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TRENDS AT COMDEX EVENTS 1999

COMDEX/US

Best of COMDEX Program Honors Nine Top Innovative Products Introduced at Premier Information-Technology Event

LAS VEGAS, November 17, 1999 COMDEX/Fall '99, the world's largest and most influential information-technology (IT) event. The industry's leading conference and exhibition was held Nov. 15-19 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The PC Week/Best of COMDEX awards program honors the most innovative and noteworthy IT products introduced in nine categories plus a Best of Show. PC Week Editor-in-Chief Eric Lundquist and John Taschek, director of PC Week Labs, announced the winners for each of the following categories.

- Best Desktop, Mobile and Handheld System: Aqcess Technologies Inc.'s Qbe Personal Computing Tablet, a full-featured Intel 400MHz Celeron-based wireless computing tablet.  

- Best New Technology: Mobility Electronics Inc.'s Split Bridge Technology, an innovative remote full-speed PCI bus extension and universal docking solution.  

- Best Peripheral: Sony Electronics Inc.'s Sony Multiscan SDM-N50, a 15-inch ultra-thin LCD display whose streamlined looks are second only to its powerful features.  

- Best Personal Productivity Software: Mindmaker Inc.'s DataScope 3.0, decision support software that brings data mining to a broader audience.  

- Best Networking Hardware: Wireless Mountain Laboratory Inc.'s Spider Reader and Spider Tags system, which also won the Best of Show award.  

- Best Web Development Software: Ultimus Inc.'s Workflow Suite Version 4.2, a Web-based workflow system.  

- Best Enterprise Productivity Software: Multiactive Software's Entice!, a comprehensive Web-based workflow and customer relationship management solution.  

- Best Networking Software: Novell Inc.'s NetWare 5.1 network operating system, whose robust feature set belies its .1 name.  

- Best Utility: Cyberlink USA's Medi@show Version 2.0, an easy-to-use, low-priced multimedia presentation utility.

 "PC Week has established a reputation for identifying the most influential products in the competitive IT arena," Lundquist said. "We are honored to recognize these revolutionary products which are destined to bring technology to new heights." COMDEX Vice President and General Manager Bill Sell said, "For 20 years COMDEX has served as the industry platform where companies announce their new products and, in turn, technology decisions get made. The PC Week/Best of COMDEX awards have become the industry tool for distinguishing the cream of the crop."

 About COMDEX Each year, COMDEX/Fall presents the world's largest and most influential IT event. This year's event will focus on technology for the new e-conomy, and host more than 2,000 exhibiting companies, thousands of product launches, and 200,000 resellers, IT professionals, developers and corporate managers. For more information on the event visit http://www.comdex.com.

 About PC Week PC Week reaches 400,000 core e-business IT buyers at 223,000 Internet-connected sites. These buyers purchase Internet and intranet products and services, networking and systems products for their organizations. They have an average budget authority of $11.9 million. PC Week delivers essential investigative news, solutions evaluation, and business strategy for those charged with building .com enterprises. (Source: BPA)

 About Ziff-Davis Ziff-Davis Inc. is a leading media and marketing company focused on computing and Internet-related technologies, with principal platforms in print publishing, trade shows and conferences, online content and services, television and education. Ziff-Davis provides global technology companies with marketing strategies for reaching key decision-makers. Ziff-Davis has two series of common stock, one which is intended to track the performance of its Internet business ZDNet (NYSE: ZDZ), and one which is intended to track the performance of the ZD Group (NYSE: ZD), which includes print publishing, trade shows and conferences, education, product testing, online learning and television businesses, and an 83 percent retained interest in ZDNet.

COMDEX/Australia

 Launch of COMDEX with NetWorld+Interop Sydney Proves Successful

 NEEDHAM, Mass., December 14, 2000 - ZD Events announces that both exhibitors and attendees have declared the inaugural staging of COMDEX/Sydney with NetWorld+Interop '99 Sydney an overwhelming success. These combined events, held at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre last month, provided Australia's IT and business communities with the opportunity to witness the latest products and solutions, establish new channel relationships, learn from industry experts, and network with peers. The union of these globally recognized events presented the ideal forum for examining and evaluating the technology solutions that will drive business in the new millennium. "One of our major objectives of the show was to raise brand awareness and promote our data capabilities and we've certainly done that. A show like this brings our brand to front of mind," said Rob Campbell, Marketing Services Manager for Alcatel. "We're very happy with the volume of attendees that visited our booth. We nearly ran out of collateral material by day two   - we doubled our expectations." More than 150 exhibitors, including 3Com, Cable & Wireless, Cognos, Corel, Ericsson, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Liebert, Lucent, Nokia, Nortel, and Novell, showcased solutions for e-commerce, mobile computing, enterprise networking, Linux, network management, and security. The exhibition featured special seminars, hot spots and pavilions to enhance the event experience:  

- Accounting Solutions for Small Business - - sponsored by Novell  

- The ASP Wave: Just how will it benefit your business? - - sponsored by Citrix Systems  

- ATM Classroom - - sponsored by FORE Systems  

- Business Benefits of Convergent Information and Entertainment Networks   - sponsored by Newbridge Networks  

- Convergence of Solutions for the New WW World Seminars - - sponsored by Ericsson  

- Extending the value of Windows 2000 - - sponsored by Citrix  

- Internet Zone - - sponsored by Yahoo! Australia & New Zealand and Hewlett Packard  

