Dear Valued Customer,

During 2000 Advanstar will continue 1999's dramatic expansion of our media properties to further develop our position as the world's leading provider of buyers and sellers in select, high growth vertical industry sectors, including Digital Media, Digital Print & Document Management, Telecommunications, e-Conferencing & e-Learning, CRM & Call Centers, and Internet & e-Business. Advanstar is committed to helping you succeed in the rapidly changing technology market, by providing the right mix of media properties to ensure you reach your target audiences.

Our expansion has surpassed both our expectations, and that of our advertisers, exhibitors, sponsors, readers, visitors and users as we continued to grow the scope, size and number of our high quality trade shows, conferences, web solutions and publications.

• In 1998, we offered 22 technology-related trade shows, 17 publications and 9 web sites.
• In 1999, our group had increased to 33 shows, 32 publications and 50 web sites.
• In 2000, the renamed Advanstar Technology Communities expects to attract 245,000 visitors to our events, 400,000 readers of our publications and 250,000 visitors to our existing web sites and new e-commerce enabled web communities

This dramatic growth is a testament to Advanstar's commitment to keep pace with rapidly changing technology markets, and to provide the most dynamic and effective media mix to help our clients reach and surpass their objectives.

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Your Partner in Reaching Rapidly Changing Markets
The global technology markets in 2000 will continue to provide unique challenges and opportunities to manufacturers, vendors, resellers, integrators, users and service providers:

• Continuously changing environments
• Ever-shortening product life cycles
• Downward price and profit-margin pressure
• Highly sophisticated sales processes
• Fierce competition
• Continuing transition to e-commerce

Our mission is to enable you and your business to meet these challenges by providing you with an integrated package of business media tools to:

• Communicate with customers, partners, investors, legislators and staff
• Build brand recognition
• Launch new products
• Source and acquire new customers
• Retain and grow existing customers
• Announce new initiatives
• Source suppliers and distributors
• Conduct purchase and sales transactions
• Generate revenue and profit

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The Launch of Advanstar Technology Communities
Companies use technology in a range of applications--The Technology Chain--and Advanstar Technology Communities are arranged, by design, to thoroughly communicate to each community and at each stage of the technology chain:

• CONTENT is created and edited, and documents are managed and digitally printed...
• COMMUNICATION and transmission of content occurs over landline, wireless and IP networks in order to better serve...
• CUSTOMERS, through customer relationship management tools, call centers and customer support, to ultimately drive...
• COMMERCE, both in the physical and electronic worlds. Advanstar is the only media and marketing company that provides you with trade show, conference, web, print and e-Commerce marketing tools that reach communities of buyers at every stage of the technology chain, and with global coverage--U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Our Growth and Expansion Benefits You
We invested significantly in 1999 to enhance our offerings across our community groups:

• In November we purchased the largest Document Management Show in Europe -- Germany's DMS Show in Essen -- which, together with the On Demand conference & exposition, completes a transatlantic, leading event portfolio for the Digital Print/Document Management market. We will expand this further in 2000 with the launch of On Demand West in Southern California, and On Demand Europe in London. As part of this acquisition, we added Info 21, a publication serving the electronic information management industry. We plan to use Advanstar's extensive resources to deliver greater value and increased benefits to Info 21 readers and advertisers.
• TeleXpo, Latin America's largest and most influential telecommunications industry event, itself continues to go from strength to strength. TeleXpo 2000 will feature more than 400 exhibitors, 2000 conference delegates, and attract more visitors than any other annual telecommunications event in the world. Even the International Telecommunications Union's (ITU -- a United Nations Agency, and the world's governing body of telecommunications) event in Brazil in 2000 provides only a fraction of the exhibitors, attendees, conference content, delegates, profile and press coverage that TeleXpo attracts.
• June marked the launch of the Telecom Asia Reader Awards -- the first event of its kind to honor Asia's senior Telecommunications executives. The event attracted more than three hundred of the region's most senior players and achieved such a high profile that Advanstar has been invited to run the event in June of 2000 alongside the CommunicAsia trade show and the provisional APEC ministers meeting in Singapore.
• We relaunched Teleconference Magazine early in '99, which then tripled in size during the year as it established itself as the market dominant publication for the U.S. collaborative communications and e-learning industry and secured the support of the United States Small Business Association (SBA) as it helped to educate small businesses on the value of voice, data and video-conferencing.
• We launched the first of a new global portfolio of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) trade shows in October '99 alongside ICCM (Incoming Call Center Management) -- the U.S.'s largest call center exposition and conference -- to widespread industry support. The program of customer service events continues in April and May 2000 with the first major CRM events to be held in New York and Amsterdam -- another Advanstar first!
• In February we acquired Telebusiness, the UK's leading Call Center Trade Show, renaming it Call Center Solutions UK, and incorporating it as a key part of our global call center portfolio.
• Our March 1999 acquisition of the SeCA (Salon european des Centres d'Appelsl) Exposition added France's leading call center event to our expansive, global call center group.
• To further enhance our integrated suite of products supporting the customer service sector, we launched the Field Service Solutions 2000 trade show and conference in Dallas in January 2000. With our Call Center, e-Commerce, Computer Telephony, Field Service and CRM events attracting every part of the decision making chain, exhibitors and sponsors can for the first time reach ALL buyers of customer service and support technology and services, from one company -- Advanstar!
• The Internet and Electronic Business show (iEB) established itself in 1999 as America's (and the world's) largest e-commerce event. More than 50 customers stood on a waiting list to exhibit at the sold-out February 2000 event in New York.
• March 2000 marks the launch of InterExpo, Brazil's first major Internet conference and exposition. Held in Sao Paulo alongside TeleXpo--Latin America's largest telecommunications event--InterExpo has already attracted many of the world's largest Internet technology vendors, including Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Cisco, as well as Brazil's leading domestic players, Embratel and ABRANET.
• Internet website development increased by leaps and bounds in 1999 and shall continue throughout 2000. Advanstar invested several million dollars to research, develop and launch the web's best content-rich, e-commerce enabled website communities. Advanstar strives to be the undisputed #1 web destination professionals in specific vertical industries turn to as their trusted information and resource hub. Advanstar web communities provide not only the information business people need, but also a rich, secure marketplace of buyers and sellers literally transacting business: sourcing products, requesting proposals, making bids, issuing purchase orders and tracking purchasing history.

Advanstar provides a unique and powerful range of technology marketing and information tools. Using integrated marketing programs that combine web and e-commerce solutions with our print and event portfolios and databases, Advanstar's customers can fully engage a targeted, qualified audience of technology buyers and users around the globe.

When you are looking for a media and marketing partner, please turn to Advanstar. Not only do we have the products and services to enable you to be successful today, but we also commit to continued growth to ensure we meet your changing needs.

Best regards,

Danny Phillips
Executive Vice President

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