New Venture Communications Hires Account Supervisor, Establishes Presence in Texas Hi-Tech Market.

Business Editors

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 21, 2000

Fast Growing Public Relations Firm Adds Austin-based

Vitalz to Burgeoning e-Health Roster

New Venture Communications (New Venture) today announced the appointment of Lee Norwood as Account Supervisor of the agency's e-Health business group and the addition of Vitalz, a new e-Health client based in Austin, Texas.

Vitalz provides a Web-native business solution for scheduling and planning services for major hospitals and healthcare institutions.

Lee brings to New Venture more than 18 years of expertise in service marketing, public relations, business development and business management. Additionally, Lee owned and operated her own marketing, and public relations consulting firm for four years. She has previously worked with corporations such as Hot Pepper, Inc., Chrome Data, and United Way of the Columbia-Willamette. Most recently, Lee provided professional service marketing and PR for Portland-based consulting firms WaterLeaf Architecture & Interiors and GeoEngineers.

"New Venture provides me with a terrific opportunity to work with some of the most exciting e-Health companies in the country," Lee says. "Technology is redefining the healthcare field, and New Venture is redefining the way public relations is used to tell the e-Health story."

Vitalz is the latest client to be added to New Venture's e-Health business group, joining Salu, Inc. and First Insight Corp. Vitalz is also New Venture's first Texas-based client and, according to New Venture president Ray Berardinelli, represents a great example of how New Venture's expertise in specific vertical markets is contributing to the firm's geographic expansion plans. "Vitalz characterizes the kind of e-Health clients we like to work with," said Ray. "With Lee's strong background in business development, public relations, and marketing, we have the perfect person to lead our e-Health team."

"With Vitalz," Ray continued, "we look forward to doing for them what we've done for all our clients: provide superior media relations and business consulting services to help them grow and succeed. Austin, like the Pacific Northwest," Ray continued, "is a hotbed for emerging technology companies. The strength of our work in the e-Health business group created an opportunity to establish ourselves in this important regional technology hub, and we look forward to continue investing some of our energy and talents into the Texas technology marketplace."

In late May, New Venture was recognized by PR Week magazine as the third fastest-growing public relations agency in the United States. More recently, the magazine ranked New Venture 78th in its ranking of the Top 200 Hi-Tech PR Firms in the country.

In addition to Vitalz, current New Venture clients include:

-- Emerald Solutions, an Internet and information technology

consulting firm dedicated to partnering with clients to

harness the power of the Internet for strategic business

advantage;

-- First Insight, the leading provider of practice management

software and e-commerce products for ophthalmologists,

optometrists and opticians;

-- IBT Financial, the industry leader in delivering nationally

certified e-Learning solutions for the financial services 

industry;

-- Salu, the only vertical B2B e-Health company building

specialty-specific business hubs that support the unique needs

of physician specialists;

-- WebCriteria, the leading supplier of online services used to

measure and improve the customer experience of

mission-critical web sites; and

-- WebTrends, the leading provider of Enterprise Solutions for

Visitor Relationship Management(TM) and eBusiness

Intelligence.

About New Venture Communications

Established in 1998, Portland-based New Venture Communications is an integrated marketing consulting firm providing emerging, high-growth technology companies throughout the country with a broad range of services, including public relations, media relations, business and strategic planning, research, and partner relationship creation and management. For more information about New Venture Communications, visit the agency's website at http://www.newventurecom.com, e-mail [e-mail], or phone [phone].