Top Executives from Best Buy, Handleman & IBM to Keynote Entertainment Supply Chain Conference; First Ever Entertainment Supply Chain Conference Will Include Key Industry Leaders From Retail, Suppliers and Manufacturers For the Two-Day Event.

LOS ANGELES -- The First Annual Entertainment Supply Chain Academy (ESCA) has announced three of its featured speakers -- Robert Willett of Best Buy, Stephen Strome of Handleman and Saul Berman of IBM. The cross-industry event has been designed to foster efficiencies and collaboration in the delivery of video, audio and interactive entertainment and will take place June 20-21, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

Robert Willett, CEO, Best Buy International, & CIO, Best Buy, drives the company's efforts to improve efficiencies, simplify its operations and develop systems to enable customer-centricity in Best Buy stores. He plans to discuss this consumer driven business model during his keynote presentation on Tuesday, June 20 at 9:15 a.m., and address how this strategy impacts the recorded media supply chain.

Stephen Strome, chairman and CEO, Handleman Company, will provide an overview of the role of category management in the evolving world of packaged media and its impact on retail growth. His keynote presentation will take place at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, June 21.

Saul Berman is a partner and global executive at IBM Business Consulting Services, specializing in the media & entertainment industries. He will provide the luncheon keynote address on Wednesday, June 21, highlighting emerging market forces which are propelling media and entertainment companies to become more receptive to business partners, customers and consumers -- opening content reserves and formatting, production processes, packaging and sales options.

The two-day program will educate senior management about the changing dynamics and technologies in the entertainment supply chain for recorded media and will be the first of its kind to educate content holders, supply chain professionals and retailers about new opportunities in the delivery of current and future entertainment formats.

Program topics and sessions will include:

--Managing Sell-Thru and Minimizing Returns

--Supply Chain Success Stories in Consumer Packaged Goods

--Supply Chain Systems and Benchmarks

--Supply Chain in the Video Rental Business

--Alternate Distribution Channels

--Retail Driven Packaging and Promotion

--RFID and the Mass Merchandisers

--Understanding EPC Global Standards

--Customer Relations Management and Systems for B2B 

--Vendor Managed Inventory Systems

--Global Supply Chain Trends in Video and Videogames

--Global Transportation Networks and Services

Additional Speakers & Panelists include (additional speakers to be announced):

--Conference Program Director: Devendra Mishra, Adjunct Professor, Pepperdine University and Principal, MND Resources, Inc.

--Rod Murray, Senior Director, Rental Games, Blockbuster

--Bob Chapek, President, Buena Vista Home Entertainment

--Steve Dahl, Senior Vice President, Buena Vista Home Entertainment

--Paul Scott, President, CFM

--Amy Jo Smith, Executive Director, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group

--Ron Navotny, CEO, Ditan Distribution

--Jim Jenkins, Consultant, Hits Entertainment

--Doug Metcalfe, Director, HK Systems

--Thomas K. Arnold, Associate Publisher, Home Media Retailing and Reporter, Hollywood Reporter

--Subhankar Bhuttachary, Senior Consultant, Infosys

--Melodie Gee, President, Inoversis

--Frank LoVerme, Senior Vice President, Kestrel Wireless

--Bryan Ekus, Managing Director, MEDIA-TECH Association

--Mary Catherine O'Connor, Associate Editor, RFID Journal

--Michael Frey, Executive Vice President, Sony BMG Music Entertainment

--Walt Engler, Senior Vice President, Operations, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 

--Alison Casey, Business Director, Understanding & Solutions

--Paul Mackinaw, Principal Consultant, Verisign

--Jack Christfield, Senior Business Consultant, Logility

--Mark Fisher, Vice President, Membership and Strategic Initiatives, Video Software Dealers Association

--John Quinn, Executive Vice President, WW Supply Chain Management, Warner Home Video 

--Ray Young, Founder & CEO, Web Concepts

The First Annual Entertainment Supply Chain Academy is being co-produced and organized by Martin Porter Associates. Martin Porter is former Senior Vice President/Publishing Director of CMP Information, where he directed 25 print, online and event properties in the audio, video, broadcast, systems and media markets.

The Academy is being presented in cooperation with DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), the association that worked on behalf of the industry to launch the DVD format, and now serves to advocate and promote the many benefits associated with DVD to consumers, media and the retail trade. As an industry funded, nonprofit organization, the DEG also offers a forum for member companies to engage in ongoing discussions and provide external communications concerning various issues and opportunities which relate to new digital technologies that may emerge in the future. For more information on the DEG, please visit www.digitalentertainmentinfo.com.

Title sponsor and co-producer of the event is the MEDIA-TECH Association, an international organization created to serve the changing needs and interests of the optical media industry. MEDIA-TECH member companies include content owners and their licensees, and raw material and equipment manufacturers, all involved in entertainment, data storage, plastics, printing and packaging. The organization is represented in the United States, Europe and Asia. For more information on the MEDIA-TECH Association, please visit www.media-tech.net.

For more information about the Entertainment Supply Chain Academy, visit www.entertainmentsupplychain.com. For exhibit and sponsorship opportunities, contact Debra Rice at 513-895-2051, or via email at: [e-mail].