Vice-Chancellor Sir John Daniel will be giving the opening keynote address at the International Distance Learning Conference (IDLCON-7) taking place in Washington DC starting on 24th March. But he won’t be there. Instead he’ll be delivering his 25-minute address directly from KMi using an innovative mixture of satellite TV broadcast technology and KMi’s own Stadium software.

The VC will deliver the first two-thirds of his talk to the live audience in Washington DC via satellite TV, and then switch to Stadium for the remainder of the presentation in order to drive home the point that this is the future, and the cost-effective way to reach large numbers of students in their homes worldwide.

Roger Penfound of the BBC OUPC will be producing the satellite TV portion of the event, with technical assistance from Martin Rowbotham. Peter Scott and Mike Lewis will be handling the Internet Webcast side of the event, with support from Tony Seminara. Marc Eisenstadt will be attending the event in order to join Mel Bynum of IBM Global Education and Training, and to display first-hand the fruits of IBM/KMi collaboration at the IDLCON exhibition and conference.