2000, has sold out of tickets a week before the event begins.

The two-day conference has become a run-away success and taken in nearly $160,000 in ticket sales with 241 booked seats.

And over a quarter of those attending -- 27 percent -- are for the first time visitors coming from abroad specifically to attend eCC.

The event was launched a year ago and was immediately hailed a success by those attending the event.

This year the two days, from September 18 to 20, have attracted more attention with two top billing names on the speaker's list -- Patricia Seybold and Nick Jones.

The focus of the conference, held at the Hamilton Princess, will be bringing business to Bermuda and business to business transactions. This year's event is called Real World Business Concerns, and sets out to be a customer driven event.

The conference committee has enlisted the help of Bermuda International Business Association as an organising sponsor along with the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce and Logic Communications.

The event has grown from last year, when 168 local and overseas delegates attended the first eCC.

And the committee in the coming years want to see the size of the event double from the inaugural year.

The issue of doing business over the Internet will be addressed by Ms Seybold, the CEO of the Boston-based Patricia Seybold Group and one of the world's leading consultants in e-business.

She is also the author of the business bestseller Customers.com and writes a column in the cutting edge business monthly Business 2.0. Mr. Jones is the other name in lights at the eCC.

He is a senior analyst at Internet commerce research company Jupiter Communications.

He is based in London and specialises in covering all aspects of e-commerce and the Internet relating to Europe. He is the former editor of Internet business newsletter New Media Finance and New Media Age.

Other speakers include Abbott Smith, vice president of business development for Compaq NonStop e-Business Solutions Division, and Christof Ehrhat, vice president corporate communications, product manager and event marketing of BOL International, the Internet media and entertainment shop of the media giant Bertlesmann.

For more information about eCC Bermuda 2000, go to www.eccbermuda.com.

E-commerce guru: Patricia Seybold will be one of the key note speakers at next week's eCC Bermuda 2000 conference. Ms Seybold is the author of the business bestseller Customers.com.

BUSINESS BUC