It came along during the time I was learning about it, so it is hard for me to distinguish just when the subject was raised. I would say mid 1997. But these people are not responsible for buildings and production lines, which is where most of the embedded systems are. Recently you have been visiting several European countries. My impression is that Europe is at least a year behind the US in general awareness about y2k.
Most people know very little about it.
If they have heard about it, they think it is a technical problem that technical people will solve. Most people think it is not a serious problem. Even now they think they can postpone action until the fall of 1999. I saw no community organizing in Europe. In contrast in the US many communities have been organizing.