Opening ceremony will be on Thursday, October 1st at 11 a.m. The participants will be welcomed by Governor of the County of Pärnu Mr. Toomas Kivimägi, President of ERSA Prof. Juan R. Quadrado Roura and by President of Estonian Parliament Dr. Toomas Savi.

There will be five plenary sessions, to be introduced by the Session Chair and continued by keynote speakers, one of them a guest, looking at the developments from outside of BSR or from the standpoint of a dominating paradigm, two others representing the views of BSR. The keynote oral presentation is expected to take 30-40 minutes, followed by questions and a discussion.

Simultaneous paper sessions will be held in groups, whose Chair, speakers and discussants will be given below (see attached) and via web site. Every speaker will have ca 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for questions and discussion. Including keynotes, there are 65 proposals to give a paper. You will get abstracts with your conference package at the registration and from our conference web site.

Posters will be put up at the beginning of the Conference in the Conference Hall premises and they will remain on display until the end of the Conference. Materials for posters should be given to organisers at the registration.

There will be an opportunity for publishers and also all other attending institutions to sell or exhibit their printed matter and booklets during the Conference for free.

We contemplate publishing selected papers. There are going to be three volumes: one issued by an international publisher covering a wide area of interest, the second concentrating on regional markets in the Baltic area, with the third being a synopsis in Estonian. There will be set up a meeting for international editorial board.

All papers, which have been received on the diskette or by e-mail prior to organisers until now are published on the Conference CD ROM and will sent to participants by mail, prior to the conference. We are sorry to say, that about dozen of papers out of 65 did not approached organisers on time. Therefore, we ask to bring your CD with you and give it to organisers at the registration for updating during the conference.

The Conference language will be English.

By the September 22, there has been registered 135 participants from all Baltic Sea Countries, including 55 Estonians. Also countries like Italy, Spain, Netherlands, UK and USA are represented.

Thanks to the Estonian and Nordic sponsors, registration is free for scholars from the CEEC countries who applied for financial aid. Organisers are also able to cover partly or entirely travel and accommodation costs for the selected participants.

There will be two one-day post-conference excursions to Tallinn and Tartu starting in Sunday. Registration to post-conference tours will take place at the registration desk.