This year's annual EBAA convention was hosted at the beautiful Chateau de Lac in Brussels, as in previous years. Next year, through, a change of venue to Geneva airport has been proposed, in conjunction with the NBAA. EBAN's Malcolm Wright was on hand at this year's event. \rNBAA's president, Jack Olcott, summed up the future of business travel when he considered the proliferation of mobile phones: "The fact that almost everyone in business uses one does not mean that face-to-face contact is no longer required. They have increased the pace of business, but face-to-face contact with customers is still essential."\rThe global nature of business today requires the use of business aircraft. Jack Olcott estimated that 50 per cent of passengers on business aircraft in the USA are middle managers, and an extra 20 per cent are specialists.\rAccording to GAMA, US manufacturers shipped $7.9 billion of business aircraft in 1999. A survey by J D Power revealed that US companies expect to increase their use of business aircraft by 10 per cent next year, increasing their fleet by 23 per cent.\rAn NBAA survey of 11 companies revealed that together they saved 5,939 hours, equating to 1,530 business days by using corporate aircraft. Equally important to their employees, 2,640 nights spent away form home were saved. \r92 per cent of the top US companies use business aircraft, and 40 per cent of NBAA members fly to Europe. All this is indicative of the trend in Europe too. It seems that business/corporate aviation is alive and well.\rEckhard Seebohm, head of the European Commission's Airport Policy unit, gave a presentation on environmental regulation. The current situation, he outlined, is that air traffic is increasing while aircraft noise and emissions are decreasing. However, the situation for the future will change. He said air traffic will continue to increase steadily but further reduction in noise and emissions will continue only slowly.\rIn contrast, the reduction of emissions from road traffic in Europe has outpaced growth. The EC's policy will be to advocate lower airport charges for clean, quiet aircraft with higher charges for dirty, noisy aircraft. Continued improvement is essential, he said, if the expansion and greater use of airports is to go relatively unopposed. Several presentations were given by the major manufacturers.\rDon Spruston, director general of IBAC, emphasised the need for all organisations representing business aviation to work together to ensure that their needs are made known to ICAO. IBAC's offices are based within the ICAO building in Montreal.\r'Minimising the risk of CFIT' was presented by Gulfstream's Tom Mendenhall. Several industry initiatives are already addressing this subject. Jeppesen are now using colour on many of their approach plates to highlight high ground. The Flight Safety Foundation is continuing to distribute its video and CFIT packs to operators. Avionics manufacturers are developing displays which will include the aircraft's vertical profile and terrain together.\rGulfstream are now including Enhanced GPWS on all new GIVs and GVs as standard, and are working toward introduction of EVS (Enhanced Vision System) employing infrared to "see" through fog.\rThe convention once more proved to be a useful forum for manufacturers, service providers, operators and representatives from various regulatory bodies to exchange information and opinions. All sectors except the operators themselves were well represented. Many of the operators members employ only small numbers of staff and attendance may be difficult for some. However, those who did attend found it a most useful convention.