- IP Telephony (VoIP) Technology Training - - sponsored by Nortel Networks  

- Linux Hot Spots Small Business Solutions - - sponsored by Novell  

- The Power of Business Intelligence - - sponsored by Cognos

 The conference program brought together leading analysts, visionaries and corporate executives that are shaping the industry to discuss vital trends, strategies and technologies. As COMDEX/Sydney and NetWorld+Interop Sydney ran concurrently with COMDEX/Fall, several of the keynotes that occurred in Las Vegas were transmitted via satellite to Sydney, including presentations by Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds. In addition, three live keynotes were staged in Sydney:  

- ASP Vision and the Future of E-Commerce was presented by Traver Gruen

- Kennedy, Chairman of the ASP Industry Consortium, and Director of Advanced Business Development for Citrix Systems  

- Systems Management Panel was moderated by John McConnell and featured Peter Waterhouse of Computer Associates, David Arbeitel of Avesta Technologies, and Evelyn Hubbert of Hewlett Packard  

- The Next Killer Application -

- Beyond Voice and Data was presented by Brian Keating, Executive Vice President of Newbridge Networks

COMDEX/Canada

 Intensive Educational Program Headlines COMDEX/Canada West Enriching seminars, special programs and dynamic keynotes prepare IT community for the next generation of computing

VANCOUVER, January 5, 2000 - - ZD Event COMDEX/Canada West, being held January 19-21 at the Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre, is Western Canada's business-to-business technology event for the new e-conomy. Technology, especially the Internet, has changed the way business is being conducted. The COMDEX/Canada West 2000 Conference Program will arm attendees with the necessary strategies and tools to survive and thrive in this environment. Enriching seminars and in-depth tutorials will explore the some of the most pivotal technology areas: networking, software and hardware platforms, e-commerce, Windows 2000 and support services. Some of the most highly anticipated sessions are VPNs and the Virtual Connection Revolution, The Business Case for Open Source Software, Evolving Computing Platforms - - PCs to Handhelds and Beyond, How ASPs Can Help You Build an E-Business, Roadmap to Windows 2000 Technologies, Converging Technologies in the Call Centre, and Building Your Enterprise Wireless Computing System. The program will highlight the best that IT has to offer to Western Canada and the best that Western Canada has to offer to IT. Creating Partnerships for the New Millennium is the theme of this year's event, reflecting ZD Events' collaboration with leading Canadian organizations to enrich the diversity of educational offerings. As a result, several special programs have been added to the curriculum:  

- Michael Cowpland, Corel's CEO and President, will discuss his company's move into the Linux environment in an interview with technology columnist and broadcast personality Steve Dotto during Dotto on Linux  

- Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS) will present the Visionary Series, a two-day program of presentations designed to inform and enlighten the Canadian IT professional on the most current issues in the industry today including information portals, web-based customer service, e-business, XML, and data warehousing. A gala dinner will feature one of today's fastest moving practitioners of IT, Larry Augustin, CEO and Founder of VA Linux Systems.  

- CIO Association of British Columbia (CIOABC) will present "Developing Measurement Standards for Technology Effectiveness" in a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Catherine Aczel-Boivie, President of CIOABC and CIO and Vice President of Information Services for the British Columbia Automobile Association.  

- University of British Columbia will present a two-day seminar on e - business for senior managers who require an understanding of how the Internet changes the nature of business and produces new market opportunities. "Positioning Your Company for e-Business: Redefining Value in the Networked Society and Self-Serve Economy" will explore how consumer and business value is created in a networked economy and the technological infrastructure needed to maintain a competitive edge in the Internet marketplace.  

- The Computer Paper and CanadaComputes.com will present the COMDEX/Canada West 2000 Towne Meeting, an opportunity to interact with some of Canada's most 'connected' technology experts to discuss the hottest computing topics.

 In addition to the comprehensive conference program, three prominent Canadian executives will share their visions of the key issues shaping the technology landscape during dynamic keynote addresses:  

- Frank Clegg, Vice President, Central US Region and Canada for Microsoft Corporation, will present "Business at the Speed of Thought" on Wednesday, January 19  

- Roy Osing, Executive Vice President of Telus and President of Telus Advanced Communications, will deliver "The Future is Now" on Thursday, January 20  

- Robert Grossman, Vice President and General Manager for the Information Systems Group of Toshiba of Canada, will impart the closing presentation, "Partnerships in the Year 2000: The Value of Collaboration in the New Millennium" on Friday, January 21

COMDEX Mexico 2000 - - May 16-19 - - World Trade Center, Mexico City

More than 200,000 purchasers of technology visited Las Vegas for the 20th anniversary of the COMDEX/Fall '99 technology exhibition, November 15-19, 1999. The global interest in the new Internet economy and in the technologies that are ready to trigger it was clear to the more than 32,000 foreign visitors that represented approximately 15 per cent of the total attendance. As the industry and COMDEX move from a computer-based model to one that is based on the Internet and e-commerce, the IT professionals are already looking ahead to COMDEX/Mexico 2000. COMDEX/Mexico will intensify its efforts for the year 2000 in the country's largest international business forum for IT, while information technology industries will seek to continue in the market. COMDEX/Mexico 2000 has new pavilion outlets: LINUX, e-comdex, and Networking, among others. Furthermore, globalization and the opening of international trade will be highlighted at the show, to educate attendees on world market trends in the IT industry. For the first time, Germany, the United States and Taiwan will attend the most important IT forum in Mexico - - COMDEX/Mexico 2000 - - to seek business opportunities by taking advantage of the country's business and productive growth.

 Juhani Viherlahti