John Lamb's Week: Summer's over - let the conferences begin

Whatever a blue arsed fly is you'll need to be one to keep up with this week's agenda. The new product, conference and exhibition season is back with a vengeance and shows little sign of an industry slowdown, although that may be due to the long lead times involved.

In an effort to do justice to the large number of goings on next week, mentions are briefer than usual.

Monday
Borland is holding its seventh annual BorCon conference, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. The conference runs from Sunday until Wednesday.

Watch out for announcements this week for London-based systems and software house Logica.

Also in search of new customers is Socket Communications (www.socketcom.com), which will announce the launch of its new Bluetooth Connection Kit.

Also today ATG - the eCRM application provider - will unveil two new ecommerce software applications which include B2C and B2B functionality.

Finally, the IBC 2001 show comes to a close in Amsterdam

Tuesday
The three-day NetWorld+Interop 2001 kicks-off at the Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles, France. For further information email anne_cristallin@key3media-europe.com. Closer to home, geographical information systems nuts should make their way to GIS 2001 at Earls Court 2, London. More information at www.gis-expo.com.

Roke Manor Research - part of the Siemens group - is putting on an Innovations Showcase exhibition in Romsey, Hampshire.

Described as its biggest product announcement of the year, software company Ariba will be taking the wraps off an e-procurement tool called Sourcing 3.0. For more details contact John Watton, marketing supremo on 0208 751 6700.

Also hoping to make a splash is BTexact Technologies, BT's research and technology business. The company will be boosting its evoca product at the Great Eastern Hotel, London. "Evoca is an innovative new solution that enables companies to become telecoms providers as well as develop innovative marketing tools to communicate with their customers without the need to own or manage network infrastructure," says the PR blurb.

AMR is holding a breakfast briefing on enterprise commerce management at the Savoy Hotel, London. Questions to be addressed include: "Have companies clearly defined and agreed business performance metrics targeted at collaborative business processes?" Email wgillions@heraldcommunications.com for clarification.

Get along to a debate on ethics in ebusiness featuring Dr Jim Norton of the Institute of Directors at Ebusiness 2001 at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham.

Riversoft and Concord Communications will be unveiling details of a technology collaboration on fault management and performance systems, while Cable & Wireless BTN is hosting a seminar called 'Turning security policy into reality - looking at establishing workable security for ebusiness'. Email dmartin@btn.co.uk for more details.

The Source and British Systems Group are hosting a seminar on data sharing within government. Speakers from the NHS information Authority, Edinburgh County Council and the Defence Logistics Organisation will mull over issues connected with swapping data. Details from jay@fusepr.com.

Wednesday
One event that won't take place is the launch of new software from Zeus. The UK company, which has carved out market share for its web server software against the likes of Microsoft and IBM, has postponed the debut of Zeus Web Server version 4 following the New York and Washington attacks.

"In an effort to keep the launch as tightly co-ordinated as possible, we are postponing the launch for about two weeks, exact date as yet undecided," the company explains.

SAS Institute is holding a fraud detection and prevention leadership forum at the Midland Hotel, Manchester. To register, call Nishma Shah, or Sarah Russell on 0207 544 3202. Also the Butler Group is holding a master class on 'The New Economics of IT Management' in London.

Industry leaders will be debating the future of extensible mark-up languages at XML One in Amsterdam. The conference, aimed at technically advanced developers, will offer delegates an inside track on XML issues. The three day event will set you back £999. Contact regdesk@101.com to book a place.

Thursday
SurfMonkey.com is holding media briefings to discuss the issue of internet safety for children. Charles Hart, chairman and chief executive officer, will be talking about safety for children and the issues involved in ensuring a protective online environment for kids.

The good and the great will be at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground today when the National Computing Centre kicks-off its annual two-day conference under the title 'Shifting the Balance of Power'. The user-oriented show features a raft of speakers including Eddie Obeng of the Virtual Business School, Brinley Platts of the Impact Programme and Rene Carayol of Voodoo. For a try-out call 0161 242 212 or click on www.ncc.co.uk/conference.

Friday
Day of rest.