MINNEAPOLIS, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- With the first Personalization Summit of the 21st century now less than three weeks away, underwriter Net Perceptions, Inc. (Nasdaq: NETP) is reporting unprecedented industry interest in what has become the premiere event for the 'personalization' movement.

Registration for the Personalization Summit 2000 in Boston -- one of two events scheduled for this year -- is well ahead of projected attendance. As of today, more than 750 registrations have been submitted and all major sponsorships and exhibit space sold out almost immediately, according to Net Perceptions' senior vice president, Steve Larsen. By these estimates, this event will be nearly twice the size of the inaugural Personalization Summit held in San Francisco last November.

"From the beginning, we set out to create a forum for dialogue about how personalization technology is fundamentally changing the way business is done and information is shared. The registration list for this event reads like the 'who's who' of e-commerce companies, personalization technology innovators and marketing industry thought-leaders, confirming that this is one of the hottest business topics today," said Larsen.

Virtually every leading company in the personalization space will be represented at Personalization Summit 2000 in Boston as speaker, exhibitor or attendee or, in some cases, all three. Described by marketing influentials as a "must-attend" event, the Personalization Summit 2000 in Boston will focus on the technical, marketing, privacy and business aspects of personalization, and their impact on business' bottom line. The event will be held April 9-11 at the Marriott Copley Place Hotel.

Featured keynote speakers at the event include:

• John Hagel III and Marc Singer: Hagel and Singer are a principals at McKinsey & Company and the authors of "Net Worth: Shaping Markets When Customers Make the Rules." Hagel heads McKinsey's e-Commerce practice. Singer is co-director of the firm's Continuous Relationship Marketing practice.

• Don Peppers: thought leader, futurist and management consultant, Peppers is also co-author of several books on managing customer relationships, such as The One to One Manager, The One to One Future and Enterprise One to One. He is a co-founder of Peppers & Roger Group, the preeminent customer relationship management consulting and training firm.

• Thomas A. Stewart: a member of Fortune Magazine's Board of Editors, Stewart writes a popular monthly column, "The Leading Edge." Regarded as the leading expert on the subject of intellectual capital, Stewart is the author of the best-selling book: "Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations."

Other noted speakers include:

• Yobi Benjamin: Ernst & Young's chief of global strategy for e-Commerce and Emerging Markets, Benjamin is recognized for his expertise in emerging technologies, information security and e-Commerce.

• Robert Krulwich: a 1974 graduate of Columbia Law School, Krulwich quit the profession after two months to become a journalist. He has worked for leading media organizations including National Public Radio, CBS and PBS-TV. Now at ABC News, Krulwich appears regularly on "Nightline" and hosted the network's 1999 primetime summer series, "Brave New World."

• Mary Modahl: vice president of marketing at Forrester Research, Modahl's work spans media, retail, financial services, consumer computers and networks, interactive software technologies and business trade. She is author of "Now or Never: How Companies Must Change Today to Win the Battle for Internet Customers."

• John Riedl, PhD: the "father of collaborative filtering," Riedl is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota. He directs the University's research on collaborative systems.

• Michael Saylor: founder, president and CEO of MicroStrategy, which he co-founded in 1989 at age 24 and has since grown into a public company with more than 1,900 employees, 40 locations and a market capitalization in excess of $14 billion.

• Roger Siboni: president & CEO of E.piphany. Previously Siboni was deputy chairman & COO of KPMG Peat Marwick LLP

Platinum sponsors of Personalization Summit 2000 in Boston include Art Technology Group, Blaze Software, BroadVision and E.piphany. Gold sponsors of the event include Allaire, Engage, Inference, Personify, Response Logic, Responsys.com, TimesTen Performance Software and Unica.

To date, more than 50 companies have registered as exhibitors at the Personalization Summit 2000 in Boston, including virtually all the leaders in the field, including Accrue, Annuncio, Bluestone, Digital Impact, Manna, MicroStrategy, NetGenesis, RealMedia, Spider Technologies, Torrent Systems, Verbind, Wheelhouse and YOUpowered.

The Personalization Summit is underwritten by Net Perceptions and sponsored by http://www.personalization.com

General registration is located at http://www.personalization.com . Media can register for Personalization Summit 2000 in Boston by contacting Rich Adolph, Waggener Edstrom at 425-637-9097.

About Net Perceptions

Net Perceptions, Inc. is a leading provider of realtime personalization and precision marketing software solutions for Internet and multi-channel retailers. Its software is designed to help retailers understand customers individually, optimize product assortments, prices and inventories and offer the right product to the right customer at the right price. On February 14, 2000, Net Perceptions completed its acquisition of Knowledge Discovery One (KD1); a provider of advanced data analysis solutions for multi-channel and dot.com retailers. Net Perceptions' customers include many of the world's best-known brands including: Art.com, Bertelsmann, CDNOW, Egghead.com, eToys.com, Fingerhut, Hudson's Bay Company, J.C. Penney, Procter & Gamble, Tower Records and Walgreens. Incorporated in Delaware, July 3, 1996, the company has offices in Minneapolis, San Francisco, New York, Austin, Texas, Richardson, Texas, and Berkshire, U.K.

SOURCE Net Perceptions, Inc.

CONTACT: Jacqueline Hanson of Net Perceptions, 612-918-1749, jhanson@netperceptions.com , or Rich Adolph ofWaggener Edstrom, 425-637-3949, richa@wagged.com /