THE WORLD OF INFORMATION: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE GIFTED AND TALENTED.

The World Council for gifted and talented children calls biennially for its world conference to be held in an international city in late july or early august, in the odd years. It has been already held in big cities such as London, San Francisco, Jerusalem, Montreal, Manila, Hamburg, Salt Lake City, Sidney, The Hague, Toronto, Hong Kong, Seattle and Istambul. Barcelona will be the site for the next world conference of 2001.

Barcelona was selected as the site to host 14th World Conference on Gifted children's Education in 2001 among many other proposals from around the world.

The proposal submitted by Dr. Juan A. Alonso from "HUERTA DEL REY" psychological and educational Center (Valladolid, Spain) to Iowa University, EC World Council for Gifted and Talented Children, was examined by the following professors and doctors :

• Klaus Urban (University of Hannover, Germany).
• Wu-Tien Wu (University of Taipei, Taiwan).
• Miraca U.M. Gross (University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia).
• Barbara Clark (University of State California, United States).
• David George (University of Northampton, United Kingdom).
• Janice Leroux (University of Ottawa, Canada).
• Cedric Taylor (University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa).

Under the theme «The world of Information: Opportunities and challenges for the gifted and talented», the city of Barcelona will be the site to hold 14th World Conference on Gifted and Talented Children in july, 2001.

Camino Pardo & J.A. Alonso "Huerta del Rey" Center

"HUERTA DEL REY" Center assumes responsability for the organization and management of 14th World Conference with the support and collaboration of some state and private national and international institutions.

The proposal of the Dr. Juan A. Alonso presented the following institutional supports and sponsors:

• Subdirection of Education of the UNESCO
• Department of Education and Culture of the Spanish Presidency of Government
• Spanish Ministery of Education and Culture
• Mayor of the city of Barcelona
• Generalitat de Cataluña, the Autonomous Local Government
• The British Council, Spain
• State Association of Doctors and Bachelors on Humanities, Arts and Science
• Barcelona Convention Bureau
• IBERIA Airlines
• Agrupación Mutua del Comercio y de la Industria

Holding this conference will imply the attendance of more than 1.000 participants from more than 40 countries. The World Conference means the most important biennial meeting of the world. It is in this international meeting where professionals exchange their recent and current researches and works in a program designed with key lectures, workshops, activities and discussions. More than 1100 participants attended conference held in Seattle, and it is expected to increase such a figure in Barcelona in 2001.

"HUERTA DEL REY" Center has proved its experience in organizing international events as:

• First European Conference held in 1991 (Valladolid).
• Second International conference held in 1993 (Valladolid).
• International Youth Summit in 1994.
• International Conference on Giftedness. 2nd Ibero-American Conference held in Porto (Portugal) in 1996, co-organized with Apepicta (Portugal);

Besides, the Center also has the only publication on giftedness in Spanish language: IDEACCIÓN magazine.

"HUERTA DEL REY" is an Identification, Follow-up, Training and Research Center where parents, professionals and researchers usually attend as a Center of resources in the field of giftedness.

The World Council for Gifted and Talented Children organization and "Huerta del Rey" Center are always progressing according to both students’ needs in general and gifted and talented students’ ones in particular, both organizations advance adapting their goals and resources to the present time. The world of information and the plurality of educational services makes us open all our doors towards the world due to the internationalization of Education. Therefore, Barcelona 2001 MOVES FORWARD to an Education without frontiers.

"Huerta del Rey" Center and the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children encourage you to participate in the most important international event which is biannually held on Gifted Student education. More than a thousand teachers from every teaching levels, Psychologists and educators will attend 2001 Barcelona meeting.

2001 Barcelona conference will gather all professionals who are concerned in the world of Education, Psychology, Paediatrics and the fields related: training centers, universities, state bodies and institutions, educational domestic and international general offices, associations, parents, young people, business companies and so on during the five days of its holding. This event will imply a very important chance to exchange ideas and knowledge to which both Organizing and Scientific committees will see to ensure that severity and reliability be the keystones of this event. The official languages of next World Council conference are English and Spanish.

Barcelona conference organizing committee will provide participants with an ample offer of hotels, and residences as well as a post-conference tour program for attendants and companions.

One of the most important advanced findings of the end of this millennium is the development of new technologies, the world of information and their effects on the field of education. The fact of being available a huge amount of information for anybody's use and the way how to interact with others have a deep effect on many fields of human activities and on education; despite that, such effects will arrive next millennium. Both students and teachers will have to change their learning styles as well as their way to get into touch with themselves and with their environment.

The questions parents generally ask, and we feel could be taken into consideration for topics at the Barcelona conference, are the following:

• What damage can parents do to the emotional life/ intellectual life of a gifted child?
• How can I stimulate my child?
• How do we deal with schools and teachers?
• Is acceleration good or bad? What other options are there?
• How do we deal with the non-gifted siblings?
• Is inclusion good or bad for my gifted child?
• How do we handle underachievement? (Here the parents indicated a need for a workshop on underachievement)
• Which books are available for parents to read to gifted children.

The attraction of this Creative Painting Exhibition is to enable us to study globally the individuals' different creative performances from their early years of development.

Through the lens
Arancha Lucas (Spain)

VII Exhibitions have been achieved from 1994, always changing the authors and the paintings. Valladolid, Badajoz and Caceres in Spain, Vercelli-Milano in Italy and Porto in Portugal have been the places where the previous exhibitions have been held, many of them during the holding of a Conference that is the reason why friends and colleagues as Sally Reis, Jean Brunault, Franz J. Mönks, Mª. Lourdes Saleiro, Ivan Ferbezer, Rosa Marne Stabile, Joseph Renzulli, Teodor Cozma, Mª. Lucia Prado Sabatella, Renato Bobbo, Marsyl Mettrau Bulkool, Ljiljana Miocinovic, Celia Mª... Pereira, Slavica Maksic, Eunice Soriano Alencar, Carmen Cretu, Dora Cortat, Robert Pagés, Paulo Fernandes, Jean Charles Terrassier and Mabel Mansur have visited them.