Suntec City

Singapore

1-5 March, 1999

We are extending our invitation for your firm to sponsor and participate in APRICOT'99, to be held from March 1-5 in Suntec City, Singapore.

The annual Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT) is an educational, non-profit, conference run by volunteers to develop and maintain Internet operational stability in Asia Pacific Region.

Since 1996, APRICOT has provided a unique and successful forum for those key Internet builders in the region to learn from their peers and other leaders in the Internet community from around the world.

The intense week-long summit consists of seminars, workshops, tutorials, conference sessions, birds-of-a-feather (BOFs), and other forums all with the common goal of :-

1. spreading and sharing the knowledge required for operational stability and development of the Internet within the Asia Pacific region.
2. developing affinity groups that foster mutual support throughout the year.

APRICOT's success was largely due to the excellence of its no-nonsense program focused on the operation of the Internet – technical, business, and policy. Its importance is demonstrated by the fact that it is the only conference in which all of the key Internet operations groups in Asia and Pacific meet for the annual and semi-annual meetings. Hence APRICOT is in reality the critical Internet summit for Asia and Pacific (see below: APRICOT Week Overview)

• APRICOT influences opinion.

• APRICOT is unique.

By providing a vendor-neutral forum from the frank exchange of skills and experience, APRICOT provides the chance to participate in a quality, content-rich and highly focussed event. APRICOT lets you learn first hand the issues that your current or potential users are facing with existing products or services in the market.

Whist APRICOT does not directly have a sales focus (there are plenty of other conferences throughout the year for this), it does allow very discrete marketing opportunities 'out of band'. These opportunities allow you to create awareness of new products and or services, together with opportunities to refine product/service/concept offerings for the Asia Pacific marketplace.

APRICOT is only held once per year and is the key opportunity to meet directly with influential individuals and companies throughout the Asia and Pacific region.

• Back to Fundamentals

• Focussed Content, Focussed Sales
• Better building of communities and affinity groups

• Co-location with Internet World Singapore and Singapore Linux Conference
• 15,000 people expected to attend Internet World Exhibition / APRICOT Pavilion
• Special APRICOT Pavilion situated at the front row of Internet World Exhibition
• Special VIP area available to hold discrete business meetings
• Use of new interactive, web-based scheduling service provided by EasyDiary
• 30% Discount to APRICOT Sponsors to attend the Internet World Conference
• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers Open Meeting part of APRICOT
• Many Asia Pacific Internet organizations and groups schedule events during APRICOT

APRICOT has been extremely successful in targeting a select audience. To extend its success to a broader coverage without diffusing its focus, as compared with much larger commercial exhibitions, this year’s strategy has been to increase the target audience without diluting the focus of APRICOT. We have therefore entered into strategic partnerships with larger commercial exhibitions instead of becoming one ourselves.

All APRICOT Sponsors will be located in the ‘APRICOT Pavilion" in one of the most prominent locations on the Internet World Exhibition show floor – at the front row next to the Exhibition entrance! The Internet World Exhibition will be located on level 4 of Suntec City (http://www.sicec.com).

The APRICOT Pavilion and Internet World Exhibition Opening Hours:

Note: All Booth spaces and shelf spaces within the APRICOT Pavilion are allocated on a first come first serve basis.

Note: APRICOT Sponsors can enjoy at 30% discount on the Internet World Conference list price for your delegates.

One of the fundamental principles and distinctive feature of APRICOT presentations has been vendor neutral objectiveness, providing neutral informed opinion rather than pure technical sales presentations with many conferences suffer from. Extra effort has been placed this year to continue this tradition which has been a main draw among participants who value the vendor-neutrality of APRICOT.

As APRICOT is only once per calendar year, a long time by Internet Industry standards, there needed to be a better way to build the peer relationships and affinity groups that have contributed to APRICOT's success. Consequently, more effort is being placed with APRICOT'99 to developing an on-line community as well as allowing more structured social events throughout the week (e.g. organised 'meet me' breakfasts, lunch and dinner meetings). These structured social events are valuable as they provide the discrete marketing opportunity alluded to earlier.

