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2/29/2008 - Cooking Up Breakthrough Ideas

Hotspex President provides an engaging angle on consumer-driven innovation

TORONTO - February 29, 2008 - Insightful, impactful and inspirational: The Canadian Marketing Association's Business of Ideas Forum on February 12 in Toronto featured presentations by prominent business leaders who have turned ideas into brand strategies that resonate with consumers throughout Canada and the world.

Shane Skillen, Founder and President of Hotspex, was among the alumni of speakers at this prestigious, which included Chip Wilson (Founder of LuLuLemon Athletica), Galen Weston (Executive Chairman of Loblaw Companies Ltd), Jim Little (Chief Brand and Communications Officer of RBC), Tim Penner (President of Procter & Gamble Inc.) and Tony Gagliano (Executive Chairman and CEO of St. Joseph Communications and Co-chair of Lumina TO).

Skillen was part of a panel of four experts who explored the latest approaches to consumer-driven innovation in front of an audience of over 400 marketers. Skillen focused on outlining effective ways of leveraging the internet and technology to power the innovation process. "Technology and consumer contribution are critical ingredients in cooking up the strongest ideas and converting them into evolutionary opportunities," says Shane Skillen, Founder and President of Hotspex.

After the presentation, many conference attendees engaged in meaningful discussions with Skillen about involving thousands of consumers and innovators in generating and optimizing ideas. "Hotspex's approach to this challenge for our clients has relied on our online innovation engine," says Skillen. "Hotspex's proprietary online ideation and optimization tool, IdeaSpex, is a unique idea generation and optimization process that collaboratively engages clients and consumers in an online environment to solve problems and generate breakthrough ideas." Furthermore, to ensure participation from consumers, Hotspex leverages its online panel of innovators who are invited to brainstorm, submit and evaluate ideas.

"Marketers of leading global brands consistently rely on IdeaSpex to create new product and service ideas, line extensions and naming, as well as promotional and marketing ideas," said Skillen.

For additional information on the 2nd Annual Business of Ideas Forum please visit www.the-cma.org.

For additional information on "Cooking Up Breakthrough Ideas," contact Gera Nevolovich at Hotspex, +1.416.487.5439 ext.227.

About Hotspex Inc.
Hotspex delivers provocative marketing research insights that allow our clients - some of the world's leading brands - to develop better strategies, innovations and executions. We aree constantly pushing the boundaries of what research can do and how it can be done, by engaging consumers and clients to uncover the emotional and rational drivers of behavior. For more information, please visit: www.hotspex.biz

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