West Henrietta, New York and Lexington, Kentucky, August 22, 2001 – PODi, the Digital Printing initiative, PrintPlanet.com with WhatTheyThink.com today announced that they will sponsor a special educational event during the Print ‘01 show in Chicago next month. Titled "Prospering in a World of Personalized, Integrated Marketing," this unique educational opportunity will explore the impact of customer relationship management (CRM) programs and technologies on the commercial printing industry. This event will be held Saturday, September 8, 2001 at the DoubleTree Guest Suites, 198 East Delaware Place (near Navy Pier) in downtown Chicago and will run from 1:30 pm to 5:00 pm. Registration fees will be $75.00 per person, and registration forms are available at both www.podi.org and www.whattheythink.com. This seminar grew out of an article by G. David Dodd that appeared recently in the eXpert Row area of WhatTheyThink.com’s industry-leading portal site. Dodd, who is the President of Southern Consulting, a strategic management and marketing consulting firm based in Nashville, Tennessee, wrote that two important topics seemed to be missing from the Print ‘01 seminar line-up. One of these "missing" seminars would have dealt with the increasingly important connection between CRM and printing. "Print ’01 provides an outstanding seminar line-up, but I am extremely pleased that PODi, WhatTheyThink.com and PrintPlanet.com have decided to sponsor this program," Dodd said. "It is abundantly clear that business organizations are making huge financial and strategic commitments to CRM. CRM programs often fundamentally alter a company’s approach to marketing communications, and the printing industry needs to be aware of how these changes will impact the demand for print." This program will feature presentations by Dave deBronkart, Senior Consultant, PODi, the Digital Printing initiative, Jim Corrigan, Vice President of Digital Marketing, LLC, and David Dodd. Dave deBronkart has been deeply involved with PODi’s development of the Personalized Print Markup Language, an industry standard for the production of personalized printed material. He has spoken to over 1,000 people at numerous industry conferences and seminars about the relationship between CRM and digital printing. Jim Corrigan’s firm, Digital Marketing, LLC, has been providing sophisticated database marketing and production services to a diverse customer base for over seven years. David Dodd has been providing strategic management and marketing services to graphic arts industry firms for over a decade and has worked with a number of companies that have entered the digital printing arena. Dave deBronkart summarized PODi’s interest in sponsoring this event. "One of PODi’s fundamental missions," deBronkart stated, "is to advance the opportunities in digital printing technologies through market development and educational activities. We obviously believe that digital printing, and especially personalized printing, can play an important role in CRM and one-to-one marketing programs. When we read David’s article, we saw a great opportunity to be involved in addressing an important topic." Randy Davidson, CEO of WhatTheyThink.com, also sees this sponsorship as an important extension of their corporate mission. "WhatTheyThink.com is committed to providing its members with cutting-edge news, informative interviews, insightful commentary from industry experts, and personalized advice," Davidson stated. "Therefore, education is a central and critical part of what WhatTheyThink is all about. This seminar will enable us to act upon the demand from our community for more information about CRM and digital printing." About PODi PODi leads the evolution of the digital printing infrastructure by promoting interoperability through standards and advances the opportunities in digital printing technologies through market development activities including the publication of articles and industry speaking engagements. Membership in PODi is open to leading vendors and developers involved in digital printing. Additional information regarding PODi may be obtained by calling (716) 239-6063 or on the World Wide Web at http://www.podi.org. If you have any questions regarding the seminar, please call Tracy Burkovich at 716-239-6044.