A lot of business people watch the special Small Business and Business Sunday programs on Channel 9 and would be aware of the Small Business Software Awards. We take advantage of the fact that our Technical Editor, Jan Wikstr÷m, was one of the judges to take a closer look at the winner and runner-up -- two fine Australian products.

It's no small task to organise a conference, and the Summit Event Management System is no small program. Think about it: airline bookings and ticketing, hotels, information about delegates, conference papers, schedules and agenda, workshops and committees, halls and dining rooms, catering and cutlery, projectors and microphones, tickets and labels . . . There are a thousand and one bits and pieces that need to be arranged and organised.

When you have several hundred delegates, there's obviously no hope of managing without a computerised system, and obviously this is where the multi-user version of SEMS shines, with its ability to permit entries and queries through several terminals. I found its ability to answer off-the-cuff queries particularly impressive; for example, 'What stage equipment is needed in Hall 3 for the first afternoon session?', 'For what dates do we need to rent the 35mm film projector?', 'How many wireless microphones do we need?', 'Has Dr Wossname's return flight booking been confirmed?' -- all the overwhelming detail that it's so easy to fumble.

It's particularly difficult to design a simple user interface for such a big and comprehensive program, but MIE Software (for Making It Easy) has succeeded, mainly by splitting the work into four stages: setting up, before, during and after -- all else follows logically from this. I found SEMS easy to use (and I have, thank heaven, never arranged a conference) with little learning effort. There's a sample conference to demonstrate what the features are for and a very clear and comprehensive manual.

There's also a Light version for events that don't require accommodation, travel and trade arrangements.

There are other systems that will do an equally professional job of big events; what sets SEMS apart is that it's affordable, especially in the Light version -- so much so that it is worth while running as a single-user system to handle even school-class-size events. And let's face it, those are the ones that tend to be badly run and/or drive their bits-of-paper organisers to distraction as they try to cope with the copious detail even 20y delegates can generate. Summit Event Management System makes it practical to conduct any size event with professional polish.

The starting point is clear and simple because each stage needs a different set of operations.

This is a typical instant report for the benefit of the person in charge of equipment.

Let me say up front that the judging panel didn't believe this one either. I mean, a program that checks all applications on your DOS or Windows system (as well as the system itself) for the Year 2000 problem and alters the programs to remove the problem?! Pull the other one, I don't want to limp.

The entire judging panel, and I freely admit that I'm the least expert of the five, spent a full day riding this program with spurs and whip over all available obstacles. This included a 1Gb+ database that the Commonwealth Bank (the major sponsor of the Awards) uses and worries about, with known Y2K problems. It was fixed, just like that, as all other programs we tried Millennium Master on were fixed.

Let there be no mistake: small programs, big ones, special-purpose database applications such as Quicken or M.Y.O.B., database applications from ClarisWorks to SQL Server and spreadsheets, such as Lotus 1-2-3 or Excel -- Millennium Master fixes them all, programs and data files both. And I still can't imagine how it's done, but I have to believe what I see. If I see the author of Millennium Master, Bruce Parker, jogging confidently on the waves of Sydney Harbour, I'll believe that, too . . .

Let me tell you what's really scary, though: the best anti-virus programs around don't detect the changes. Let's all be quietly pleased that Bruce isn't the sort that writes viruses!

Millennium Master consists of a diagnostic tool and a correcting tool; there is also a BIOS tester and a corrective for the BIOS – no need to update your BIOS, according to MFX Research. The modules are sold in a package as the Corporate Tool Kit, but is also available by modules, so if your BIOS is known to be okay, you can save on that part.

A small caution: the program lets you check and modify any file. It's a standard option to restrict checking to programs and libraries, but if you want to clear up any problems in your data files, you need to make sure that you don't select irrelevant ones. Checking picture files is not only a waste of time, if they happen to contain date-like structures and these are changed, your pictures will develop measles.

Another possible issue is legal: if a program that needs to be changed is not fully owned but use-licensed, you are probably not allowed to modify it, though I've never heard of a software company asking for its program back after the lease expires -- mainly because it usually doesn't expire. If you're time-leasing a program or you want to be absolutely sure, it might be a good idea to check with the vendors that you can modify your copy. Again, I find it hard to imagine anyone suing you for altering the installed copy as long as you have the unchanged distribution copy available.

So is this the one-hit, total solution to the Year 2000 problem? For Windows 3.1, 95 and NT the answer is an unqualified 'yes'. MFX is working on versions for other operating systems, firstly Unix, but I wouldn't be surprised to see versions that will apply the same cure to minis and mainframes.