**With apologies for duplication; please forward where appropriate** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION Real Life: Virtual Experiences New Connections for Museum Visitors CIMI-MCN 2001 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA October 24-27, 2001 <http://www.mcn.edu/mcn2001/>http://www.mcn.edu/mcn2001/ For the year 2001, the Museum Computer Network’s annual meeting will be a special event. MCN is partnering with the CIMI Institute - the leading provider of training in digital museum applications - to host a three-day exploration of how new technologies can and will be used to affect visitors’ experiences in the museum environment. Focused Events that Give Participants Something to Take Home The goal of this conference is to create environments - through workshops, plenary sessions and roundtables - where participants can engage each other and learn methodologies they can take home to their own museum. It’s a chance to learn what is possible and how it can be done. The event will be organized around several tracks that will focus intensively one of the aspects of applying technology to enhance visitors’ experiences. How Many Ways Can you Wire a Museum? It’s no surprise that the museum in 2001 will be a much more wired (or wireless!) place. Museums today are investigating a variety of applications of technology that will affect the experience museum-goers have when they visit our spaces, such as: hand-held devices that visitors use while touring an exhibition in-gallery kiosks smart architecture rich, non-gimmicky multimedia web-based resources designed to enhance pre- or post-visitor experiences CIMI-MCN 2001 will examine site-based computing - both as it exists today and is imagined in the future - and the technological possibilities for enhancing and extending the experience of a museum visitor. You are invited to participate in CIMI-MCN 2001 by submitting a proposal for a presentation or workshop that fits into one of the tracks listed below. Proposals will be reviewed by a program committee to ensure a tightly focused, high quality conference program. The call for participation closes on April 30, 2001, and the preliminary program will be announced on June 15, 2001. Selected conference proceedings will be published in the winter issue of Spectra. Presenters who want to be included in the Spectra conference proceedings must have full papers to MCN by August 15, 2001. Conference Themes for CIMI-MCN 2001 include: Technology Affecting the Visitor’s Experience Business Strategies Infrastructure and Technical Questions Social Implications Evaluation Visit the MCN web site to learn more <http://www.mcn.edu/mcn2001/>http://www.mcn.edu/mcn2001/ Angela Spinazze Programs Manager CIMI Consortium <http://www.cimi.org/>http://www.cimi.org 350 West Erie Street, Suite 250 Chicago, Illinois 60610 USA voice: +1.312.944.6820 fax: +1.312.944.6821 e-mail: [log in to unmask]