A memo sent to correspondents, friends and acquaintances of The Budapest Observatory (BO) in December 2001

Dear Colleagues,

Under this banner it would be unholy to enter into businesslike recording of the developments of the past three weeks. This memo is restricted to a few remarks about the event which is due in two months from now: the conference Bigger, better, beautiful?

The Four Presidents
The four plenary sessions of the conference will be moderated by proven chairpersons each. Ritva Mitchell is president of ERICArts, Dragan Klaić that of EFAH, Dorota Ilczuk of CIRCLE; Miklós Marschall was founding president of BO board and (besides his job at Transparency International in Berlin) presides the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

The venue, the Academy building is superb. Who could ask for more?

Registrations remain a bit short of target. Kindly spread the news.

Three Small Ones and...
The conference is the initiative of three small organisations. Our combined staff is less than a dozen. Not only wisdom, synergical common sense also advises us to seek partnership of elder and/or weightier agencies that are likely to share the aims of the conference. Unesco, Council of Europe, European Cultural Foundation, the Soros network, KulturKontakt, European Audiovisual Observatory, CIRCLE, EFAH, ERICArts, Culturelink and more... With some of them talks will conclude in January, with others commence only.

And the EU?
Its enlargement is the main apropos! Why missing from the previous list?

Poor EU. Weighty indeed, battered with so many issues and challenges, even without our conference.

Special credit is due therefore to Commissioner Vivaine Reding, for her patronage, to Giuseppe Gargani, Chairman of the cultural committee of the European Parliament, for his personal interest, and the sympathetic attitude expressed by DG Guy Crauser, and Heads of Unit Antonios Kosmopoulos and Rutger Wissels.

Looking forward for more.

Season's Greetings
Returning to the opening theme: on behalf of the entire BO team, i.e. also in the name of Zita Lévai and Zsófia Földesi, I wish every one of you Merry Christmas and a peaceful, cheerful, successful 2002!