-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- After much hemming and hawing about plane and hotel arrangements, the final confirmation from some conference organizers arrived this past Monday morning. And, yesterday, the State Department promised me a passport on my doorstep this coming Tuesday. So, it now looks like I'm going to London on next Saturday's redeye to speak at the Internet Trading for Global Securities Markets conference, Tuesday and Wednesday, November 24th and 25th at the Hilton Olympia. Because of some interesting economics of cheap hotel room-nights and dear airfare, I'll be staying at the Hilton Olympia itself, on Kensington High Street in London, from the morning of Sunday the 22nd to the morning of Thursday the 26th. This conference has been in the works for months, but we weren't really sure everything was going to happen until, as usual, the last possible minute. I bet a whole bunch of people registered right on the deadline, or something, and they decided they had enough interest to pull the trigger. Oh, well, after dodging those kinds of bullets myself getting the FC conferences and this summer's Philodox Symposium off the ground, I should have expected it from someone else in the same shoes. We all have Duncan Goldie-Scott to thank for this trip, of course. For the past few months, I've been writing a series of articles on digital bearer transaction settlement for the Financial Times Virtual Finance Report, which Duncan edits. I started with cash, and then bonds, and then equity. This month I did derivatives. I've got three more left to do, I figure; one on micromoney, the other two on the possible macro-, and micro-, economic inplications of digital bearer settlement, and maybe one more, on possible deployment strategy, if we get that far. Since I started these articles, I have gotten quite a few pieces of fan mail from Duncan's subscribers, and it has been quite fun. It also seems that some of those folks are going to be at this conference. In addition, after all the dust settled, Duncan himself was made chairman of the conference, so I expect he's going to have his hands full when I get there. As if that wasn't enough, Duncan has also arranged for me to talk privately to some traders he knows at an investment/merchant bank whose name you would recognize, and that should be quite interesting. Duncan says that they've been reading my articles, and they've got lots of questions to ask. So, Duncan, thanks so much for all your good efforts evangelizing digital bearer transaction settlement to your friends in the City. I'm positively psyched to unleash the word hoarde in the Old World, fire up the patented Hettinga rant machine on that side of the pond, and all that. God help you all. :-). So, if anybody wants to get ahold of me in London for a beer and a schmooze while I'm there, (especially if you know someone crazy enough to pay my extortionate personal appearance fee for some of my scarce free time ;-)), the Hilton Olympia's address is 380 Kensington High Street, London W14 8NL, and phone number's 0171 603 3333. You can, of course, email me as well, but, since this is my first trip to Europe, I expect that internet connections, power, etc., for my trusty PowerBook 540c will be interesting, if not, um, creative. So, it might be a good idea to contact Duncan <mailto: dgs@live.co.uk>, or at lest cc: him on your communications with me regarding this trip, or while I'm actually there, as he's going to be the Official Philodox "Bob-Handler" on this trip. :-). Here's hoping that I meet some of you in London week after next! Cheers, Bob Hettinga -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.5 iQEVAwUBNkxutcUCGwxmWcHhAQEqFQf+Nk+po/iJVHlQpVT3es/uokYkYb7T3nbv NbEyDIEJkT4z5Jsp0omGU36/QFgF7iHAu614ehRAY/lhu7l1/ghrJdFKzQR+3lHU UijWKYe3tyk15oBPhUI2e0G1K52MNSmDl9EL4GQ3hpbBCSOM4UO+4W1q3RYnucGA b3p54QXpYeoRefAhSNiEjRc7Vup+EY1i6vkCONekr4+c9UugQ1sbGuRvCzcivXRk g7o0lktxY1+sXaALEcSgB3sOnG0TJj/HPTpVcsjhw1SFKbxLPKJmytPJ8iR7MEi3 9JMk82Lr6AHTfokAQuLOsEMut8yfsjJ8glg2cxrys+Rbo1qGjHyL+g== =RRO6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'