Unique, integrated platform provides industry leaders with maximum business value

BOULDER, Colo. (March 7, 2005) - While racehorses must still journey to three separate tracks for their Triple Crown events, New Hope Natural Media has made it possible for a trinity of trade events in one convenient location to give business and thought leaders every conceivable advantage as they build winning products for the natural, healthy marketplace. Recognizing the need for optimization to benefit the swiftly growing and diversifying natural products industry, New Hope Natural Media has engineered its Nutracon and SupplyExpo conferences into an integrated event scheduled in tandem with Natural Products Expo West, March 17-20, 2005, at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, Calif.

Linking the industry
"We've created a complete supply chain model so companies can move from concept to sourcing to marketing and product launch in less than one week at one convenient venue," said Karen Raterman, vice president of content development for New Hope Natural Media, a division of Penton Media.

Building on momentum and feedback from prior shows, Nutracon Conference and SupplyExpo have conveniently co-located with Natural Products Expo West.  These three events present the broadest selection of companies building new products for the natural and healthy marketplace worldwide. And all under one convention center roof.

The industry that won't stop booming
The National Retail Federation reports that U.S. retail sales growth is projected to grow sluggishly at around 3.5 percent in 2005 (www.nfr.com), while by contrast the natural products industry continues to pace at double-digit growth, with organic sales exploding at 20 percent,  annually, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Natural Foods Merchandiser's "Market Overview 2003" study (June 2004) reported that natural products retail sales reached $42.8 billion, an 8.1 percent increase over 2002. This growth has created huge demand for new ingredients, food and nutrition technologies and sophisticated strategies for taking products to market.

Nutracon Conference, March 16-18, allows participants to explore a range of tracks, including: 'The New Lesser Evil'; Functional and Fortified Food Bioactives; Functional Confectionary; Global Market Review (including special presentations from Canada and Sweden); The Future of Organic; Natural Personal Care; and New Ingredient Science.

Nutracon attendees will experience a smorgasbord of content offerings, a curriculum presented by notables ranging from Estée Lauder's Mindy Goldstein to Michael Dansinger, one of the physicians at Tufts-New England Medical Center who conducted the study that examined which popular diets are the most effective at weight loss and reducing risk factors for heart disease.

"In addition to designing our curriculum to give attendees a snapshot of current thinking and data, we're also incorporating modeling techniques and unique insights to anticipate future directions in areas such as functional confectionaries, the 'new lesser evil' and ingestibles for personal care," said Raterman, "And attendees actually get to work through the product development process with a panel of experts in our Formulators Challenge, this year entitled 'The Next Red Bull.'"

"Nutracon Conference is the only event in the world that has the sheer mass, diversity and energy of all forms and disciplines in healthy lifestyle activities," said Tim Avila, community and content experience adviser to New Hope. "If making and marketing winning, healthy, consumer brands is your objective, this eclectic event is like a master's festival of jazz and world music."

SupplyExpo, March 17- 20, offers attendees the opportunity to begin sourcing ingredients and materials for their business initiatives and launches. Attendees will find easy access to experts to discuss formulation challenges. All attendees may participate in the technology transfer forum and application center - right on the show floor.

Natural Products Expo West complements both Nutracon and Supply/Expo, March 17-20, as the largest natural and organic products trade show in the world with 36,000 attendees viewing more than 1,500 exhibits.

About Nutracon
Nutracon is the premier education and networking conference giving attendees the strategy, research and market data needed to successfully launch new products. Participants hear the latest science on intellectual property; formulation techniques; regulatory issues; food, beverage, supplement and cosmetic-ready ingredients; exclusive market data; and intelligence and case studies from the executives and product developers leading the market. For a detailed schedule visit http://products.newhope.com/t?ctl=4C5B:14E878

About SupplyExpo
SupplyExpo offers the industry's most comprehensive offering of ingredient, technology and service companies for sourcing for food/beverage, supplements/nutraceuticals and personal care/ cosmeceuticals. This year the show floor also features technology transfer and product application centers. The entire SupplyExpo exhibitor list is available at http://products.newhope.com/t?ctl=4C5C:14E878

To register for Nutracon/SupplyExpo visit http://products.newhope.com/t?ctl=4C58:14E878 or call Conference Customer Service at (866) 458-4935 (toll-free) or (303) 390-776 (local).

New Hope Natural Media is a division of Penton Media Inc. (OTCBB: PTON), a diversified business-to-business media company. New Hope Natural Media provides high-quality content and integrated marketing solutions to the following industries: health/nutrition and natural and organic products; aviation; design/engineering; electronics; food/retail; government/compliance; business technology/enterprise IT; leisure/hospitality; manufacturing; mechanical systems/construction; and supply chain.

Contact:
Sylvia R. Tawse
The Fresh Ideas Group
(303) 449-2108, ext. 11
sylvia@freshideasgroup.com