Matthias Kurth, Lorraine Godkin, Liselotte Vincourek, and Val Rahmani will be among the featured presentors at the first European Directory Marketplace (EDM) conference to be held in London, England, on 12-13 February 2001. In addition, five leading executives in the directory services industry have agreed to participate in a joint panel appearance on first day of the conference.

These announcements were made today by Stuart M. Whitaker, conference organizer and president of Whitaker Associates (USA).

Mr. Kurth is Vice President, Die Regulierungsbehörde für Telekommunikation und Post (German Reg TP); Ms. Godkin is Compliance Manager for the UK Data Protection Commission; Ms. Vincourek is the recently-elected Chairperson of the European Interworking of Directory Inquiry Association (EIDQ); and Ms. Rahmani is Vice President-IBM communications sector, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa).

Whitaker also announced that five key industry executives will participate at the conference in a joint industry panel. They are:

• Günther Baierl, president and CEO, varetis AG
• Klaus Harisch, CEO, telegate AG
• Daniel L. Pearce, chairman and CEO, Excell Global Services, International Division
• Robert A. Pines, co-founder and CEO, INFONXX Inc., and
• Liam Young, managing director, Conduit

Whitaker noted that several other conference presenters scheduled to appear include Mark Paul Ballan, Tele Danmark; James Glasspool, marketing manager, Volt Delta Europe, Ltd.; Steve Kane, senior product manager, Nortel; and Nils Lenke, application manager, directory assistance, Philips Speech Processing. "Other speakers will be added shortly," he said.

The EDM conference will focus on the array of new market opportunities and profitable business ventures being driven by today’s universal Internet access to directory information databases, and the rapidly-changing regulatory environment.

IBM, Nortel, telegate AG and Conduit are lined up as Gold Sponsors for the conference. Signed on as silver sponsors are INFONXX, Philips Speech Processing, varetis AG, VoltDelta, and LSSi. The Association for the European Interworking of Directory Inquiry Services (EIDQ) is a partner in this program.