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(Banff, Alberta, Canada, May 30, 2003) Jim Byrd, Executive Vice President and COO of the Banff Television Foundation, is pleased to announce the appointment of Prince Edward Island native, Berni Wood, as Executive Producer of nextMEDIA, the International New Media Festival. "We are delighted to have attracted Berni as our Executive Producer. Her media background and organizational skills will ensure the future of nextMEDIA as a world-class event reflecting the potential of the industry."

The 2003 nextMedia Festival will take place at the Rodd Royalty Inn in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island from October 22-25, 2003. nextMEDIA is a three-day forum which attracts a select group of industry visionaries, new media producers, artists and innovators from around the world. The goal of the event is to provide an annual international creative retreat for new media producers to focus on creative processes and content development and to help foster an innovative, vibrant and productive new media industry world-wide.

Berni Wood is a member of national associations including Canadian Women in Communications, Canadian Public Relations Society and a past Board Chair of the Atlantic Canada Film Partners. She is the recipient of several International Marketing Excellence Awards from the Association of Film Commissioners International.

Ms. Wood owns and operates Reel Media, a company which provides a wide range of services including project and event management, meeting planning, public relations, and television/video production. She is an accomplished manager and marketing professional with over 20 years experience. She has held positions such as Regional Vice-President for the Canadian Television Fund, Director of Film and New Media for Technology PEI (the leading sponsor of this event), and Film Commissioner at Prince Edward Island Business Development Inc., to name a few. As past Board member and long-time attendee of the International New Media Festival, Ms. Wood brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this position.

The festival, nextMEDIA, is owned and managed by the Banff Television Foundation, the internationally recognized organizer and presenter of high quality electronic media events. The Foundation's mission is to inspire innovation, to celebrate excellence, and to facilitate learning and business opportunities for content creators and other industry stakeholders in television and new media. For more information on nextMEDIA and the Foundation go to www.btvf.com.