The next meeting of the group will be held at The Regency Town House in Hove. This small and developing heritage centre focuses on urban life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and has made a strong commitment to using computers to capture and present historical material.

The meeting will follow the usual timetable and will be packed with interesting presentations and hands-on opportunities. Nick Tyson and other members of the Town House team will be demonstrating some of the diverse software they currently have under development. This ranges from applications to document the architectural and decorative details to be found in Brighton's town-houses, to systems for presenting digital copies of rare and fragile books. They will also be showcasing a multimedia authoring
package developed with funding from DCMS specifically for use in smaller museums.

A workshop session is being organised for which Apple Computer have generously offered to lend us a number of iMAC computers. This will enable delegates to experiment with the multimedia authoring software and even have a stab at developing their own presentation. If the thought of making a multimedia presentation of your own in under three hours appeals, you will
need to bring along some appropriate digitised images and other resource files. For details of what is needed, e-mail [log in to unmask] and ask for the 'MGC workshop notes'.

Also at the meeting, Richard Bennett of Apple UK will be discussing the role of computing in education, John Rolls of Brighton Museum will be talking about the exciting in-gallery digital media currently under development and there will be presentations by local multimedia companies, including:
Desktop Display, who developed 'My Brighton' (an oral history interactive system), 
Cognitive Applications, who work extensively in the museum realm and 
representatives of Barton Brothers, who will show us some 3D animations of ancient inventions. 
These Brighton based organisations will also be staging workshop and breakout sessions for delegates.

A meal will, as usual, be organised for the Wednesday evening and a list of hotels will be distributed with the booking forms. These should be going out in the post to MCG members by the end of March.  Please contact Fiona Marshall if you are not on our mailing list.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This event will be of special interest to smaller institutions who would like to start exploring multimedia but whom have limited access to funding and expertise. Please also note that there are only a limited number of places due to space restrictions so early booking is advised.


Draft programme (subject to change)

DAY 1

13.00 - 14.00
Arrival, registration & coffee

14.00 - 15.30
Presentation by Nick Tyson introducing Regency Town House project and describing evolution of computing initiatives and Town House web site.

15.30 - 16.00 Tea

16.00 - 17.00
Town House team present digital book and multimedia authoring software.

17.00 - 17.30
Q&A session

19.30
Evening meal


DAY 2

09.30 - 13.00
Workshop and breakout sessions to include:

Town House workshop exploring the multimedia authoring software and making presentations 
Visit to Cognitive Applications and Barton Brothers
Visit to Brighton Museum with host John Rolls

12.30 - 14.00
Lunch

14.00 - 15.00
Presentations by:

Richard Bennett of Apple Computer
Alex Morrison of Cognitive Applications
Pete Barker of Desktop Display
John Rolls of Brighton Museum
Representatives from Barton Brothers

15.00 - 16.00
Q&A panel session with the above speakers and Nick Tyson

16.00 Tea & meeting ends


If you have any queries about the meeting, please contact me.  We look forward to seeing you in June.

Fiona Marshall

(Chair, MCG)
COMPASS Project
British Museum
Tel. 0171-323 8901
Fax 0171-323 8730




%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%