High-Tech Media Vets Form Microcast Communications to Offer Custom Content and Events; New Media Company is the Brainchild of Industry Leaders Perlman, Bolles and Perkowski

Business Wire, April 18, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- Technology media veterans Al Perlman, Gary A. Bolles and Mike Perkowski today announced the formation of Microcast Communications Inc., a new company focused on creating targeted, custom content for the high-tech industry.

Microcast offers a wide range of products and services in face-to-face, print and online media. The majority of Microcast's offerings are available to technology vendors as single-sponsored products that are customized to the vendor's marketing and sales goals.

"Microcast is built on the premise that the information needs of today's IT professionals are best served through focused, targeted, intimate and intelligent interaction -- with peers, with experts and with vendors," said Al Perlman, one of Microcast's three co-founders. "As editors and publishers, we've been shaping those types of intelligent conversations for years, and now we want to use our expertise to help vendors build stronger relationships with the IT community."

Microcast sponsored, custom products and services include:

--Face-to-face events such as executive roundtables, executive wine-tastings, executive in-person seminars, road shows and full-day and multi-day conferences.

--Print content, including white papers, case studies, executive points-of-view and magazines.

--On-line content and interactions, including Web seminars, Web Logs (blogs), e-Newsletters and topic-specific microsites.

--Leading-edge research, including online panel creation, focus groups, advisory group creation and online messaging and creative testing.

"We understand the needs of IT professionals and can deliver the compelling content and conversation that will interest, engage and stimulate them," said Bolles, who has moderated over 150 roundtables and other events in recent years. "We recognize that IT professionals are under more pressure and scrutiny than ever before. They have to deliver measurable ROI (return on investment), deal with confusing compliance regulations, and keep current with ever-changing technologies. They need specific and practical information that can only come from the type of custom, targeted, interactive content that Microcast provides."

Microcast will typically work directly with a vendor's marketing or sales department to understand their goals, which typically include

--Generating qualified sales leads

--Gathering insight from customers and prospects about new market opportunities. Often this insight will be used to help a vendor enter a new market, develop a new product or target a specific vertical industry.

--Learning about specific challenges facing customers and prospects. This will typically be used for creating marketing messages and developing new products.

--Delivering world-class content and information to customers and prospects with a caliber, credibility and cachet far beyond the capabilities of internal marketing departments or traditional custom publishing organizations.

Microcast will then create a custom content program designed to help the vendor achieve its goals. The elements of the program can range anywhere from a single executive roundtable or white paper to a fully integrated program incorporating events, print and online solutions. All of Microcast's products and services are offered either as full turnkey programs, or can broken down as specific elements of broader solutions. For instance, Microcast can coordinate an entire road show series, including recruitment, venue management and moderation or it can provide any single element.

"We have a lot of experience building best-of-breed content for the high-tech community," said Microcast co-founder Mike Perkowski. "The past few years we've seen massive changes in the way IT professionals get their information and in the way IT vendors deliver that information. Over and over, we've heard IT professionals talk about peer-to-peer interaction and expert analysis as their favored sources of information.

"At Microcast, our mission is to coordinate, facilitate, aggregate, moderate, interpret and analyze those interactions," Perkowski continued. "We want to help the IT community communicate successfully and we want to provide access to vendors of high tech products and services so they can participate in these conversations. We believe this is the future of IT media -- not broadcasting, not narrowcasting but 'Microcasting.'"(tm)

Microcast's co-founders have been leaders in the technology media business for nearly 30 years and have helped create and build many of the industry's most successful and respected products.

Perlman is the former President of Ziff-Davis Business Media and co-founder of Interactive Enterprises. He has spearheaded the launch of more than 15 high-tech publications, including CIO Insight, Baseline, Interactive Week, Network Computing, Computer Reseller News, VARBusiness and CommunicationsWeek.

Bolles most recently was editorial director of the Custom Events Group at Ziff-Davis. He has been involved in launching several successful companies, including Interactive Enterprises and Evolve Software. He has helped to launch many successful publications and Web sites, including Interactive Week, Network Computing, Smart Reseller and the hi-tech conference newsletter Conferenza.