ADVISORY/TiE Rockies ``Next Great Idea'' Competition Culminates for Colorado Entrepreneurs As VC Panel and Sec. Of Technology Choose From Three Finalists At Pepsi Center Event September 16, 2003, at 5:00 p.m.

News Editors/Assignment Desks

ADVISORY...for Tuesday (Sept. 16)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

WHAT:   TiE Rockies' statewide competition for technology
        entrepreneurs, "The Next Great Idea: TiE Rockies' Search for
        Tomorrow's Technology Business," culminates with the selection
        of the winner from three finalists at Pepsi Center event. The
        finalists will present their business plans live in front of a
        panel of national venture capitalists and an audience of
        hundreds of other entrepreneurs and business leaders.

        Secretary of Technology for Colorado, John J. Hansen, will
        serve as an honorary judge along with venture capitalists from
        Austin Ventures, Battery Ventures and Morgenthaler.

        Finalists in the competition are all Colorado-based companies.

        --  EncrpytX Corporation, an Arvada-based company that has
            developed TrustedView, a security infrastructure that
            allows corporations to control and manage access to and
            distribution of sensitive information within the
            enterprise and to external vendors, partners and
            customers.

        --  MicroPhage Incorporated, a Boulder-based company
            developing high-speed bacteria detection technologies that
            it plans to commercialize in markets including food
            safety, environment contamination, water safety,
            evaluation of infectious agents in humans and animals,
            industrial pathogens, biological warfare threat agents,
            and other clinical applications.

        --  StorePerform Technologies, Inc., a Denver company
            developing and marketing an Intranet-based software
            solution for retail operations that combines store-level
            execution with business intelligence analytics to improve
            effectiveness and profitability.

WHEN:       Tuesday, September 16, 2003
            5:00 - 8:30

WHERE:      The Pepsi Center
            Ridgeline Room
            1000 Chopper Circle
            Denver, CO

PRESS
CONTACT:    Patrick Ward
            104 Degrees West Partners
            303-262-6078
            415-595-3145 (cell)

EVENT
REGISTRATION: www.tie-rockies.org