Does your agency represent gourmet food, beverage and kitchenware clients who can benefit from meeting dozens of food media in a single event? Food Fete, an invitation-only press reception for specialty food products, is seeking new product submissions for its upcoming press event on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, in San Francisco.

Food Fete is looking for new, trend-setting products, and no more than 30 companies will have the opportunity to meet with the food and lifestyle media. Unlike crowded trade shows, Food Fete is intimate, casual and designed for building media relationships.

Food Fete also presents journalists with a gift bag of product samples from event participants, guaranteeing the press receives your client’s products. For more information, visit http://www.foodfete.com or contact Jeff Davis, Food Fete producer, at jeff (at) foodfete.com.

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Will your product join the ranks of distinguished winners recognized this year?

Dr. Dobb’s Journal invites all vendors to participate in the 17th Annual Jolt Product Excellence Awards. We’re looking for products, books and Web sites that have made a difference to developers in 2006 — “jolting” the industry.

Eligible books, products and Web sites must have been published or had a significant version release in the calendar year 2006. Enter your nominations today at http://www.joltawards.com.

Nominations close Dec. 15. Finalists will be announced in January 2007. The winners will be honored at a gala ceremony on March 21, 2007, at SD West in Santa Clara, Calif., and in the June 2007 issue of Dr. Dobb’s Journal. Web sites developed before 2006 are eligible.

Please visit http://www.joltawards.com for more details.

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In another sign that television is losing viewers to the online world, the BBC has an article reporting that a survey of 2,070 Britons revealed that online viewing is on the rise against television.

From the article, some 43% of Britons who watch video from the Internet or on a mobile device at least once a week said they watched less normal TV as a result.

The figures the BBC is reporting are up from last year when they ran the same survey. It seems the digital world has disintermediated magazines, music and newspapers but somehow never really tapped books.

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Last week, the Library of Congress approved many copyright exemptions. Among the exemptions were new rules about cell phones, DVDs, and electronic books.

Cell phone owners will be allowed to unlock the software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules announced last Wednesday. Other copyright exemptions approved by the Library of Congress let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books.

All told, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first time, the office exempted groups of users. The new rules take effect today and expire in three years.

In granting the exemption for cell phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren’t able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones’ underlying programs.

It’s good to see the Library of Congress act in this manner. Not only will citizens benefit because of the wider fair use doctrine, but I expect the new ruling on cell phones to foster creativity and open up new opportunities for entrepreneurs.

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SIIA Previews will provide early-stage content and content-technology companies an opportunity to present before an audience of potential business partners, customers investors, or acquirers. Visit: http://siia.net/iis/2007/preview.asp

This all-new event will take place on January 29 in NYC, immediately preceding our 6th annual Information Industry Summit, January 30-31. Here’s how you, your firm and your clients can participate:

1. Call for Companies: Forward this email to the appropriate contacts in your network representing innovative, early-stage publishers and other content creators, aggregators, and content technology plays. It’s a very simple nominating process. For details, visit http://siia.net/iis/2007/preview_call.asp

2. Register: Plan now to attend SIIA Previews to meet the companies selected to present. Registration for SIIA Previews is separate from registration for the Information Industry Summit. You may choose to attend either or both. Visit http://siia.net/iis/2007/register.asp

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SMARTMONEY
Smartmoney has elevated Bill Shaw, 212-373-9150, to publisher of the magazine. His official start date is Jan. 1. Shaw was previously the general manager of smartmoney.com. SmartMoney provides personal finance information to professional and managerial Americans. Editorial provides ideas for investing, spending and saving, plus regular coverage of technology, automotive, careers and lifestyle subjects.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Michelle Quinnhas been named a business columnist for the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News. Her column, Valley Voice, will appear in the paper Sundays and Wednesdays. The column will examine people, companies and business developments in Silicon Valley. She will also still serve as a technology culture reporter. She previously covered business, family and parenting.

BLOOMBERG NEWS
Adam Cataldo, 212-617-5227, recently joined Bloomberg News as a municipal bonds reporter. He was previously a reporter for The Bond Buyer and, prior to that, a reporter for The Charlotte Observer. Bloomberg News is an international wire service that provides news, data and analysis to business and media professionals with a focus on business, financial and economic information.

ARIZONA REPUBLIC
Business reporter Jonathan Higuera has left The Arizona Republic to become the deputy director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University. Higuera had been with the newspaper since 2003 and covered economics and international trade. The Arizona Republic is a state-wide newspaper offering residents a strong focus on local news, along with national and international news.

MARKETWATCH
MarketWatch, Inc. has named Murray Coleman as its new finance reporter. He was previously a mutual funds reporter for Investor’s Business Daily since April 2000. Before that, he worked at the Orange County Business Journal. MarketWatch is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company Inc. and is a leading provider of business news, financial information and analytical tools.

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Today, we received the following calls from reporters looking for resources for stories they are writing.

COMPUTERWORLD
Patrick Martino is writing a freelance story for ComputerWorld about Chinese banks’ core banking systems. He is looking for experts who can talk to the following questions about banks in China: How are Chinese banks looking to improve their risk management systems? How are they switching from paper to electronic processes, and how are they rolling out new platforms to support new services such as e-banking? How are banks looking to increase productivity and increase transparency? I’m also interested in how the challenges Chinese banks face are the same as those U.S. banks faced in the past.

Vendors, please contact Patrick only if you have users who are willing to talk on the record. He is on China Shanghai Time. Email Patrick at Patrick.D.Martino (at) gmail.com. Deadline is Thursday, November 16.

INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY
Reinhardt Krause, Investors Business Daily, is seeking experts on the status of China in the WTO five years after joining — currency, banking, intellectual property, auto parts, etc. Email is reinhardt.krause (at) investors.com and his deadline is Thursday, November 16, at 1:00 PM.

RAGAN’S MEDIA RELATIONS REPORT
For a “look-ahead” story in Ragan’s Media Relations Report’s first 2007 issue, Chris Kent would like to hear predictions from PR people about what will happen in the world of media relations — and in the media — throughout 2007. He would love to get some guesses on how relations between journalists and PR people might change, how social media will continue to impact PR, and what media trends may impact how PR people work with the press. Email Chris at chrisk (at) ckeditorial.com. His deadline is Thursday, November 16.

ENTERPRISELEADERSHIP.ORG
Elizabeth Ferrarini at Enterpriseleadership.org is looking for C-level executives for podcast interviews on leadership topics. Executives to date have been from Turner Broadcasting, Fedex, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and The Wharton School. Check out the site at www.enterpriseleadership.org. Please send a biography of the executive to Elizabeth at elizabethferrarini@yahoo.com.

Cheers,
Steven

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Where are you going to meet the press when hundreds of reporters and industry analysts discover the future of business, consumer, lifestyle, and digital technologies for home, for work, for play?

Join innovators and award winners like Vonage, muvee, Magna Donnelly, ifrogz, h20 Audio, Home Automation Inc., Kingston, Opera, Seagate, TeleNav, D-Link and OQO, among others, at ShowStoppers @ CES 2007, where hot companies with cool products meet reporters, editors, columnists and industry analysts.

This is Showstoppers annual blockbuster event — Jan. 8, 2007, the first night of CES in Las Vegas. This press-only event in January 2006 included demonstrations by more than 100 companies, with nearly 800 press in attendance.

The January 2007 special event is just two months away — yet within 48 hours of sending out their first invitations, more than 200 reporters have already registered to attend. And, they will host the PC World magazine awards for the sixth consecutive year.

Not taking a booth on the show floor? You do not need to exhibit at CES in order to meet the press at ShowStoppers.

ShowStoppers events are regularly attended by, among others, ABC, CBS, BBC, Bloomberg, CNN, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, This Old House Magazine, Business Week, Consumer Reports, engadget, Fortune, Forbes, Good Housekeeping, Maxim, Money, Outlook 4Mobility, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Stuff, USA Today, C/Net, Dow Jones, eWeek, IDC, InfoWorld, Jupiter Research, Network World, Newsweek, PC Magazine, PC World, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and ZD Net.

And don’t forget their other powerful press events — PressExpoUSA, the first press event for U.S. companies ever scheduled for CeBIT, the world’s largest technology tradeshow, set for March 2007 in Hannover, Germany, produced with Hannover Fairs USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Deutsche Messe, which runs CeBIT; ShowStoppers @ CTIA Wireless, March 2007 in Orlando; and more.

Visit www.showstoppers.com/calendar.htm for their complete calendar of press-only special events.

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Last week a press release came across my desk announcing the IAB Elects 10 New Board Members.

It piqued my interest. After all, I’m the type of individual who likes to keep up with old colleagues. You know, do the networking thing and “don’t burn any bridges.” And I did notice a few familiar names. Riley McDonough from WebMD for example.

But what really made me laugh, I do that a lot when the IAB and PwC issue their Internet advertising figures, was not who the newly elected members are, but the number of Board members. It now stands at a larger than life 33.

“According to A Snapshot of America’s Nonprofit Boards, published by the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, the average number of board meetings per year is eight, the majority of boards have meetings lasting two hours or less, and the average board member attendance is 71 percent.”

Talk about bloated and ineffective. Anybody know how long it takes to hold an IAB Board meeting with 33 members?
How can the 300 leading interactive companies who are members of the IAB, let the Board get so bloated? Hard to fathom.

Anyway, to put this into perspective we did some research and here is a list of randomly selected non-profits and their Board members.

American Society of Media Photographers: 15 members
The British Wool Marketing Board: 11 members
Mozilla Foundation: 5 members
Schwab Charitable Trust: 5 members

If anybody can find a non-profit with more than 33 members, please let me know and you’ll get a Starbucks $25.00 gift certificate courtesy of BlinnPR.

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A month ago, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz posted on his blog about how he was petitioning the SEC for clarification on fair disclosure rules.

As IR people know, REG FD is designed so that companies that have “material” news need to disclose it equally and fairly so that no one person or organization has an advantage (i.e., can trade on the information) without others being able to find the same info. Schwartz was complaining that the REG FD required them to do a combination of things such as a press release or a conference call, when a simple blog post might suffice.

Of course, the regulations which took effect on October 23, 2000, have never been that clear, as they seem to basically say that adequate disclosure may depend on the method, but there’s no set of things you must do. In other words, it’s not entirely clear what kind of clarification can be made since it seems like the issue has little to do with the form in which the info is released, but whether or not whatever form it is is accessible and likely to be seen by enough people.

SEC Chairman Christopher Cox has responded by suggesting that sure, blogs could be okay if they are clearly going to be seen and accessible, the press has turned this into a “blog” issue, about how blogs can be used for disclosure.

However, that’s not quite right and it’s not what the SEC indicated. What they basically said was that the medium doesn’t matter, the impact does. In the case of Sun, Jonathan Schwartz’s blog is widely read by the press — and thus, if he makes a statement, it will get picked up rapidly (as this very story did!).

So, it makes sense that a blog post from him (in combination with other disclosure methods) is perfectly fine. However, for the IR person at a public company with a blog no one reads, it’s clearly not at all sufficient. In the end, this isn’t a blog issue at all. The medium has nothing to do with it — only the likelihood of the disclosure being noticed and accessible to all.

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