Acorn Pocket Books 
for BETT Info Link 

Embargo Release Date 20th January 1993 

Acorn Computers' Pocket Books are at the heart of a scheme to provide 
visitors to the BETT 93 exhibition with information on exhibitors and their 
products. 

Under the scheme a group of work experience students from the London Borough 
of Newham will each carry Pocket Books loaded with data about every 
exhibitor on every stand. 

In addition, those companies that are featuring Acorn products will have 
full details of those products together with the names of the people manning 
the stands downloaded into the Pocket Books. 

Acorn's Dick Wallin described the likely scenario: "The idea is that each of 
the students - who will be highly visible at the show - will act as a 
walking encyclopaedia for the benefit of the show visitors.  Their Pocket 
Books will be loaded with comprehensive information about the show so that 
if, for example, a visitor wants to know which stands feature networking 
software, the student can consult his database and immediately come up with 
a list of all the stands of interest.  We have some 75 categories of 
software listings, so I don't envisage any problems in finding something to 
cater for everyone's interests. 

"If the visitor wants basic information about, say, particular software 
packages, then again the student can look up his database and give an answer 
there and then. The information will actually have been downloaded from the 
latest Education Software catalogue.  However, for those wanting detailed 
information, the student will then have the option of either taking the 
visitor to the relevant stand and making the necessary introductions, or 
taking him to the Acorn information stand where he can pick up a hard copy 
of the Educational catalogue, or indeed order a CD ROM version of that same 
catalogue. " 

Dick Wallin described Acorn's Pocket Book as an ideal resource for such a 
venture. "The cards data base is extremely quick and easy to use as each 
field can be individually labelled and fast searches can be made on any key 
word. But in addition there is a spread sheet on which the students will be 
able to look up educational prices of Acorn equipment, and a text processor 
on which the students can take notes of particular questions from visitors 
in order to pass information on to Acorn's Customer Services department 
after the show. " All the information will have been downloaded from an 
Acorn Archimedes computer to the Pocket Books via special "A-link" 
communications software.  The details of stand personnel will also be 
updated daily. 

The Acorn Pocket Book also features a spell checker, an alarm clock and a 
calculator and all the software is multitasking. 

The Education retail price of the Pocket Book is #199 or #1990 for a pack of 
eleven, which includes a free A-link. The A-link comms hardware can also be 
bought separately for #42.71.   

ENDS 

Further Information from Dick Wallin, Acorn Computers, Tel 0223 254254 

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