Speaker Excellence Awards

[Judy_Orendorff@xxxxxxxxxx]

Below please find the latest news release from COMMON.


News Release

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Terry Bertocci
(312) 279-0209
terry_bertocci@common.org


           COMMON to Recognize Top Speakers at Spring 2001 Conference


CHICAGO, February 27, 2001 - COMMON, the world

?s largest membership of IT
professionals who use IBM and IBM-compatible information technology, will honor
its Speaker Excellence Medal Recipients at its Spring 2001 IT Education
Conference and Expo, to be held May 13-17, 2001, New Orleans.

Through the Speaker Excellence Program, COMMON recognizes some of the best
speakers in the IT industry for the outstanding quality of their presentations.
The following speakers will be recognized at COMMON?s Spring Conference for
presentations given during COMMON?s Fall 2000 Conference:

Gold Medal Award
Randall Munson
Jim Sloan
Robert Tipton

Silver Medal Award
Al Barsa
John Carr
Phil Coulthard
George Farr
Tom Hadley
Ron Harvey
Wayne Madden
Charlie Massoglia
Trevor Perry
Becky Schmieding
Larry Youngren

Bronze Medal Award
Larry Bolhuis
Brad Brown
Alison Butterill
Michael Cain
Robert Clark
Robert Cozzi
Don Denencourt
Selwyn Dickey
Jim Fey
Doug Fulmer
Janet Krueger
Skip Marchesani
David Money
Kelly Schmotzer
Tim Simek
Frank Soltis

?COMMON Education Conference speakers are among the very best in the industry,?
said COMMON President Charlie Massoglia. ?They are highly experienced IT
professionals who are truly experts in their fields.  Our attendees consistently
give high ratings to our Education sessions across a number of subject areas
including RPG, Java, WebSphere, XML, Security and professional development.?

Many of the speakers recognized will present updated versions of their
award-winning sessions at COMMON?s  Spring 2001 Conference May 13-17 in New
Orleans.  Information on COMMON?s speakers and the Spring 2001 Conference is
available on COMMON?s Web site at www.common.org.

COMMON established the Speaker Excellence Program in 1994 to recognize
presenters at its conferences whose sessions are exceptional in both content and
delivery.  Speaker Excellence Awards are based on evaluation forms turned in by
attendees following each session.  Ratings are based on the average of responses
to questions regarding session content, the speaker?s presentation skills, the
speaker?s ability to communicate knowledge of topic, use of training aids, and
the overall rating for the session.

There were 800 qualified sessions presented at the Fall 2000 Conference.  The
top 1 percent is awarded a Gold Medal; the next 2 percent a Silver Medal; and
the next 4 percent a Bronze Medal.

To learn more about COMMON or COMMON?s Spring 2001 Conference and Expo, visit
COMMON?s web site at www.common.org.

                                   #   #   #

Founded in 1960, COMMON is the world?s largest membership of IT professionals
who use IBM and IBM-compatible information technology.  The organization
comprises more than 6,500 individual and corporate members representing more
than 23,000 IT professionals involved with the application of IBM iSeries*,
AS/400* and related platforms within a wide variety of business environments.

Through its semiannual national conferences and its Web site at www.common.org,
COMMON facilitates IT knowledge-sharing, education, problem-solving and industry
influence for the IBM user group community.

*  Trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp.