A Showcase of BT's services for today and tomorrow has followed the Global Challenge fleet around the world.

Leading business people emerged from the Showcase exhibition keen to have the BT communications advances on their desk...now.

They were among more than 1,000 invited guests, in groups of 10-20, to have visited the exhibition at ports of call while the fleet was in town.

What the visitors see is a display of up to 14 computers on plinths giving a taste of the brain-smacking developments carried out by scientists at BT Laboratories in Martlesham, Suffolk.

One of the stars of the show was a car of the future, a Range Rover kitted out with leading edge communications and travel technology equipment. There were also 600 new pages of information on the BT Global Challenge web site produced specially for the exhibition.

Showcase mastermind Alan Brough said: "As well as displaying today's services, we have taken the opportunity to show a glimpse of the future with some of the new developments from BT scientists. We have put our technology within the context of business customers' needs. It is not just technology for the sake of it."

A South African managing director, touring the showcase while the yachts were berthed in Cape Town, said: "This is an amazing concept in marketing, a great way to use today's technology to communicate messages for tomorrow."

The first showcase appearance was at Sydney. The one at Cape Town was described by visitors as stunning. Live links were set up to Martlesham and to Heathrow, where onlookers could watch planes taking off.

Businesses high-flyers were not the only visitors there. A group of around 40 youngsters from schools in Cape Town's most deprived areas was invited to take a look at the future. Alan said: "They loved it. Within half an hour, they were surfing the Net like experts."

Boston's show in mid-June, where BT and its proposed merger partner MCI will join forces, is set to be the most impressive. The MCI solutions will be brought to the showcase at Southampton at the end of the race in July to show them to UK and European customers.

At each show, race sponsors such as Digital, Motorola,Tandem, Toshiba and 3Com have displayed their technology working hand in hand with BT's. The company has also worked closely together with key customers such as Kodak.

Alan, who is head of the customer programme for the BT Global Challenge, said: "The showcase is a new concept within which BT can display its wide range of solutions and demonstrate how we are working with our suppliers and customers as partners. We have used Internet type technology to show how our solutions are designed to meet business needs."

He predicts that the showcase is set to be a vital cog in bringing millions of pounds of business to BT and its partners round the world.