Internet World "Best of Show Awards" for Spring '99 Internet World will be presented on Thursday, April 15, 1999 at the morning keynote address. All exhibitors at the show are invited to nominate their own products or services.

A panel of qualified judges from Internet World (Penton Media’s weekly newspaper) and other publications will judge nominations, based on the innovative use they make of technology. The judges will place priority on a product's ability to work with existing standards and the degree to which it contributes to the development of future Internet products and services. Judges will view products and services on the show floor on Wednesday, April 14, 1999 (Note: Judges will not necessarily identify themselves as such, and will not necessarily visit each and every nominee.)

Winners will be notified at their booths on the morning of Thursday, April 15. Penton Media will present to winners placards for display at show booths, and will provide collateral marketing materials for publicizing the awards.

To qualify, the nomination must meet the following criteria.

1. The product or service must be new. That is, it must been introduced after the last Internet World show, which ended on October 9, 1998. (If you have questions regarding eligibility, feel free to pose them, via e-mail, to Ted Stevenson (ted@iw.com).)
2. The product or service must be nominated by an exhibitor before Wednesday, April 7, 1999, 11:50 pm EST.
3. The product or service must be displayed on the show floor and be available for viewing by all attendees throughout the show (April 14 through 16).
4. It must conform to the submission guidelines below.

All nominations of products and services for the Internet World Best of Show Award for Spring ’99 Internet World must be sent via e-mail to BESTOFSHOW@IW.COM. No nominations by phone or snail mail will be considered. All e-mail submissions will be acknowledged by return e-mail only.

The nomination message must provide the following information.

1. In the subject line, type "BEST OF SHOW" and the category for this nomination (see category descriptions below). Example: BEST OF SHOW - INFRASTRUCTURE HARDWARE.
2. Exact name of product or service (including version number).
3. Name of vendor
4. Booth number where product or service will be displayed from April 14 through 16.
5. A full but concise description of the product. (Please use no more than 400 words. Please tailor your description for a knowledgeable editor; do not attach a press release geared to a general press audience.)

Optional: A Web URL where more information is posted.

Here’s a model—PLEASE USE IT

Subject: Best of Show – Infrastructure Hardware

[in the body of the e-mail]

Product name: WebBlaze 7.0

Vendor name: Blazing Software

Booth number: 1776

Vendor URL: www.blazesoft.com

Description: Web Blaze 7.0 is the latest, Java-enhanced version of our universal Internet accelerator. Using our new supercharger technology, it improves on the performance of previous versions by . . . &c., &c. [300 to 500 words]

DESKTOP HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE: On the hardware side this includes devices used to establish and maintain an individual connection to the Internet, digital cameras, and other hardware designed for individual use. On the software side, the category includes programs that are used by an individual while connected to the Internet or an intranet to accomplish a specific task, such as e-mail clients, browsers, multimedia players, and scheduling tools.

E-COMMERCE APPLICATION: An application or system that conducts business over the Internet and includes a transaction. Examples include online stores, purchasing/ordering systems, payment systems, incentive marketing, and distribution services.

INFRASTRUCTURE HARDWARE: Devices used to manage a broad number of connections to the Internet or an Intranet. Examples include routers, switches, VPN servers, multifunction servers, traffic-shaping devices.

INTERNET SERVICES: Services used to enable a specific Internet or intranet function (beyond basic connectivity), such as e-mail forwarding, Web site hosting, wireless access, or transaction processing; Internet-based communications services like fax, telephony, or VPN connectivity; other value-added Internet services, like access to knowledge bases.

SERVER SOFTWARE: Programs used to manage or control more than one Internet connection to accomplish a specific application. Examples include servers that manage HTTP connections, streaming multimedia, network security, and network performance.

WEB APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE: Programs used to build, deploy, or manage interactive applications for Internet or intranet use. Examples of application development software are application servers, database middleware, and Java and other programming tools.

WEB SITE SOFTWARE: Programs used to build, enhance, or manage a Web site. Examples include HTML authoring, multimedia and graphics editing, site management, interactive data management, traffic analysis, data acquisition, and graphics acquisition.

WORKGROUP SOFTWARE: Programs designed to foster group collaboration and communication or share information within the organization. Examples include corporate human resources applications, knowledge management systems, report generators, host-to-Web and similar data-access tools, and Web publishing systems.