World Summit Award Appoints FanTrust President Catherine Warren to its Executive Board of Directors

United Nations Flagship Initiative Showcases New Media

Vancouver/Salzburg – September 9, 2009 – The World Summit Award for new media has tapped Catherine Warren, President of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, for its executive board of directors. Catherine joins this preeminent group of leaders in advancing the United Nations global initiatives for outstanding digital content and innovative Information and Communication Technology applications.

“We look forward to adding Catherine Warren’s expertise to the World Summit Award board, expertise which has so far been lacking: looking at interactive digital content from the perspective of user experience, the management of user experience and the business models that build on user experience,” said Chairman of the WSA executive board, Professor Peter A. Bruck, PhD. “The WSA addresses those creative producers and application designers who make a living through audience interactivity. Thus Catherine Warren’s expertise and skill are fundamental as well as central to the WSA mission and objectives.”

Now in its seventh year, the World Summit Award leads in selecting, showcasing and honouring the global best in creative digital content. The 2009 competition drew from more than 20,000 applications from 157 countries across all continents. A world-class jury selected forty winners from eight categories including entertainment and games, science, eBusiness and participation. As part of the organization’s conference, gala and board meeting in Monterrey, Mexico, September 2-4, 2009, Catherine also moderated the Entertainment and Games winners’ panel.

Held in conjunction with the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Global Alliance for ICT and Development, this year’s events featured experts such as Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman of One Laptop per Child, and offered new media solutions for a range of issues from social justice and gender equity to poverty and peace.

“With everything from Open Source solutions to mass connectivity and global economic challenges, there is no better time for new media innovators to engage communities to make a better world, address the UN Millennium Development Goals and tackle other vital international concerns,” said Catherine. “The World Summit Award spotlights companies, organizations and ideas that represent digital content for a greater good and it is with great pleasure that I join the WSA executive board.”

This year’s WSA winners included the world’s largest news database, Newstin; visually-stunning biology animations for kids, Genomics Digital Lab; and the philanthropic fundraising channel, Karma Currency. The independent expert jury selected winners from 545 national finalists representing the United Nations Member States.

World Summit Youth Award winners included Greenlighted, which ranks products according to their social and environmental impact, The Extraordinaries, which uses mobile crowd sourcing for social good, and Lil’ MDGs, started by an eight-year-old to focus kids on achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and now in its sixth year.

“Catherine was nominated by outgoing board member for North America and Oceania Paul Hoffert to represent this entire area. I am absolutely delighted that she will join the executive board,” said Professor Bruck. The countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Austria swept the Awards, each dominating with three winning projects.

About the World Summit Award
The World Summit Award (WSA) is a global United Nations partnership initiative to select and promote the world’s best digital content and innovative Information and Communication Technology applications. Launched in 2003 and based on the United Nations’ World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the WSA is part of the global effort to bridge the digital divide and close the content gap. WSA activities include a world-wide contest held every two years and international content-focused conferences and exhibitions. The WSA works towards a global information society that enables all people to create, receive and share information and knowledge for their own economic, social, cultural and political benefits. Working in cooperation with relevant UN organizations, UN member states and agencies such as UNESCO and UNIDO, national governments and agencies, industry and e-Business organizations and NGOs, the WSA Office operates out of the International Center for New Media, Salzburg. www.worldsummitaward.org

About FanTrust Entertainment Strategies
FanTrust provides broadcasters, TV & animation producers, game companies and digital creators with technologies and tactics for monetizing and socializing entertainment properties. FanTrust also helps entertainment rights-holders with content strategies, business development, financing deals and traffic-building. We enable our mobile, broadband and other technology distribution clients to build revenues and relationships from our global network of entertainment and media brands. In essence, FanTrust is a digital matchmaker, helping bridge different media and build innovative companies and IP. With a laser focus on the fans, FanTrust helps clients capitalize on the digital audiences and committed consumers that interact with multi-platform content. www.FanTrust.com

About Catherine Warren
Founder and president of FanTrust Entertainment Strategies, Catherine Warren is a management consultant to media and technology leaders. Her work has influenced Fortune 500 clients, game companies, television and animation studios as well as telcos, broadband and mobile companies, providing them with new ways to do entertainment deals, captivate audiences, build revenues, secure funding and capitalize on innovation. Working in the United States, the United Kingdom, Western Europe and Canada for more than two decades, Catherine has published 25 books and magazine series for adults and children on science and computing as well as executive produced numerous award-winning Web sites and interactive broadcasts, including the Gemini Award-winning CTVNews.com. A board member of the national Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund since 2000, Catherine’s leadership includes identifying the winning concepts for broadcasting and awarding significant financing for TV programming, with $70 million invested to date in digital content. A member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Catherine is a judge for the digital Emmy Awards and a new executive board director for the World Summit Award for new media, a United Nations partner initiative. Catherine has a degree in physics from Reed College in Portland, Oregon and a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she broke the story of multimedia on location at M.I.T.

For more information please contact:
Brandi Sundby
FanTrust Entertainment Strategies
bsundby@fantrust.com
www.FanTrust.com