Business Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 3, 2000

Philips Speech Processing today announced the date, location and theme of its pan-American partner conference. Themed "Art of Speech," the conference will be held October 16-17, 2000 in Dallas at the Fairmont Hotel, a premier four-star hotel in the heart of the city's Downtown Arts District. Guests are expected from throughout the American continents, as well as other regions of the world.

Philips executives and technical experts, and other distinguished speakers from the speech industry, will present programs on an array of speech recognition topics during the two-day session:

-- The Dynamics of Natural Language Understanding: from the

pioneer in the technology

-- How to Design Successful Speech Applications: satisfy

customers, improve operations and generate revenue

-- Customer Care Strategies that Work: from basic speech to

advanced applications

-- Voice Portals, the Next New Thing: for mobile information

access and transaction processing

-- Speaker Verification: applying it to your industry

-- Speech and the Internet: are you ready for voice surfing?

"'Art of Speech' will be an impressive gathering of speech-recognition experts, providing an informative and interactive environment addressing the recent growth and advances in the speech technology marketplace. The conference will also review Philips Speech Processing's most recent technology developments and deployments," said John Meiling, vice president of global marketing for Philips Speech Processing. "We have chosen the 'Art of Speech' as our theme because there is a definite art, as well as science, to designing and deploying successful speech applications. We are looking forward to sharing our knowledge and experience, as well as hearing and exchanging techniques used by other experts."

In a unique twist for speech industry events, the Philips Speech Processing Americas partner conference, including materials, meals and entertainment, is free. Registered attendees will be responsible for their hotel and travel accommodations. Registration may be submitted online at www.speech.philips.com/telephony. PSP partners interested in attending may also call Kelly Cunningham, regional marketing director in the Americas for Philips Speech Processing, at 972/726-1200 for further information.

About Philips Speech Processing

Philips Speech Processing, a business unit of Royal Philips Electronics, is a pioneer and global leader in speech recognition, natural dialogue and language understanding technologies, with more than 40 years experience in the development and marketing of speech products. Philips offers a broad portfolio of speech technology solutions to the telecommunications, IT, automotive and consumer electronics industries. As a developer and provider of speech technologies in multiple languages, Philips has the largest installed base of speech recognition and natural language understanding systems in Europe, and is the largest provider of speech technology in the Americas and other regions of the world. Installations include call center services automation, telephony applications, professional dictation solutions, voice controlled devices and Internet applications. Visit www.speech.philips.com for additional information.

About Philips

Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of $33.5 billion (EUR 31.5 billion) in 1999. It is a global leader in color television sets, lighting, electric shavers, color picture tubes for televisions and monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 232,400 employees in more than 60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics, domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, medical systems, and IT services (Origin). Philips is quoted on the New York (NYSE:PHG), London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges. News from Philips is located at www.news.philips.com.

Editor's Note: Philips has created the following rapid-response, toll-free number for all editorial inquiries: 800/210-9605. Digital images are available upon request. Broadcasters: B-roll on Philips is available from Bulletin International at 212/899-5450 or 415/252-7106.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group