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Business Services Industry

Nth Degree and Lake Capital Partner for Strategic and International Growth

Business Wire, April 23, 2001

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 23, 2001

Group of Investors Commits Significant Equity Capital to Expansion

of Global Face-to-Face Marketing Specialist

Lake Capital, a Chicago- and London-based private investment firm that specializes in building high-quality, service-based companies into premier global enterprises, today announced the acquisition of Nth Degree, Inc., one of the nation's leading face-to-face marketing companies. A group, including Lake Capital; Frontenac Company; PPM America Capital Partners, LLC; Banc One Venture Partners; and Svoboda, Collins L.L.C., among others, has committed up to $150 million in equity in an initiative to acquire Nth Degree and aggressively expand the company's strategic and international capabilities.

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Nth Degree, based in Stone Mountain, Georgia, is one of the largest privately-held, face-to-face marketing companies in the world. The company offers labor management, event management, trade show management, and marketing services worldwide to more than 3,000 domestic and multinational clients, and supports more than 14,000 proprietary events, trade shows, and event marketing programs annually. Nth Degree has twenty-three domestic offices, including all major convention cities, two offices in Germany, a presence in Brazil, and strategic partnerships in Mexico, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Asia.

"The face-to-face marketing industry, which includes trade shows, product launches, user conferences, seminars, and marketing road tours, is increasingly becoming an indispensable marketing tool to companies that want to take specific messages to a target audience," said Terence Graunke, chairman of Lake Capital. "With Nth Degree, we have the opportunity to build with one of the industry's premier companies to offer enhanced services globally to organizations for which sales and marketing in a face-to-face environment can make a major impact."

"This investment initiative also allows us the opportunity to partner again with a group of experienced business services investors with which we have collaborated successfully in the past," continued Graunke. "This is our fourth investment with Frontenac Company, while it is our second with both PPM America and Banc One."

Nth Degree co-founder Jack McEntee will join the board of directors of newly-formed Nth Degree Global, LLC, while the company's president, Samuel Lacey, and Nth Degree's existing executive team will continue to manage the operations of Nth Degree. McEntee and co-founder Pat Alacqua will both invest in the new initiative.

"Our corporate and exhibit house customers will continue to see Nth Degree operate with vision and collaboration, as we prepare to be an even more significant partner and ally in their future success," noted McEntee. "Pat and I are both very excited about Nth Degree's long-term strategic opportunities, and we look forward to our continued involvement in Nth Degree."

"We continue to work to meet our customers' needs for new, value-added services, both in the U.S. and in other countries. With the financial resources that have been committed, we will be focusing on growing our corporate events and marketing communications areas," commented Alacqua. "We will also make strategic acquisitions in these areas in order to stay in front of our customers' needs."

All of Nth Degree's service areas are targeted for expansion:

-- Labor Management and Staffing: Nth Degree is one of the largest event and trade show management firms in the world. With operations offices in 19 convention cities nationwide and four base cities in Europe serving a total of 84 cities, Nth Degree provides project management, installation and dismantle supervision, and labor staffing for more than 16,000,000 square feet of exhibit and event space each year. The company's services include labor management, coordination of freight and drayage, and the management of the logistical processes inherent in making an exhibit "show ready."

-- Trade Show Program Development and Management: Nth Degree manages all elements of trade show programs for a select group of customers, from strategic planning through day-to-day execution. In partnership with its customers, Nth Degree develops complete show schedules and budgets and then implements all aspects of each event on the schedule, seamlessly coordinating its own tasks with those of outsourced providers. Internationally, Nth Degree's Worldwide Design & Fabrication team provides full service solutions with in-house talent that can design, build, install, and dismantle trade show exhibits while maintaining consistent brand imaging and messaging.

-- Meeting Services and Exposition Management: Nth Degree recognizes that proprietary corporate events, such as road tours, user conferences, pavilions, symposia, and seminars, have emerged as key branding opportunities and media through which long-term customer relationships will be formed and sustained. Nth Degree helps its customers select, design, and manage a specific event and ensure the message is effective and creative, the appropriate audience is targeted, and the event is successfully executed. The company's broad events service offering includes strategic consultation, conference and exposition management, registration management (using Nth Degree's proprietary web-based registration system), special events management, exposition space/sponsorship sales, venue selection and management, food and beverage management, destination management, and speaker management.

Business Services Industry

Nth Degree and Lake Capital Partner for Strategic and International Growth

Business Wire, April 23, 2001

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