REMINDER/Retail Advertising Conference — RAC 2000 — Coming to Chicago, February 9 - 11, 2000

Business Wire, Feb 8, 2000

Business Editors

REMINDER...for February 9 - 11

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

As they head into the busiest selling season of the year, retailers and e-tailers are making plans to attend the 48th annual Retail Advertising Conference (RAC 2000), February 9 - 11, 2000 in Chicago. More than 2,000 retailers, marketing/advertising agencies, media companies and service providers will converge at the Hyatt Regency Chicago to participate in three days of seminars, activities, and awards. RAC 2000 is hosted by the Retail Advertising &Marketing Association (RAMA), a division of the National Retail Federation, and includes a series of renowned speakers and exhibitions to complement this year's theme, &uot;Building Trust a Reaching for the Ultimate Relationship.&uot;

World-Renowned Retail and Marketing Experts to Speak

-- Bernie Marcus, Founder &Chairman and Dick Hammill, Sr. Vice

President, Marketing of Home Depot

-- John Irvin, President &CEO, Spiegel Catalog

-- Craig Sinclair, Vice President, Advertising, Walgreens

-- Paul Higham, Sr. VP, Marketing/Consumer Communications, Wal-Mart

-- Derek Ungless, EVP, Creative Director, Brooks Brothers

-- Case Studies &Interactive Presentations from companies

including: Helzberg Diamonds, J. Jill Group, America Online,

Carphone Warehouse, Strategic Mindshare, Cone &Co., GSD&,

Andersen Consulting and more.

Annual RAC Awards To Be Presented

ESPN SportCenter's, Karl Ravech, will host the RAC Awards Gala on Wednesday, February 9, where the best of retail print, broadcast, direct mail and Internet advertising will be honored. &uot;The RAC Awards truly honor the best of the best&uot; notes RAMA CEO, Doug Raymond. &uot;This year the judging was extremely rigorous and we had more winners than ever. That's a real testament to the high quality of work we are seeing.&uot; Key categories include the Retail Hall of Fame, Lifetime Achievement Award, Heineman Trophy for Best of Show, and the Peter Glen Public Service Award.

Proprietary Retail Research on &uot;Trust&uot; To Be Unveiled

Chris Ohlinger, CEO of Service Industry Research Systems, Inc. will present &uot;The Importance of Being Earnest: Relating Trust to the Retail Marketing Mix&uot; which will include the results of an extensive consumer research study on customer trust. The study will provide insight into the importance of customer trust, examine how trust is lost, and explore activities which have the greatest potential to positively differentiate retailers in this powerful emotional arena.

About RAC 2000:

Fees for RAC 2000 are $795 for RAMA Members and $995 for Non-Members. Individual RAMA memberships are $95 annually. For more information, call RAMA at 312-251-7262.

The Retail Advertising &Marketing Association, Intl. (RAMA) is a division of the National Retail Federation with membership comprised of retail and advertising executives as well as media, shopping centers and service providers. RAMA sponsors the annual Retail Advertising Conference (RAC), widely regarded as the most prestigious conference in retail marketing and advertising today, attracting over 2,000 professionals to Chicago each February.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is the world's largest retail trade association with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalogue, Internet and independent stores. NRF members represent an industry that encompasses more than 1.4 million U.S. retail establishments, employs more than 20 million people -- about 1 in 5 American workers -- and registered 1998 sales of $2.7 trillion. NRF's international members operate stores in more than 50 nations. In its role as the retail industry's umbrella group, NRF also represents 32 national and 50 state associations in the U.S. as well as 36 international associations representing retailers abroad.

Attention Editors: Complimentary RAC 2000 press credentials available. To get yours, call Jill McBride at 513-231-5115