The 4th event of the Central European platform Preparing for eContentplus brought together not only speakers, panellists and participants from twelve European countries. Even all sectors involved in Cultural Content, libraries and archives, industry, public organisations, associations and press were represented in the audience.

Like the previous events, this conference was also a good location to meet people and develop joint projects. A number of co-operations - initiated by the previous conferences in Prague, Budapest and Bratislava - were announced on the Vienna conference, so we expect some news about new projects in the weeks to come.

In her welcome address Ms. Maria Bendl from the Ministry for Economics and Labour, stressed the high importance of digital technologies and contents for science, economy and everyday life. Especially for small countries in Europe the deepness of practical experience in international cooperation is critical for future developments.

A sample of illustrative projects gave a practical introduction to the following key-notes. First Mr. Hans Petschar presented the European Digital Libraries Initiative and it's vision and activities. He was followed by Mr. Christian Dögl who illustrated the challenges of museums and libraries in the digital age. Together with the presentations of current projects looking for co-operation partners the first day gave a focused and clear view of the broadness and complexity of this content area.

The second day started with a wake-up presentation of Ms. Gabriele Singer who built the bridge from the topics and discussions of the first day to the following panels on the more practical aspects of digital content.The first panel on the current situation of the four central European markets , with Mr. Dušan Katuščák, Mr. Adolf Knoll, Ms. Gertraud Leimüller, Mr. Iván Rónai moderated by Mr. Gerhard Laga gave an insight to the different strategies and focal points. But also discussed current European topics from the different viewpoints of ministries, libraries and intermediaries.

In another multi-national cooperation Mr. Richard Swetenham not only presented the eContent plus programme in the context of the Digital Libraries Initiative, but also shared his view on the status of the second call with the audience and outlined some conclusions for 2007, the European Commission might draw from the experiences. After this the present NCPs Mr. Martin Baumgartner, Mr. Ferenc Hargitai and Martin Hiršal presented their experience and focused more on the practical aspects of submitting proposals.

The conference closed with a summary not only of the conference but also of the one-year's activity of the platform "Preparing for eContentplus". The representatives of the central European ministries involved, Mr. Jan Proksik, Mr. Christoph Raber and Ms. Gabriella Simor, showed their satisfaction with the outcome and conduct of the joint initiative. In order to review the concept, a deeper analysis of the experiences was announced.

>> see the detailed programme

• Christoph Raber (Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour, AT): The Central European Platform on Digital Content
• Adolf Knoll (The National Library of the Czech Republic, CZ): Cultural Content in the Czech Republic
• Christian Dögl (UMA, AT): Economic Relevance of Cultural Content (Presentation Script)
• Dušan Katuščák (Slovak National Library, SK): eContent policy and policies in the Slovak Republic
• Ferenc Hargitai (Hungarian Association of Content Industry, MATISZ, NCP, HU): Hungarian Experiences & Practical Advise
• Hans Petschar (Austrian National Library, AT): The European Digital Library
• Iván Rónai (Ministry of Education and Culture, HU): Cultural Content Development in Hungary
• Martin Baumgartner (FFG - Austrian Research Promotion Agency, NCP, AT): Experiences and Practical Advises for Proposers
• Martin Hiršal (Ministry of Informatics, NCP, CZ): Practical recommendations for eContentplus proposals
• Richard Swetenham (EC, DG Information Society and Media): eContentplus