Seybold San Francisco 2002 Conveys How XML is Driving the Publishing Industry

Seybold San Francisco 2002 Conveys How XML is Driving the Publishing Industry

XML growth impacts a number of industries

FOSTER CITY, CA., August 7, 2002 - Changes occurring in the publishing industry point towards one direction as evidence of influential technological developments continue. Seybold Seminars, a division of Key3Media Group Inc.'s (NYSE: KME) wholly owned subsidiary Key3Media Events, Inc., will focus on how Extensible Markup Language (XML) and related standards are shifting within the publishing industry.

XML was derived from SGML, the standard generalized markup language. XML technology vendors comply with the standard in order to facilitate interchange of information between different systems. XML allows for cross-media or multichannel publishing, permitting the same structured file to be used in output to CD, Web or print. XML is becoming known as one of the most influential technological developments in the history of the Web.

As XML related technologies emerge, it's growth and increased impact on a number of industries, such as financial, has been made more evident over the past several weeks. Recently, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced that it is working on a new XML-based standard to help news services report the use of stock market data by their clients to the NYSE (these vendors are required to report this use.) In conjunction with the Financial Information Services Division (FISD) and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA), the NYSE is now gathering comments from the industry on what it calls Vendor reporting eXtensible Markup Language (VRXML). Market data vendors such as Reuters, Bloomberg, Thomson and Moneyline would use VRXML to report the use of their published information by clients. The NYSE believes that VRXML would be extended to cover a broader range of industry requirements in the future.

Likewise, several mortgage brokers (Mortgage Industry Vendors A La Mode Inc. and Value IT) have begun performing beta tests of an XML-based data exchange initiative, which will help brokers streamline appraisal ordering, management and delivery technology. The initiative is based on XML specifications drawn up by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), which hopes the initiative provides a more portable and efficient way to exchange mortgage-related data. The beta tests will run through August.

Attempting to stay on top of XML's rapid growth, the W3C also announced this week that it had advanced a recommendation for Exclusive XML Canonicalization. Exclusive XML Canonicalization specifies a standard serialization of XML that, when applied to a subdocument, includes the subdocument's ancestor context. It is primarily concerned with digital signatures. For example, a person or organization might require a digital signature over a section of an XML message, but need to ensure that it will not break when that subdocument is removed from its original message and/or inserted into a different context. The concern is that independent XML processors can introduce incidental changes to the document, which can invalidate the signature. Exclusive XML Canonicalization addresses this issue.

To see how some of these issues relate to your business and your effectiveness as a publisher, be sure to attend the IDEAlliance Conference on XML in Publishing at Seybold San Francisco 2002, beginning Monday, September 9. Sponsors for the conference are Artesia Technologies located in booth number 1125 and Arbortext located in booth number 1233.

For more information about Seybold Seminars, visit www.seyboldseminars.com. To register as media for the event contact Dervla O'Reilly at dervla.o'reilly@key3media.com.

About Seybold Seminars

Seybold Seminars is the leading brand educating the publishing, graphic arts, Web, entertainment and general business industries on how to implement technology for effective and profitable content creation, management and delivery. With a 30-year history focused on top-notch education, in-depth technology discussion and marketplace analysis, Seybold Seminars has become the premier gathering place for buyers, sellers and strategists who share the common goal of effective and profitable communications across multiple media. Focusing on the common challenges of print, Web, video and other forms of media technology, Seybold Seminars highlights the latest in graphic arts production tools, design and information architecture strategies, digital rights and asset management, marketing personalization and on-demand publishing opportunities.

About Key3Media Group

Seybold San Francisco 2002 is a Key3Media event. Key3Media Group, Inc., is the world's leading producer of information technology tradeshows and conferences, serving more than 5,300 exhibiting companies and 1.3 million attendees through 60 events in 17 countries. Key3Media's products range from the IT industry's largest exhibitions such as COMDEX and NetWorld+Interop to highly focused events featuring renowned educational programs, custom seminars and specialized vendor marketing programs. For more information about Key3Media, visit www.key3media.com.

Certain matters discussed in this release are "forward-looking statements," including statements about Key3Media's future results, plans and goals and other events which have not yet occurred. These statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability provided by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can find many (but not all) of these statements by looking for words like "will", "may", "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "plans" and "estimates" and for similar expressions. Because forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are many factors that could cause Key3Media's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this release. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions generally and in the information technology industry in particular; the timing of Key3Media's events and their popularity with exhibitors, sponsors and attendees; technological changes and developments; intellectual property rights; competition; capital expenditures; and factors impacting Key3Media's international operations. In addition, the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 have adversely affected the economy generally and significantly decreased air travel in particular. These developments have and will continue to adversely affect participation and attendance at Key3Media's events, although the Company is not able to quantify or reliably estimate the future impact that these matters may have on its businesses, results of operations or financial condition. The sections entitled "Item 1. Business - Certain Factors That May Affect our Businesses" and "Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 filed by Key3Media with the SEC contain important cautionary statements and a discussion of many of the factors that could materially affect the accuracy of Key3Media's forward-looking statements and/or adversely affect its business, results of operations and financial position. These statements and discussions, as well as any of Key3Media's other SEC public filings, are incorporated herein by reference. Key3Media does not plan to update any forward-looking statements.

Contact

Key3Media Events, Inc.
Dervla O'Reilly
650/ 578-6948
dervla.o'reilly@key3media.com