INFORMATION ABOUT THE FIRST RCA CONFERENCE

The international conference "COMMUNICATION ACROSS DIFFERENCES" - "COMMUNICATION-2002" took place at Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University on June 3-6, 2002. The conference was organized by the RCA Organizing Committee and Pyatigorsk Linguistic University, in close co-operation with the National Communication Association (NCA, USA).

About 200 scholars from 34 Russian cities (Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Volgograd, Tver, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhni Novgorod, Krasnodar, Stavropol, Kaluga, Saratov, Voronezh, Kursk, Tambov, Petrozavodsk, Ekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk and others), as well as from the USA, Germany, Finland, Ukraine, Moldova, and Kazakhstan took part by attending or contributung conference papers.

The following topics of both fundamental and applied character were discussed during the conference:

• Issues of cross-cultural communication
• Electronic Communication
• International terminology in communication studies
• Emotional aspects of communication
• Issues of linguo-cultural concepts(language and culture)
• Cross-cultural business and professional communication
• Issues of public relations, conflict management, organizational culture, leadership
• Persuasion and argumentation in mono- and cross-cultural contexts
• Techniques of communication and speech processes

A round-table discussion was devoted to the topic: "Communication Studies in Russian and U. S. educational systems".

Several RCA organizational meetings took place. They resulted in the adoption of the RCA Constitution, election of the RCA Coordination Committee, planning of basic activities and projects, including the 2004 RCA conference.

The conference "Communication-2002" gave an impetus to the development of research in Communication Studies and Cross-Cultural Communication in Russia, the strengthening of co-operation between Russian and international (especially American) specialists in Communication Studies, as well as among Russian scholars from different regions of the country.