INPUT 1978 - Milan, Italy

"The choice of Milan for the nascent INPUT virtually guaranteed a first conference free of the usual technical foul-ups. INPUT 1978 (and INPUT 1979) occupied a building specifically designed for television screenings, one of a score of buildings that comprimise the Fiera Milano, a walled-city-within-city used for international trade shows. For some years the building in which the screenings took place had served as the home of one of Euope's principal television markets, the MIFED. No alterations were needed. INPUT slipped easily into the Milan facility.
But not into the program. Matters got off to a halting start with the opening ceremonies. Two hundred delegates and the Italian welcoming party - RAI's chairman Paolo Grassi, the Mayor of Milan, and official conference host Alvisi Zorzi, - cooled their heels for a half-hour or so awaiting the appearance of the conference co-host, PBS's president, Larry Grossman. Milan's traffic delayed him. At least that's what he told his skeptical listeners.
The opening - a Tuesday rather than what was later to become the traditional Sunday opening - rounded off with the Mayor's reception in the magnificent old Palazzo Marino. It was followed by only four screening days."

- From "INPUT at 20" by James Day.