Wolrd Renowned Author and Marketing Guru David Aaker to Keynote CMO Council Summit
CMO Summit To Be Attended By Over 200 Senior Technology Marketers Worldwide; Provides Unparallel Networking And Intellectual Capital Generation

SAN FRANCISCO (September 13, 2004) - David Aaker, a well-known author and marketing guru will keynote the prestigious CMO Summit being held October 7 and 8 in Monterey, California. Aaker is vice chairman of Prophet, a leading management consultancy specializing in brand and business strategy, and a former professor of marketing at UCBerkeley's Haas School of Business.

The CMO Summit is the premier networking and intellectual capital generating event for the CMO Council, an organization of senior marketing decision makers in the technology industry. Aaker will be drawing on his 40-plus years of marketing expertise in a presentation on "Brand Success in the Tech Sector: The Convergence of Relevance, Differentiation, and Innovation." illustrating how to leverage product innovation to ensure brand survival in an increasingly competitive and fast-moving marketplace.

His presentation is particularly appropriate for the CMO Council's annual summit theme which is "Setting the Strategic Agenda" and focuses on how today's marketing professionals are being challenged to step up while being more accountable for marketing effectiveness, product success and business performance. With nearly 1,000 members who control an estimated $40 billion in annual marketing expenditures, more than 75 percent of the CMO Council members have executive officer titles and represent global technology companies with aggregated annual revenues of over $500 billion.

Aaker's presentation will demonstrate how clear roles and responsibilities actively reinforce and support portfolio brands to create relevance, differentiation, energy, leverage, and clarity. A prolific author, Aaker has written 12 books and had more than 90 articles published on his views regarding branding strategy in such leading publications as Harvard Business Review. His latest book, Brand Portfolio Strategy, highlights how a company's brand can support corporate strategy and profoundly enhance profitability.

Highly respected by both academicians and industry professionals and an internationally renowned expert on the subject of brand, Aaker provides industry leading thought leadership and strategic-level advice to help Prophet clients achieve competitive advantage. Aaker and Prophet have a solid track record of turning existing brands into category leaders for clients such as Adidas, AT&T, Boeing, BP, Cargill, Carlson Hotels Worldwide, Maidenform, Philips, Sara Lee, Siemens, Teradata, T. Rowe Price, and UBS.

In addition to Aaker's keynote, other headline opening sessions will be a dynamic debate among industry maestros and mavens facilitated by Intuit chairman Bill Campbell and including Handspring and Palm founder Donna Dubinsky; Apple, AOL and Netscape veteran Mike Homer, and Google's product marketing chief, Jonathan Rosenberg.

Senior Vice President Peter Weedfald of Samsung will also keynote on how Samsung has achieved such an astounding revitalization of its brand and market position in just four years. More than 12 breakaway invention sessions will also generate intellectual capital and will feature interactive panel discussions led by top marketing executives from companies such as Adobe, Alcatel, Ameritrade, BearingPoint, Biz360, Checkpoint, Cognos, Documentum, Doubleclick, EDS, EMC, Epson, Google, Hitachi, HP, Interwoven, Juniper Networks, Konica Minolta, Logitech, Oracle, Qualcomm, Seagate, Symantec, Tektronix, Unica, WebTrends, Wyse, and Yahoo!, among others.

The CMO Council's Marketing Performance Measurement (MPM) task force and advisory committee will also release a new MPM model that details standards and practices for benchmarking effectiveness and quantifying value in the technology industry that results from a year of primary and secondary research performed by the Council. McKinsey consultant Girish Nair will also speak on "CMO Endurance: Strategies to Gain & Sustain as a Marketing Leader." Trend watcher expert, Michael Tchong, will give his penetrating insights on emerging market shifts and changes likely to impact purchasing patterns and buying preferences as part of his annual Trendscape 2005 Outlook.

For more information on the CMO Summit or to register, please go to www.cmocouncil.org/summit2004/. CMO Summit attendees must join the CMO Council and can nominate themselves at http://www.cmocouncil.org/nominations.html. There are no membership dues to join the council, however applicants must hold a senior marketing position in a technology company to meet eligibility requirements.

CMO Council key underwriters include Biz360 (Active Market Intelligence,) Cognos (Corporate Performance Management,) Google (Automated Search Technology,) Webtrends (Web Analytics) and Unica (Enterprise Marketing Management Software.) Headline sponsors include GlobalFluency, the administrative arm of the CMO Council, Neale-May & Partners, Peninsula Marketing Association and Interwoven. Publishing sponsors include BusinessWeek, Chief Executive Magazine, eChannelLine, IDG, Sales & Marketing Management and USA TODAY. Technology underwriters include Accela Communications, Bitpipe, Inc., D S SimonProductions, ExactTarget, Marketwire, Raindance, Smart Technologies, VeriSign and ViewCentral.

ABOUT PROPHET
Prophet is a management consultancy that helps clients achieve competitive advantage by creating and implementing integrated business, brand and marketing strategies. Leveraging the thought leadership of David Aaker and a team of seasoned professionals, Prophet assists companies with their strategies and execution focused on developing, growing and protecting one of their most valuable assets: their brand. Prophet has offices in Chicago, Houston, London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, and Zurich. For more information, please visit www.prophet.com.

ABOUT THE CMO COUNCIL
The CMO Council is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior marketing and brand decision-makers in the global technology industry. Based in Silicon Valley, The Council works to further the stature, credibility, influence, and understanding of the strategic marketing function among business executives, opinion leaders and critical stakeholders in the technology sector.

Nearly 1,000 technology companies are currently represented on the CMO Council, accounting for well over $500 billion in aggregated annual revenues. These include top decision-makers controlling more than $40 billion in global marketing expenditures for many of the world's foremost computer systems, software, networking, communications, consumer electronics, component, distribution, and consulting brands. For more information, please visit our web site at http://www.cmocouncil.org.

The CMO Council is represented through regional chapters, which convene in technology centers worldwide under the auspices and administration of GlobalFluency, the Independent Network of Influence. Spearheaded by Silicon Valley-based Neale-May & Partners, GlobalFluency consists of 38 offices employing over 250 professionals in 44 countries. Together, these organizations represent more than $45 million in billings from scores of clients across the information technology, communications, systems integration and Internet service sectors. More information is available at http://www.globalfluency.com.