CEA launches consumer tech showcase in NYC financial district

Digital downtown event supports revitalization of world's fastest growing business, arts & technology community

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)® announced the launch of a new consumer technology event designed to showcase the latest electronic lifestyle and workstyle products to residents and employees of Manhattan's Financial District. CEA is the owner and producer of the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, the International CES®, which just concluded in Las Vegas. DIGITAL DOWNTOWN (D2) will be held June 12-14, 2008 at the World Financial Center's architecturally acclaimed Winter Garden, one of the most highly-trafficked public locations in downtown Manhattan.

"As the producer of the International CES, the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, CEA has expertise in bringing high-end technology to relevant industries, in this case the financial industry and the stock, equity and international investment markets,” said Gary Shapiro, the president and CEO of CEA. "DIGITAL DOWNTOWN (D2) is designed to serve the technology needs of high-income consumers, New York media and financial market analysts who need a convenient way to find out 'what's new' without leaving the Financial District - or even their office complex.”

DIGITAL DOWNTOWN (D2) is located in the public atrium - The Winter Garden - of the architecturally acclaimed World Financial Center, the corporate home of American Express, Merrill Lynch, Dow Jones, Deloitte & Touche, New York Mercantile Exchange, Fidelity Investments and Mass Mutual.

DIGITAL DOWNTOWN will officially kick off on the evening of June 12, 2008 with the gala CEA Summer in the City industry reception. The event will be co-located with CEA's State of the CE Industry Analysis and Media Briefing.

"We welcome CEA to New York City and applaud its vision for a downtown technology fair as well as its support for the continued growth of Lower Manhattan," says Debra Simon, Executive and Artistic Director of Arts at the World Financial Center, a year round free arts program sponsored by Brookfield Properties, American Express, Merrill Lynch and Battery Park City Authority, a strategic partner in the development of DIGITAL DOWNTOWN (D2). A portion of the proceeds from Digital Downtown will be used to fund arts activities in the financial district.

The New York Financial District is the third largest work community in America, with an increasing population of upscale residents as well as tourists paying tribute at Ground Zero.

DIGITAL DOWNTOWN is produced by CEA in cooperation with Martin Porter & Associates, Brookfield Properties, a commercial real estate company that owns, develops and operates premier assets in the downtown cores of high-growth North American cities, and Consumer Technology Publishing Group/NAPCO, publisher of Dealerscope and E-Gear Magazines.

For more information about DIGITAL DOWNTOWN (D2) visit www.digitaldowntown-nyc.com. To exhibit or sponsor the event contact Ryan Strowger; rstrowger@CE.org; 1 (703) 907-7679.