FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BOSTON, MA September 12, 1995 -- NewMarket Ventures, a venture development and marketing firm, announced the international launch of the NewMarket Forum™, a comprehensive Internet site listing events-related information on over 10,000 professional associations and membership groups. The NewMarket Forum is a one-stop information repository that makes it easier to find information on the seminars, conferences, educational programs and membership benefits of professional associations and Chambers of Commerce -- and helps professional associations compete for ever-tightening corporate expenditures. Its World Wide Web address is http://www.newmarket-forum.com/.

Saving Time, Money for Professionals and Associations

NewMarket Forum users search and retrieve event information electronically at one central site, instead of thumbing through costly resource books or searching multiple Web sites. Users make more informed business decisions, get the training they need, stay connected with their favorite organizations and gain access to a wide range of services and professional expertise by using the NewMarket Forum's resource center. Conversely, the NewMarket Forum works for associations by attracting wider attention to their events, saving printing and postage costs in communicating with their constituencies, developing new members, and posting new benefits of interest to that group. Associations can use the NewMarket Forum to establish an Internet presence easily -- or link their existing home page to the NewMarket Forum.

"Information drives business success, but it's nearly impossible to find the information you need in one easy-to-use place or format," said Tom Lix, president and co-founder of NewMarket Ventures. "Now, with NewMarket Forum, every professional can boost their productivity -- and every association can establish a leadership image in a venue with the critical mass to draw a sizable audience."

"The NewMarket Forum is a great example of the future of information resources," said Suzanne Levin, research analyst at the international consulting firm Ernst & Young and a board member of the American Marketing Association, an early NewMarket beta site. "Trade shows, conferences, networking events, seminars, referral networks -- it's all here in one place, and it makes my job easier. I highly recommend it."

Content-Rich and Built for Commerce

The Internet is emerging as a key distribution channel for many organizations. Various estimates suggest there are currently 30 to 50 million Internet users and almost 40,000 corporate or business Internet addresses -- figures that are growing at 10-15 percent per month. Spending on the World Wide Web has increased 31 percent in the first half of 1995 over the previous six months, and is projected to grow over 70 percent in the second half of 1995, according to a study from the University of Michigan.

The challenge for users is to find practical, productivity-enhancing sources of information. The challenge for organizations is to establish an early Internet presence -- affordably -- and make it a viable means of commerce.

The NewMarket Forum does both. For users, the NewMarket Forum will offer the most extensive listings of meetings or conference sites available on the Internet today, free of charge to users. The Forum makes it easy to search, retrieve, and even automatically clip news on key topics, and, with its use of intelligent information agents, can personalize each search for even greater ease. Users can peruse a database or drill-down to explore membership benefits or a calendar of events.

In the next 60 days, the NewMarket Forum will introduce secure on-line event registration and launch a series of business information services, including industry newsletters and business publications; referral networks of consultants, attorneys, CPAs and professional speakers; affinity financial services; business travel programs; and more. Users can take advantage of discount rates for these services, while the NewMarket Forum will derive revenues from partnership agreements with participating vendors.

For the associations and membership groups, the NewMarket Forum provides a comprehensive, "gotta be there" site that people from around the world can use -- a site that attracts new members, facilitates on-line transactions, and serves as a fast, lower-cost channel for communications. It is an up-and-coming source of added revenue from event registration.

The New Model of Direct Selling

"At its core, the Internet is the most highly evolved technique of personalized mass marketing for one-on-one selling and communication," said Paul S. Berenson, chairman and co-founder of NewMarket Ventures. "The NewMarket Forum builds and maintains one-on-one relationships with users who have the need for information services, and the power to buy them." Berenson also is president and executive creative director of Berenson, Isham & Partners, a major national direct response advertising agency located in Boston that handles direct marketing for the NYNEX Interactive Yellow Pages among other accounts.

The NewMarket Forum is the offering of NewMarket Ventures, a venture development and marketing firm founded by two senior executives with proven records of success in advertising, marketing and software development. NewMarket Ventures brings expertise in direct relationship marketing -- the heart of any interaction between Internet users and marketers -- to its role as content developer and electronic marketplace-builder. NewMarket Ventures works to create entire markets by building, then expanding relationships with large groups that have spending-power.

NewMarket Ventures, Inc. is a marketing capital and venture development company that focuses on the creation and incubation of information-intensive, new media marketing companies. The company sponsors its flagship NewMarket Forum at http://www.newmarket-forum.com/.

To put an association in the NewMarket Forum, association executives can contact Betty McGilvray at Interactive Training Inc, by sending e-mail to betty@trainingforum.com.

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