Shortcuts for participants:

• The conference is fully booked!
• Documents to print out:
  • Detailed timetable (v4) (updated) is available.
  • Updated travel information (new tips for rent-a-car drivers).
• Some hints on how to behave at ECPPM.
• ProdAEC meeting will be in Hotel Marko, Obala 28, Portoroz.
• Enter you travel details. Log into the extranet and modify your data under the section TRAVEL. This may help you in finding someone to share a taxi with!
• Did you pay the fees. Cash only (SIT) will be accepted at the conference!
• The proceedings include 117 papers on 732 pages. Extra copies will be available at €100 (23.000 SIT, cash only) only to those who reserved a copy.
• To get help: contact msmid@ikpir.fgg.uni-lj.si or zturk@ikpir.fgg.uni-lj.si.

News, information and links:

• The conference will be opened by Dr.Pavel Gantar, the Minister of Information Society of the Republic of Slovenia.
• ISTforCE final review (rehearsal Sunday, review Tuesday) and ProdAEC review (rehearsal and review on Tuesday) will take place during the conference at the conference hotel and the Hotel Marko nearby.
• George Constanza on modelling: "models - wall to wall".
• The city of Portoroz has a new Website. A must see.
• Forms to pay the fees and make hotel reservations are on line. Hotel reservations should be made before May 31.
• Brochure of Portoroz and of the conference hotel is on-line. The conference will take place in the new conference centre of the Hotel Slovenia of Hoteli Morje group in Portoroz.
• See who registered(200+) and what abstracts were submitted (170+) .
• Balkema was selected to publish hard-bound proceedings.
• Keynote lecturers include Prof. Gotfried Augenbroe of Georgia Tech, Dr. Renate Fruchter of Stanford University, Dr. Erastos Filos of the European Commission and Dr. Vlado Bazjanac from Berkeley.

Since 1994, the European Conference of Product and Process Modeling (ECPPM) provided a review of research, development and industrial implementation of product and process technology.

The modeling and structuring of product and process information is essential for efficient IT support. It is an enabling factor of integration, automation and business process re-engineering in the construction industry.

For ECPPM 2002 we got over 170 extended abstracts. 118 papers passed the review and met the deadlines and will be published in the proceedings. Largest ECPPM to date!

Themes discussed at ECPPM 2002 are both new as well as traditional. The virtual enterprises and construction e-business are a reality. Product model standards have been industrially applied and tested. The conceptualisation of the domain is re-approached through the definitions of appropriate ontologies, that offer themselves as a base for everything else. New methods for handling process information are investigated. Technology push is coming from the areas of mobile computing, Web services and the semantic Web. Collaboration is focusing on the human working with other humans and taking into the account the whole spectrum of his personality. The awareness that data, no matter how well put in formation, needs a knowledgeable person to make sense of it, is getting stronger, leading to new approaches in knowledge management and the education.

ECPPM has been always tightly connected with the European research projects. In 2002, many of the major 5th Framework projects are ending and reporting their findings in these proceedings. Time is also appropriate to look back at the 5th framework and forward towards the 6th and reflect on the directions of the research, both in the EU projects and beyond.

Portorož is one of the most beautiful resorts on the Adriatic Sea. It is 1.5 hours drive from our capital Ljubljana, 2 hours from Venice, Italy, 5 from Vienna, Austria or Munich, Germany. In the early days of September, the beach may be a strong competitor to the conference sessions. The organizing and program committees, and several authors who already committed to take part, however, will make this a very tough decision!

Looking forward to see you in Portoroz,

Žiga Turk,
conference chair

PS. One plane ticket, two events! ITC@EDU workshop on ITC in education is following the ECPPM in Portoroz.