Finally, a review of major issues and conclusions was presented during the closing plenary. Plenary speakers stressed the central role of the European RTD programmes in building the Information Society. This would allow for short and mid-term results and improving the competitiveness of the European industry. It was also pointed out that the general interest services to be developed must be designed according to the users' needs, regardless of their physical circumstances. Commissioner Bangemann stressed the advantages of liberalizing the telecommunications sector and the need both for deregulation and user-centered designs in the Information Society.
Software is the area in which Europe lags clearly behind.
Demonstrations took place in the plenary room during the first day of the exhibition. There was a demonstration of remote operation from Barcelona of an astronomical telescope based in the Canary Islands. Jordi Pujol, President of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, and Commissioner Martin Bangemann during the European Telematics Conference in Barcelona. A PC with a web browser was installed to demonstrate the ACTS on-line information window. It also presented several recent issues of ACTS NewsClips issues, the InfoWin Bulletin and Thematic Issues such as ATM in Europe, Multimedia Broadcasting, and the recently published Information Brokerage.