Conferenza Announces Best and Worst Conference Awards of 2002; Pop!Tech & DemoMobile Tie for Best Conferences of Last Year.

Business Editors

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2003

Conferenza, Inc., publishers of Conferenza Premium Reports (CPR) today announced its Best and Worst Conference Awards for 2002.

Through its leading coverage of technology's top tier executive conferences, Conferenza is uniquely positioned to provide in-depth analysis of the value these events provide "Even in a year of 'perfect storms' for the technology industry in general, there were some incredible conference standouts," said Shel Israel, CPR editor. "In fact, there were more standout conferences then turkeys in 2002."

Conferenza's picks for the Best of 2002 are:

-- Best Conference -- Tied between Pop!Tech, for its extraordinary range of speakers and topics, and IDG's DemoMobile, for finding 35 neophyte products that showed promise during the bleakest of times.

-- Best Producer -- VentureWire's Richard A. Shaffer, whose prolific conferences are consistently filled with valuable, content-rich information, delivering what they promise and indicating early trends in private investment.

-- Best Host -- John Gallant, for IDG's Vortex. Gallant does his homework, using a non-confrontational style that often gets executives to reveal more than they intend. Conferenza's favorite comment was from John Sidgmore, the erstwhile WorldCom CEO who pledged from the Vortex dais that his company "would not tank" -- six weeks before filing for bankruptcy protection.

-- Best Individual Presentation -- Frequent lecturer and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who argued persuasively at Pop!Tech that if you live to the year 2010, biology and technology innovations could carry you on until 2810.

-- Most Pleasant Surprise -- Pacific Crest Forum. Investor conferences are very often self-serving, but this one was filled with useful insight and information, including Fed cybercop Richard C. Clarke's first public pledge that the Bush administration intended to spend $25 billion on securing public networks.

Conferenza's picks for the lowlights of 2003 include:

-- Least Valuable Conference of 2002 -- Telecosm, with

co-producers George Gilder and Forbes Magazine attracting

attendees by promising to reveal why Moore's Law was dead and

a new "Analog Age" was dawning. But the conference delivered

neither, instead producing an uneven slate of speakers heavily

salted with Gilder's personal choices, and offering convincing

arguments that Gilder is looking at the future through a rear

view mirror.

-- Most Over-Exposed Speaker -- Tied between Mark Benioff, CEO of

Salesforce.com, and Boingo Networks' Sky Dayton, both of whom

spoke ubiquitously, said nothing memorable and repeated it

often.

-- Most Unpopular Speaker -- WorldCom CTO Fred Briggs, who spoke

with pride at Telecosm about how his company planned to

leverage bankruptcy laws to avoid paying creditors $40

billion.

"It's been a tough year for hi-tech, but conferences in the second half showed promising signs of the industry picking itself up," said Gary A. Bolles, co-founder of Conferenza and editorial director of CPR. "There's a renewed sense of getting back to work, and companies who have survived until now show promise for the new year."

About Conferenza, Inc.

Founded in 1998, Conferenza, Inc. (www.conferenza.com) is the leading resource for information regarding technology conferences. Its flagship product Conferenza Premium Reports offers news, commentary and analysis on technology's top tier executive events. Subscriptions are $199 a year for individuals. For free samples and information, contact Shel Israel ([e-mail]).