The WfMC regular conference was held at Takanawa Prince Hotel (Shinagawa, Tokyo) from March/10/1997 to March/12/1997.
This conference was the first conference held in Asia. Conferences have been held regurarly twice a year in North America and twice a year in Europe, because most of the more than 200 WfMC members are from North America and Europe. The conference was held in Tokyo for the following reasons:
Interest in the workflow market of Japan is growing and the Groupware Solution '97 conference was held at Makuhari, Tokyo in March/1997.
Activities related to workflow are expanding: for example, the Groupware Investigation and Research Institute of the JSA (Japan Standards Association) has suggeted new interworkflow specifications.
Hitachi Ltd. explained the Japanese market situation at the regular conference held in San Francisco last year and the WfMC Steering Commitee agreed to hold the conference in Tokyo with Hitach Ltd. as a host company. Four other Japanese members: Fujitsu, NEC, Japan Unisys and NTT also joined as cohost companies.
We presented the interworkfow system under studyed by the JSA Research institute lead by NTT. Furthermore, we presented a real time discussion using email at the WfMC.
Technical Commitee
Discussions were held about following themes because there many first time patricipants:
Explanation about the standard specification
Report from each working group held before the regular conference
Additions to the standard specifications
Remarks
Though we were uncertain if enough members would participate because this conference was held in far-east for the first time, 20 members from overseas countries and 15 members from Japan including first time participants and principal members participated. Usually, when the conference is held in north America or Europe, about 50 members participate.
At the reception on March 11th sponsored by Hitach Ltd., almost all the members participated. The WfMC commitee awarded the host and cohost companies for thier effort. It was a big surprise and I have never seen this kind of happening.
We expect the more conferences will be held in Asia, the action of WfMC will be more active in Asia and the users interested in the standard specifications will increase along with the growth of the Asian market.
