If you're among the legion of business people who learn best by example, then head to Boston's World Trade Center March 23-26 for the Internet Commerce Expo (ICE), where senior executives will pass along their tried-and-true Internet strategies in their sales, marketing, and customer relations efforts.

An Executive Conference, just one aspect of this three-day techno-fest, is called "Internet Strategies for Business Transformation: Opportunities for Profitability and Brand Marketing." The conference will feature case studies that examine issues including the Internet's effect upon organizational structure, cost savings, productivity, and profitability.

"The Internet and World Wide Web represent a revolution that is rapidly becoming the standard for the application and integration of technology in business," says Internet Commerce Expo President and Founder Ron Milton. " The ICE Executive Conference Program will allow executives from all corners of the business world an unparalleled opportunity to see how their contemporaries are using the Internet to reach their customers in fresh and creative ways."

The event's featured speakers include Shikhar Ghosh, chairman and co-founder, Open Market, Inc.; William Finkelstein, vice president, Wells Fargo; William Rice, vice president of marketing, Liberty Financial Companies; Jim Smith, executive director of electronic commerce, John Hancock; William Winters, president of new media and Internet, EDS; James Kessler, corporate director, AMPeMerce Internet Solutions, AMP; Tom Baker, business director, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition; Thomas Gewecke, publisher, PC World Online; Doug Green, founder and publisher, Software Publications, Inc.; and Hiawatha Bray, technology reporter for The Boston Globe.

The ICE Executive Conference is sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, CIO magazine, and the Massachusetts Electronic Commerce Association (Mass eComm).

A still-growing list of companies from nearly every imaginable sector of the business world are scheduled to attend the expo. Participants include AT&T, Bank of America, eCommerce, EDS, Intel, Intranet Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Lycos, Microsoft, and Yahoo!.

Kathleen Earley, vice president of networked commerce services for AT&T; and Anthony Bay, general manager of Microsoft's Internet Services Business Unit, are among the five keynote speakers who will make presentations throughout this three-day conference. An Internet "town meeting" March 24 will give customers an opportunity to speak their minds on the subject of the future of electronic commerce. Expected to be the event's liveliest forum, 10 high-powered Internet industry execs will discuss and debate the Internet business issues shaping the business world today -- and the ones expected to shape it tomorrow.

ICE is jam-packed with options for attendees: exhibits featuring more than 200 Internet vendors and application providers; more than 100 conference sessions, with more than 200 Internet expert speakers; the "Internet Open," which will call enterprise buyers to the show floor to see live demonstrations of Web-based applications; and an attendee marketing program. The general conference comprises 50 sessions offering a mix of technical and business topics that focus on Internet commerce, Web marketing, intranets, extranets, emerging technologies, security solutions, and more. In addition, a series of 12 full and half-day tutorials will be offered on topics including building electronic commerce Web sites, corporate networking to support Internet and intranet applications, using the Internet for business, marketing on the World Wide Web, "Extranets: The Bridge to eCommerce," and others. And six workshops led by brand-name vendors and industry associations will teach attendees how to apply existing Internet/ Web-based products and services to address their business challenges.

The Internet Commerce Expo, an International Data Group Company, is a major international conference and exposition dedicated to business growth via the Internet, and focused on Internet commerce, corporate intranets, and extranets.

For more information, or to register, call (800) 667-4423.

The Internet Commerce Expo is a business unit of IDG, a worldwide IT media, research, and exposition company. IDG publishes more than 285 computer magazines and newspapers, as well as 500 book titles; and offers online users a network of technology-specific sites around the world through IDG.net, which comprises more than 200 targeted Web sites in 52 countries. IDG is also a leading producer of 110 computer-related expositions worldwide, and provides IT market analysis through 49 offices in 41 countries worldwide.

Published: March 20, 1998

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.