European Schoolnet's annual Expert Meeting of International and National Education Networks

Hosted by the French Ministry of Education, European Schoolnet's annual Expert Meeting of International and National Educational Networks (EMINENT) conference will take place at the Concorde-Lafayette Hotel, Paris, on 8-9 December 2005.

Gilles de Robien, the French minister for Education, Higher Education and Research is expected to open the event on 8 December 2005.

This is the sixth time EMINENT has been organised and it aims to reach the high standards established by the previous conferences in Amsterdam 2000, Lisbon 2001, Stockholm 2002, Geneva 2003 and last year in Prague.

As in previous years, this invitation conference brings together leading experts nominated by Ministries of Education and other organisations and gives them the opportunity to discuss and share leading edge developments and issues related to this year's theme of ensuring all schools exploit the opportunities offered by new technology.

The conference includes plenary sessions on ICT, policy and practice, and four parallel workshops, with over 30 presentations by invited experts on the state of the art, emerging issues and innovatory solutions. The annual eLearning awards gala evening takes place on 8 December at which awards are presented for outstanding practice in ICT in education, in different categories. In addition, an internet safety stakeholder meeting and award ceremony takes place in conjunction with EMINENT, on 9 December.

The conference features four concurrent workshop strands which aim to allow delegates to explore four topics related to the conference theme of increasing the uptake of ICT in schools: new schooling environments, ICT policy-making, digital resources and education portals.