PALO ALTO, CA (October 03, 2006) – The CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) Council, a global network of senior marketing executives, will host its inaugural Asia-Pacific CMO gathering, The CMO Council Asia Pacific Virtual Tokyo Symposium, on October 24, 2006 in Tokyo, Japan, at the prestigious Tokyo America Club. For regional and global marketers unable to make the trip to Tokyo, the Symposium will be simulcast live on the Web, and is sponsored by global CMO Council partners AT&T, CMP and Symantec, and Asia-Pacific partner BearingPoint, Ltd., Japan.

Themed "East Meets West; Connecting Across Cultures," the Asia-Pacific CMO Council Virtual Tokyo Symposium will feature, as speakers and panelists, top-level marketers from leading global companies, including AT&T, Factiva, Symantec, KDDI, Salesforce.com, Tektronix and BearingPoint, among others, offering in-person and Web attendees the opportunity to interact with and gain best practices insight from some of the world's most accomplished marketing professionals. To attend the Tokyo Summit in person or to register for the Virtual Tokyo symposium, go to http://www.cmosummit.org/register_tokyo.asp.

The CMO Council is a knowledge sharing organization of more than 2,500 senior marketing decision makers across a variety of industries. CMO Council members control more than $60 billion in combined annual marketing expenditures and represent most major global brands, including Toyota, Apple, Coca-Cola, Dell, eBay, Google, HP, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, MasterCard, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nokia, Oracle, SAP, Sony, Target, Wal-Mart, Yahoo! and many more.

The keynote presentation will be delivered by Martin Roll, CEO of VentureRepublic, author of Asian Brand Strategy, and a leading authority on Branding Excellence to Fortune 500 clients; "Nation Brand Perceptual Change in Asia Pacific and Around the Globe," will look at the rapidly emerging economies of Asia's "Tigers" and "Elephants" (China, India, Taiwan, South Korea, etc.) and how they are reshaping nation brand perceptions and the global hierarchy in leading business and industrial sectors.

This virtual symposium will offer Asian marketers access to an exclusive network of marketing executives worldwide, together with a compelling example of the CMO Council's thought leadership programs that have proven so successful in markets in North America and across Europe. Global participants to the Web conference will benefit greatly from new insights into the business dynamics, cultural variations, market requirements, operational challenges and channel structures in Asia Pacific countries.

Key topics addressed will include:

Pipeline to the Frontline -- A lively examination of the alignment of sales and marketing functions within the organization: Although integration continues to grow in importance, the effectiveness of current efforts seems often unbalanced -- what are the keys to successful integration, in Asia and around the globe?

Market Entry & Growth Strategies for Asia: US and multinational organizations are eager to take advantage of the enormous, lucrative opportunities in Asia, but many marketing challenges must be overcome: how to build a successful dealer and retail network, leverage new digital channels, manage marketing operations, and segment and build on customer relationships while identifying market needs and requirements?

The 2006 Asia-Pacific CMO Summit is the second of three in the CMO Council Global Summit Series that also include the North American CMO Summit in San Francisco Oct. 4-5 and the European CMO Summit in London Nov. 15-16. For more information go to www.cmosummit.org.

About CMO Council

The CMO Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior marketing and brand decision-makers across a wide range of global industries. Currently, over 2,500 top marketing executives are represented on the CMO Council worldwide, collectively controlling over $60 billion in annual marketing expenditures. Visit the CMO Council web site at www.cmocouncil.org to learn more about the initiatives created to address executive marketers' challenges.