Internet pioneer to attend convention

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The "father of the Internet" will be in Las Vegas this week as more than 50,000 specialists in computer networking attend the Networld + Interop show beginning today.

Vint Cerf, senior vice president of development for MCI and the designer of the protocol that makes the Internet run, will be a special guest of the show, which is being staged at the Las Vegas Hilton and the Convention Center through Friday.

Kim Polese, CEO of Marimba Inc., a company pioneering the development of "push technology," kicked off the show this morning with a keynote address. Push is the programming that enables Internet users to have information sent directly to their computers rather than retrieving it.

Marcia Trask, public relations manager of the Networld + Interop show, said about 90 percent of the attendees are from the United States. She said more than 600 exhibitors would be set up on a trade show floor that opens Tuesday, with displays throughout the convention center and in a tent in the center parking lot.

Trask said several special-interest conferences are planned for the show, including a first-ever presentation on intranets, the in-house business networks that offer information within a company. Another highlight is the fourth annual engineers conference which will deal with highly technical questions about networking and connectivity.

"The focus of our show is on enterprise computing, networking, telecommunication, the Internet and intranets, and all the software and hardware applications," said Trask.

Because computer networking is growing at such an explosive rate, the show has grown exponentially over the years. It is now one of the top 10 conventions by attendance in Las Vegas.

"Part of the reason is that you can't pick up a consumer publication without some kind of reference to the Internet," said Trask. "Everyone knows about Internet stuff these days."

Other speakers at the convention will be David L. House, CEO of Bay Networks, a major manufacturer of networking equipment, and Dr. Eric Schmidt, new CEO of Novell.

Other information on the show and registration materials are available on the Internet at www.interop.com.