W2i Digital Cities Convention

The Wireless Internet Institute (W2i) and the City of Houston, Texas, will host the W2i Digital Cities Convention, February 28-March 2, at the Houston Marriott North at Greenspoint.

The W2i Digital Cities Convention is for local-government officials and their agency executives implementing broadband-wireless infrastructures to enhance public safety and emergency response, improve local-government workforce productivity, spur economic development, and bridge the digital divide -- while dramatically lowering telecommunications costs.

The conference will feature a special appearance by Houston Mayor Bill White. The city's Chief Information Officer, Richard Lewis, will co-chair the event, which features:

• a special emphasis on government-process reengineering, emergency response and neighborhood portals through case studies and brainstorm workshops
• plenary panels on the technology, regulatory landscape, public-private partnerships and funding
• daylong professional-development seminars for local-government executives and systems integrators providing actionable tools for building and operating broadband-wireless networks
• a concluding panel to further explore the critical role and expectations of local business and community leaders in planning and implementing Houston's citywide network.

The conference features keynote addresses by industry experts from BelAir Networks, IBM, Intel, and Motorola; representatives from the Federal Communications Commission, National League of Cities, and National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisers, among others; and case-study presentations from more than a dozen local-government field practitioners.