York, a Division of Johnson Controls, and Penton Media Earn National Honors for Contractor Sales Training Webcast Series

Business Wire, Jan 26, 2007

CLEVELAND -- Penton Media, Inc. (OTCBB:PTON)

The Custom Publishing Council (CPC) recently honored York, a division of Johnson Controls, and Penton Media for their combined work on an educational webcast series for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) contractors. The 12-course program, sponsored by York, earned a CPC silver Pearl Award for Excellence in Editorial in the Best New Publication/Web category. The awards recognize the best of the best in editorial, design and strategy of custom print and electronic media, and have come to signify the measure of excellence in both B2C and B2B custom publishing.

With support from York, Penton's Contracting Business and HVACR Distribution Business produced the award-winning series, which featured 12 one-hour webcasts focused on a different topic designed to give contractors the confidence and skills to successfully "up sell" home comfort systems. Together, Penton and York selected leading industry consultant, Tom Piscitelli as the course instructor. With more than 30 years experience in HVAC sales, sales management, marketing and consulting, Piscitelli has a solid reputation and a track record for bringing cutting-edge training methods to the HVAC industry. The entire program was turnkeyed by Penton Custom Media.

"We are extremely proud of the award recognition, but we are even more excited about the need this webcast series filled in the HVAC community," said John Ehlen, publisher, HVACR Distribution Business. "The collaboration between our editors, Tom Piscitelli and the folks from York yielded an educational training series that really struck a chord with our readers, and we promise to continue our partnership with companies like York to develop award-winning content that helps contractors stay ahead of the competition."

Building on the success of last year's training series, all three parties - York, Penton and Piscitelli - will produce another sales training program: 2007 T.R.U.S.T.[R] and CHOICE[R] Series: The Technician's Sales Toolbox. Residential HVAC service technicians across the country earn straight A's when it comes to repairing a malfunctioning unit, but most of them fail to uncover additional needs, potentially costing the contractor business. It's not their fault, though, as they are not trained in sales and are probably not asked to do it.

The Technician's Sales Toolbox Series will give the technician all of the sales tools they need to become comfortable and confident at engaging the homeowner-customer in conversation, producing increased customer satisfaction, more income for the technician, and more profitable sales for contractors.

The first installment of this free four-course webcast series kicks off with "Technician's Rules of Customer Engagement," at 2 pm on February 26. For more details or to register for this free webcast series, click here or visit http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=35915&s=1&k= B2FF2858732213B7D2A2A76188A53A1E&partnerref=pcmrelease. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser's address field. Remove the extra space if one exists.)

About Penton Media

Penton (www.penton.com) is a diversified business-to-business media company that provides high-quality content and integrated marketing solutions in 12 industries. Founded in 1892, Penton produces market-focused magazines, trade shows, conferences and online media, and provides a broad range of custom media and direct marketing solutions.