The conference began with a joint day with ICDE to explore the idea of "Distance Learning as an Entrepreneurial Opportunity". Disappointingly, this attracted only minimal interest from the thousand plus ICDE delegates who work almost exclusively within the public sector, generally at university level. This lukewarm response served to demonstrate the difficulty of working with the public sector, a point made by several delegates in discussion.

Conference then addressed the question: "Is private distance learning a growing or dying market?". The reply from Bernd Schachtsiek, President of AECS, is both 'yes' and 'no'. Organisations which learn to adapt will find a growing market but those which do not will confront decline. For Bernd Schachtsiek, the shape of distance learning in the future takes the form of two kinds of organisations; the large multi-course providers and the niche players.

The main theme of the conference was "Rethinking Distance Learning for the Next Millennium" and this informed the more detailed discussions on 'Redesigning Distance Learning', 'Recreating Marketing' and 'Reinventing Student Support Methods' held over a three day period. Not surprisingly, the impact of the internet, e-mail and on-line learning featured prominently in these discussions. Yet although the advent of the internet has, and will continue to bring, fundamental change to distance learning the key message from the conference was that we should not 'throw the baby out with the bath water'.