In addition, many regional Internet groups will also be having their various meetings during the week of APRICOT. These include :-

In view of this, one of the slogans we can truely lay claim to in this year’s APRICOT is that it has become an Asia Pacific Internet Festival, covering the entire gamut of Internet activities beyond operational technologies, allowing cross-flow of participation and cross-fertilization of ideas and yet preserving the distinctive identity and focus of each Asia Pacific Internet Organisation. This concept of the Asia Pacific Internet Festival as a confluence of all streams and threads of Internet activity will be a key distinguishing feature from any other Internet conference.

Please see the next page for APRICOT Week at a Glance.

Sponsoring APRICOT provides organizations with access to a select set of individuals involved in the decision making and daily operation and administration of the Internet. In order to sponsor the APRICOT conference, you will need to complete and return the APRICOT Sponsorship Agreement (attached or available from the http://www.apricot.net) by February 12^th 1999. All booth and shelf spaces are allocated on a first come first serve basis.

There are three levels of sponsorship (Platinum, Gold and Silver) with the following summary of benefits:

Platinum sponsors contribute US$ 19,000. Sponsorship provides:

• 12 square meters (sqm) of Shell Booth Space in the APRICOT Pavilion within the Internet World Exhibition

• Company listing in Internet World Show Directory
• Use of light pen for Exhibition visitor data capture
• Complimentary Internet World Exhibition passes

• Prominent large logo positioning and sponsorship mention in banners, print advertising, mailings and press releases
• Prominent large logo positioning in online advertising
• Distribution of company-supplied brochures or gift (bags, mouse pads, pens, etc.)
• Eight (8) free conference registrations

Gold sponsors contribute US$13,000. Sponsorship provides:

• 9 square meters (sqm) of Shell Booth Space in the APRICOT Pavilion within the Internet World Exhibition

• Company listing in Internet World Show Directory
• Use of light pen for Exhibition visitor data capture
• Complimentary Internet World Exhibition passes

• Subsequent meterage up to 100 sqm at 10% discount from Internet World Pricing

• Prominent logo positioning and sponsorship mention in banners, print advertising, mailings, press releases and interviews subordinate to PLATINUM sponsors
• Prominent logo positioning in online advertising
• Distribution of company-supplied brochures to attendees during registration.
• Four (4) free conference registrations

Silver sponsors contribute US$5,500. Sponsorship provides:

• Standard Logo positioning and sponsorship mention in banners, print advertising, mailings, press releases, and interviews subordinate to GOLD and PLATINUM sponsors
• Standard Logo positioning in online advertising
• Company listing in Internet World Show Directory
• Complimentary Internet World Exhibition passes

• 2m long shelf-space in APRICOT Pavilion, within the Internet World Exhibition, for placement of promotional Material/Literature

• Two (2) free conference registrations

On a first come first serve basis, sponsors can choose to sponsor, at additional cost, one (1) of the following:

1. APRICOT Opening Reception (Evening, Tuesday March 2)
2. APRICOT Breakfast ‘Meet Me’ (Wednesday March 3)
3. APRICOT Lunch (Wednesday March 3)
4. APRICOT Evening Dinner (Wednesday March 3)
5. APRICOT Breakfast ‘Meet Me’ (Thursday March 4)
6. APRICOT Lunch (Thursday March 4)
7. APRICOT Evening Dinner (Thursday March 4)
8. APRICOT Breakfast ‘Meet Me’ (Friday March 5)
9. APRICOT Lunch (Friday March 5)
10. APRICOT Closing Social Event (Evening, Friday March5)

Not all people can afford to come to APRICOT. Hence, APRICOT has created a fund to provide fellowships to individuals in lesser develop economies in the Asia & Pacific region. Fellowship donations can be submitted and ear-market for specific lesser developed economies, specific organizations (i.e., educational institutions, NGOs, etc.), or individuals.

