Interactive Marketing Professionals Form Industry Association.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 17, 2003

South Florida Interactive Marketing Association Unites Area

Leaders to Increase Awareness, Promote Education and Achieve

Excellence in Online Marketing

Recognizing the tremendous growth and continued strength of e-commerce, a group of local South Florida Internet marketing professionals today announced the formation of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association (SFIMA). The organization was formed to bring together some of the strongest players in the industry to help establish best practices and serve as an educational resource for the local interactive marketing community.

SFIMA presents its first program on October 8, 2003 titled "Online trends: Rich Media and the Future of Online Advertising." Nate Elliott, Jupiter Research Analyst, will present results of using rich and streaming ads, discuss the current market opportunities in online advertising, point to online advertising trends to watch for in the coming years, and present highlights from Jupiter Research's forecast for online advertising through 2008. Jupiter Research is a leading international research advisory organization specializing in business and technology market research, which helps companies develop, extend and integrate business strategies across online and emerging channels.

SFIMA is designed to serve as a forum for ideas, information and best practices among interactive professionals, businesses and educators in the area. Modeled after similar organizations in Dallas/Fort Worth, Atlanta, Detroit and Chicago, the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association will feature guest speakers, presentations by industry analysts, major client case studies and panels of competing service providers to update and inform South Florida practitioners about key Internet marketing trends and technology advances.

The South Florida Interactive Marketing Association differentiates itself from other Internet marketing groups in the "non-promotional" nature of its speaker presentations. According to Sheryl Gatto, president of SFIMA's board and vice president of marketing for eDiets.com, "The SFIMA speaker policy is quite simple - we will only present topics using practitioners in a case study format, from independent organizations such as Jupiter, The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and other independent analyst firms or a panel of competing service providers. In other words, no sales presentations are permitted during the formal meeting.

"Interactive marketing continues to be on the rise as more companies are realizing its potential and optimizing its results." Gatto believes this is the perfect time to launch an effort like this in South Florida. "Many companies and organizations have staked out this area for growth," said Gatto. "Groups like SFIMA have been extraordinarily successful in other metropolitan cities and with well-known brands, diversity of companies and enthusiasm in South Florida; SFIMA will likely be equally successful. We have plans to bring a full year of national level educational programs to the local South Florida community for less than the cost of a single conference or seminar that requires significant travel expense to attend."

SFIMA's inaugural meeting will take place Wednesday, October 8th from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at The Tower Club in Fort Lauderdale (100 SE Third Avenue, 28th Floor). Admission is free for members and $39 for non-members.

For details on this and future meetings, membership and/or information on the current Board of Directors, please visit http://www.sfima.com. To be sure to never miss an event, subscribe to the event announcement email list by sending a blank email to [e-mail].

Among SFIMA's founding board members are representatives from many of the area's most recognized and successful businesses including CBS Sportsline, Citrix Systems, eComputer Law.com, eDiets.com, EquityStation, G. Neil Company, Google, iDine Rewards Network, JKD Media, Kaplan Higher Education Online, National Moving Network, ODIMO Inc., SBI and Company, Slater PR, Sparks Marketing, Starmark International, and Tiger Direct.

About The South Florida Interactive Marketing Association (SFIMA)

The South Florida Interactive Marketing Association is a forum for professionals to share ideas and information among the business and educational communities in order to define and develop interactive marketing industries and disciplines. Annual SFIMA memberships are available for $249, which includes admission to SFIMA monthly educational events held at the Tower Club located in downtown Fort Lauderdale and reduced rates for all social and networking events. Corporate memberships beginning at $599 are also available. Non-members admission to SFIMA monthly meetings is $39. Members and non-members can visit http://www.sfima.com to register for the October meeting and additional information about the organization.

SFIMA is thankful to its founding sponsors who have made the group possible, which include DoubleClick (http://www.doubleclick.net), leading provider of marketing tools for advertisers, direct marketers and web publishers, and Google (http://www.google.com), developer of the largest performance-based search advertising program.