on Managing Multi-Vendor Computer Networks at the Princess Hotel, Pembroke, on Tuesday, May 4.

Mr. Orcutt is the leader of an effort at IBM Research to architect and operate a large, multi-vendor environment, called Project Agora.

He was Executive Director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Project Athena from 1988 to 1991 and is currently Manager of DCE Environment with IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in New York.

He has also been an Associate Director for Academic Planning at Harvard University.

Mr. Orcott's discussion will address the computing environments in typical multi-site organisations which consist of mature, centralised systems, surrounded by a rapidly growing collection of workstations and personal computers.

A spokesman for the Computer Society of Bermuda, which is organising the event, said: "This growth in the number and variety of distributed systems is driven in part by new applications and improved price/performance at the individual system level.

"It's also driven by the ability with small systems for the acquisition decisions to occur at a lower level in the organisation.'' The seminar, which takes place over a buffet breakfast, is being restricted to about 50 people.

"We have intentionally limited the numbers to ensure that this will be specific and helpful to the concerns of Bermuda business,'' said a Computer Society spokesman.

The cost of attending the seminar is $35 to members and $60 for non-members.