APRICOT Sponsors can ear mark 10% of their sponsorship funds for the APRICOT Fellowship program.

Logo positions, sponsoring of social events, booths etc. are limited and allocated on a first come/first served basis. Please contact us as soon as possible via email, telephone, or fax to express your interest and commitment to sponsor APRICOT.

For More Information - Watch http://www.apricot.net for upcoming final program and registration information OR subscribe to the APRICOT mailing list by sending a message to sponsor-request@apricot.net with the work "subscribe" in the body OR send a message to APRICOT Executive Committee at apricot-exco@apricot.net OR call Ms Polly Ng of Singapore Computer Society at Tel: +65 377 3011, Fax: +65 377 3022 or Email: polly.ng@scs.org.sg.

Yours sincerely,

The APRICOT Executive Committee

Apricot-Exco@apricot.net

c/o Ms Polly Ng, Tel: +65 377 3011, Fax: +65 377 3022

http://www.apricot.net/

The third APRICOT was held in Philippines in February’98. The attendance of over 320 represented over 24 countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world.

APRICOT ‘98 was sponsored by the following companies:

• Aponet · Infonet Services Corp
• Ascend Communications · Kokusai Denshin Denwa
• Asia & Pacific Internet Association (APIA) · MCI International
• Asia Internet Holding · NeTrue Communications
• AT&T Asia Pacific Group · NTT Global Business
• Bay Networks · Orion Network Systems
• Breeze Wireless Communications · Singapore Exhibition Services

• Cisco Systems · United Nations –Asia-Pacific Development
• Digital Equipment Asia Pacific Information Programme (APDIP)

• Hong Kong Telecom

The second APRICOT was held in Hong Kong in January ’97. The attendance of 630 people from over 25 countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region and the rest of the world (as far away as Sweden).

APRICOT ‘97 was sponsored by the following companies:

• APNIC · HK Net

• Ascend · Hong Kong Telecom

• Asia Internet Holdings · IBM

• AT&T · KDD

• Bay Networks · NTT

• Chinese University of Hong Kong · O'Rielly & Associates

• Cisco Systems · Sembawang Media

• Coggwheel · Softbank Expos

• Commercial Internet Exchange · Sourcecom

• Data Communications · Spyglass

• Digital · Star Internet

• Dynalab, Inc. · Telstra

• Gilat Satellite Networks · The Black Box

• Global One

The first APRICOT was held in Singapore in January ’96. The attendance of over 280 people represented over 18 countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

APRICOT ‘96 was sponsored by the following companies:

• Global One · Digital Equipment Corporation

• Cisco Systems · The Commercial Internet Exchange

• ATT Jens · Sembawang Media

• Singapore Telecom – SingNet · CSA Automated

• IBM Japan · Penril Datability Networks

The APRICOT Executive Committee comprises key representatives and volunteers from the different regional associations. This committee charts the future direction of APRICOT and manages the development of APRICOT.

Current members include:

APIA Asia and Pacific Internet Association

(Commercial)

Ole J. Jacobsen <ole@cisco.com>

Gigi Wang <gigi@pacific.net.sg>

APNG Asia Pacific Networking Group

(Educational/Research)

Tan Tin Wee <tinwee@irdu.nus.edu.sg>

Izumi Aizu <izumi@anr.org>

APNIC Asia Pacific Network Information Centre

(Regional IP Address Registry)

Pindar Wong <pindar@hk.super.net>

Xing Li <xli@ocean.net.edu.cn>

APPLE Asia Pacific Policy and Legal

(Policy/Legal)

Laina Raveendran Greene <laina@singnet.com.sg>

FOAC Friend of the Apricot Organising Committee

(Individual volunteers)

Robert Berger <rberger@ibd.com>

Joanne Davis <joanne@irvine.com.au>

Barry Raveendran Greene <bgreene@cisco.com>

David J. Hughes <bambi@hughes.com.au>

Evi Nemeth <evi@caida.org>

Bill Manning <bmanning@isi.edu>