THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 10, 1995 TAG: 9507080307
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, BUSINESS WEEKLY
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
At Old Dominion University, J. Mark Tisone built one of American academia's leading telecourse/teleconferencing centers. Then he went off into the business world to make videos and satellite courses that keep lawyers, engineers and others up to date on changes in their professions.
Those two fields - distance learning and business television - will come together at a national conference later this month at Norfolk's Omni International Hotel. ``Technology 2000: Preparing Yourself for the Future'' is one of a small but growing number of national conferences held in Hampton Roads that focus on communications and its technology.
Tisone, president of Norfolk-based International Communications Corp., the conference's main sponsor, said he thinks the region has the potential to leap to the forefront of the rapidly changing world of communications.
Bell Atlantic Corp. and Cox Communications Inc. have both targeted the region for interactive video-services rollouts. And Hampton Roads is home base for several highly advanced communications enterprises, including Landmark Communications Inc., a media conglomerate whose interests include The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star and The Weather Channel, and Christian Broadcasting Network Inc., which is a pioneer among religious ministries in exploiting new media.
Tisone said the Technology 2000 conference, to be held July 27-29, was scheduled in Norfolk partly to tap into those and other local communictions-oriented enterprises for co-sponsorships and delegates.
He said another national conference in October that will deal exclusively with the Internet will further that image. That conference, ``Internet 95,'' sponsored by Norfolk-based Internet Presence & Publishing, will be held Oct. 4-6 at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel. Among the featured speakers will be Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp., maker of the most popular software for browsing the Internet's World Wide Web.
Keynote speakers among the 90 presenters at the late-July conference will be Bernard J. Luskin, chief executive of Jones Interactive Services Inc., parent of the national cable-TV Mind Extension University; Tim Oren, vice president-future technologies for CompuServe Inc., and Don Foshee, president of the U.S. Distance Learning Association.
Besides distance learning and business television, other focuses will be on-line services and the Internet, video-on-demand services, and CD-ROMs and other multimedia technologies.
The cost for the entire conference, including speakers, is $425 per person. Full access for one full day of the conference is $200.
To register, call International Communications Corp. at 533-5134. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA
J. Mark Tisone, president of International Communications Corp.
by CNB