THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 28, 1995 TAG: 9507280421
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
Like an evangelist on a tent crusade, Bernard Luskin brought an impassioned message to the 60 or so members of his ``congregation'' Thursday morning.
The CEO of Jones Interactive Inc. wasn't preaching to penitents, but to a riveted group of participants in the Technology 2000 conference at the Omni Waterside Hotel in Norfolk.
The conference has two technological themes: the immediate future of telecommunications and the electronic transmission of college classes to students in remote locations.
``You better change the model!'' Luskin thundered. ``You can't live on the old model!''
Replacing the old, Luskin insisted, is ``born-again TV,'' a simple-looking box masking complicated innards, a technology that is even now beginning to pour Information Age treasures into the laps of even the most indifferent couch potatoes.
In kicking off the three-day conference, Luskin was the first of 90 speakers who will address an estimated 400 conference attendees through noon Saturday, when Technology 2000 adjourns. Registrants include educators, businesspeople and representatives from local, state and federal governments.
About 70 local and national exhibitors are strutting their high-tech stuff, presenting the latest in electronic gear and on-line services. Fifteen area companies have set up booths on the Omni's third floor.
At least one exhibitor, Cox Fibernet in Virginia Beach, a subsidiary of Cox Communications Inc., used the occasion to showcase what it says is a new high-speed voice, data and video network.
``What we're trying to show here is high-speed communications to a house, to a school, to a business,'' said Wes Neal, Cox Fibernet's marketing manager. ``We're demonstrating it here. We're not selling it here.''
While the service won't be available to consumers until 1996 because of regulatory restrictions, businesses may purchase the Cox network today, Neal said.
In bringing together such companies as Cox, America Online, Bell Atlantic and others, conference organizer J. Mark Tisone said he wants to focus attention on South Hampton Roads as a place where first-rate science and engineering talent can churn out 21st century goods and services.
``Basically, we're trying to do our part in establishing Norfolk as a high-tech center,'' said Tisone, president of Norfolk-based International Communications Corp. ``We feel there's enormous potential in this market.''
If the first day was any indication, conference attendees appeared to enjoy the high-tech panoply spread before them. Dany Fields, who works as a media director for Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Ill., said she was there to gather as much practical information as possible.
``We have to figure out how to take our programming and link it together,'' Fields said. ``You can have all the technology in the world, but if you don't know how to implement it, it sits idle.''
In kicking off the three-day conference, Luskin of Jones Interactive brought along impressive on-line and multimedia displays that, at the click of a button, swirled from one videotaped college course to the next. As he ended his presentation, Luskin showed a clear nighttime satellite image of the continental United States.
The image appeared splashed with blobs of white light. One of the whitest and longest was an area from Boston to Norfolk. Then, Luskin put up a similar image, but of the entire world.
With the exception of the south polar continent of Antarctica, splotches of light were visible on every land mass.
``You want to know where the markets are?'' Luskin posited. ``Find out where the lights are.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BETH BERGMAN/Staff
Cox Communications' display includes a television demonstration - a
common sight Thursday at the Technology 2000 conference at the Omni
Waterside Hotel in Norfolk. The conference concludes at noon
Saturday.
by CNB