NineSigma's Paul Stiros to Participate in Open Innovation Discussion at September Gartner Summit

Panel Discussion to Focus on How Companies Can Leverage the Open Innovation Marketplace to Enhance Their Internal Innovation Initiatives


CLEVELAND, OH--(Marketwire - June 24, 2008) - NineSigma, the leading provider of open innovation solutions, today announced that company president and CEO, Paul Stiros, has been invited to participate in the Gartner Portals, Content and Collaboration Summit on September 17-19, 2008 in Los Angeles. Stiros will be part of a panel discussion on Open Innovation moderated by Carol Rozwell, a vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

The panel discussion, "Open Innovation: Harnessing the Power of Idea Marketplaces," will focus on how organizations can use the open innovation marketplace even in a failing economy to strengthen business ideas and enhance their own innovation programs. Among the key issues the panel will discuss are:

--  What is an idea marketplace?
--  What are the best practices for using an idea marketplace as a source
    of innovation?
--  What techniques from idea marketplaces can organizations adapt to make
    their own innovation programs more effective?
    

"I am honored to be a part of Gartner's first in-depth exploration of idea marketplaces," said Paul Stiros, president and CEO of NineSigma. "NineSigma has been actively helping global 1000 companies implement Open Innovation programs for many years, and I am excited about the opportunity to share some of our thoughts and experiences on how open innovation can help companies create a flourishing environment for innovation. This is an opportunity for leaders in our industry to come together to educate attendees on the numerous benefits of bringing in external experts, ideas and technologies to help their businesses better compete and grow."

The theme of the summit is Innovate. Consolidate. Advance. Motivate, and the summit will feature a distinguished group of Gartner analysts, keynote presenters, and industry experts. The agenda includes more than 30 in-depth sessions focused on the practical uses of recent innovations, new best practices and the latest independent research. The summit will also explore new ways for organizations to access, search, structure and manage information, and improve productivity and efficiency through collaboration. For more information about the conference visit: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=648610.

About NineSigma

NineSigma partners with Global 1000 companies to help transform their innovation capabilities and overcome business and technology challenges by connecting them with solutions not readily available in the public domain. NineSigma's proprietary process for Open Innovation enables companies to dramatically improve speed to market while lowering product development costs. NineSigma's open network of innovators is the largest of its kind and spans industries, geographies and technical disciplines. Companies such as DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft, P&G, Philips, Unilever and Xerox engage NineSigma to build new innovation capabilities that leverage research and innovation globally to deliver greater value to their customers. NineSigma is a private company with offices in the United States, Belgium and Japan. For more information visit: www.ninesigma.com.

Contact Information: Media Contact: Dan Dyer 513-478-7818