In this fast-paced world of constant change and globalization, a Calgary conference is showing how far Alberta has come in showcasing its new economy technology and innovations to the world.

But organizers say the real test of the success of the SMART2000 show and exhibition at the TELUS Convention Centre will come after Thursday, when speakers, exhibitors and attendees pack up their new ideas and head boldly into the future.

Amid the elaborate displays, the interactive pavilion, the SMART house and the cybercafe, a sense of the province’s destiny has emerged.

"If you look at what we’ve done in this province, business, government and education are now working together in a collaboration at an accelerated pace," says SMART2000 conference co-chair Earl Hickok, president of Calgary’s Tecskor Software Inc. "We’re taking a leadership position."

High-tech conferences that simply demonstrate bits and bytes and technology gadgets are a thing of the past in Alberta, he adds.

"You’re seeing more debate about where we’re going with e-learning, e-health and smart cities," says Hickok, who serves on the ICT committee for e-health and e-government services. "A lot of what we’re doing in Alberta is the right stuff."

The four-day SMART2000 event, held in conjunction with the World Teleport Association Conference, has attracted more than 150 speakers and participants from seven countries. Conference chair Norman Wagner calls the meeting a living laboratory that’s an "attempt to go beyond the hype" of the high-tech world by discussing the social, political, economic and technical issues that are affecting our day-to-day lives.

The exposition floor features cutting-edge displays from industries showing off their new product lines, as well as interactive displays. Seminar topics today and tomorrow include 3G Next Generation Wireless, and Building the Virtual Human — computer simulations of cells, tissues, organs and systems leading the building of the Virtual Human community.

As well, the conference is tackling the issue of the digital divide — the haves and have-nots of the new economy.

As Calgary mayor Al Duerr commented: "It’s not just the question of having technology, it’s the culture of use . . . making sure the technology is reaching down to all the citizens" and trying to bridge the digital divide between the rich and the poor.

The city boasts more than 50,000 knowledge-based workers and 1,500 companies producing $10 billion in knowledge-based products, he added. "It has been an important transformation to our community. It has essentially defined the future of our community."

The idea of the conference took root in 1997 at the Alberta Growth Summit when more than 100 stakeholders from virtually every corner of the province’s economy gathered to chart a course for Alberta to 2005. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) strategy was born, a vision of a new collaboration between business, government and education with a priority on education investment, developing the province’s ICT infrastructure, and growing investment in research and development as well as ICT business.

The goal of the ICT strategy is to increase Alberta’s growth in this sector to $30 billion a year by 2010 from its current rate of $8 billion in generated revenues, and boost the number of jobs in the area by 35,000.

For Calgary MLA and provincial Gaming Minister Murray Smith, the SMART2000 conference is a golden opportunity to meet some of these challenges. "We think we’re getting excellent value for taxpayers’ dollars," he noted, adding the Klein government wants to create the environment to allow that success to continue.

Hickok says high-tech companies must make an extra effort to capitalize on this country’s reputation abroad and spend more time talking about issues like globalization and what technology means to society as a whole.

But as Alberta’s economy continues to diversify, he predicts the sector will continue to take a leadership role in the development and innovation of new technologies in the new world of ‘e’.

"This is really just another point on the way up the mountain," he says. "We’re not starting from base camp here, we’re already well on our way up."