YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A PRESS STATEMENT

There will be healthy media coverage of Avatars 97
and Wendy Sue Noah, our Media Coordinator, will be
set up with press in Room 4 on the second floor
of our conference location. She has offered speakers
the option to supply short (500 word) one page press
statements. These will be printed and available to
press in Room 4 on the 2nd floor.

If you email them to Wendy Sue Noah (wendysue@pacbell.net)
by Monday, October 20th at 4pm, they will be included in
the room handouts.  If you do not get it to
her before then, please feel free to print out your
statement and bring some quantities to the press room
(room 4 on the 2nd floor).

If you have a product, project, story about virtual
worlds or other interesting statement you would like all
these media folks to digest, send it to Wendy Sue Noah
as text in an email to wendysue@pacbell.net. Include your
contact information at the beginning of your statement.

Press will be wanting to interview select speakers. Check
in with Wendy Sue Noah by email now (wendysue@pacbell.net)
or check in with her in Room 4 on the 2nd floor at the
conference if you need to hook up with a press contact
or if you would like the media to know you are available
for interviews.


KEY THEMES TO CONSIDER: its your place in the history
of Cyberspace

This is going to be an exciting event and a significant one
in the history of Cyberspace. Just consider some of the key
issues and themes we are looking at in the program:

o What is Cyberspace going to look like when we move beyond
  the Web (when it becomes a place rather than just an interface)?
o How far are we along the road to a true experiential, inhabited
  cyberspace?
o What is your relationship with your virtual identity?
o What are some of the 400,000 users of online virtual worlds doing
  in there?
o How do we design worlds that draw people back?
o Hollywood and retail chains make their appearence in avatar
  cyberspace!
o How you build the infrastructure for the inhabited multi user
  Internet in the 21st Century?
o How do we pay for the development of virtual worlds and their
  communities?

Thank you all for presenting at Avatars 97 and making
this event possible. Through your participation, you are
becoming part of the history of Cyberspace!

See you on Wednesday!

Bruce Damer
Chair, Avatars 97
cc: Conference Team
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