Premier Farnell to Announce Much Anticipated Winners of Live EDGE - Electronic Design for the Global Environment - During Virtua

Conference Attendees Will Have Access to the Latest Information on Communication Technologies From 29 Leading Component Manufacturers 


LONDON, March 24  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl), the leading multi-channel, high service distributor and its companies (Farnell, Newark, Premier Electronics, Farnell-Newark CPC, and MCM), will announce the winners for Live EDGE - Electronic Design for the Global Environment - during a special Communications Technology Conference, where attendees can learn and chat about the newest communication technologies at the virtual booths of 29 world-wide component manufacturers. The online event takes place on Thursday, 2 April 2009 in the specially developed Live EDGE EcoSphere, from 2:30 p.m. GMT in London, 9:30 a.m. in New York and 9:30 p.m. in Hong Kong. Live EDGE participants, members of the press, design engineers, students and electronic hobbyists are invited to register for this event at http://www.live-edge.com/.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090324/342042 )

The Live EDGE winner(s) will be announced by Premier Farnell CEO Harriet Green at 2:45 p.m. GMT, with a Q&A session to follow. The Live Edge challenge required entrants to submit designs utilizing electronic components in an innovative way, to make a positive impact on the environment. This year, the top three countries to register for the event were India with 25%, the U.S.A. with 17% and China with 8% of registrants.

The winning design will be awarded a unique prize package including a $25,000 USD cash prize, and support services valued at an additional $25,000 USD from experts in the fields of design consultancy, marketing, legal and commerce to drive the design towards production. In addition, each runner-up will be presented $5,000 USD for their designs.

The virtual Communications Technology Conference will showcase the newest communication technologies from 29 leading component manufacturers, including National Semiconductor, Vishay Intertechnology and Ohmite Manufacturing, who are global supplier sponsors of Live EDGE challenge. Featured technologies and discussions will include Bluetooth, WiFi and other protocols. Attendees will have the opportunity to chat live with manufacturer representatives and network with fellow electronic engineers, engineering students and hobbyists. Technical information will also be available for download.

"We are excited by the leadership opportunity the Live EDGE challenge has afforded Premier Farnell, and feel the online environment of the Ecosphere, which allows us to offer a learning and networking environment for design engineers, is a fitting way to host the awards ceremony," said Harriet Green, Chief Executive Officer of Premier Farnell plc. "Last year's competition was a huge success and the winning design will soon be launched into production, with an opportunity to significantly impact the environment. We are looking forward to see what exciting, new innovations this year's winners will bring to the market."

Conference updates, before and during the event, will be available via Twitter by signing up at http://twitter.com/LiveEDGE_event. More information about Live EDGE is available at http://www.live-edge.com/ and Live EDGE Design Challenge groups are also available on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Editors Note:

High resolution images of the Premier Farnell's EcoSphere can be found at: http://www.pinnaclemarcoms.com/PR_PICTURES/Premier_Farnell/EcoSphere.jpg

About Premier Farnell

Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl) is a leading high service, multi-channel distributor of electronic, and industrial products and specialist services throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It goes to market with a differentiated value proposition, world-class marketing, a stocked range of 450,000+ products, and access to 4,000,000 more items from 3,500 top manufacturers. The company has group sales of GBP823.1m and over 4,100 employees globally.

While global in scope, Premier Farnell recognizes the individual needs of each market and has continued to internationalize its model accordingly, trading locally under different brand names. Its primary electronics businesses trade as Farnell in the UK, India, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Newark in the US, Canada and Mexico, and Premier Electronics in China. In Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Brazil the operation is known as Farnell Newark.

Premier Farnell has participated in the Business in the Community CR Index for three years and has been one of the 'biggest improvers' in the index in the last two years. The company is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index of Corporate and Social Responsibility and has published its own Corporate Social Responsibility report since 2002.

For more information visit the website at http://www.premierfarnell.com/ 

http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090324/342042DATASOURCE: Premier Farnell Plc



CONTACT:  Contact Details: Jenny Peters, Head of Corporate

Communication, Premier Farnell plc, and Asia, Tel: [phone], Email:

; Janice Fleisher, PR & Communications Manager,

Newark, The Americas, Tel: [phone], Email: ;

Jonathan Roberts, Account Director, Pinnacle Marketing Communications Ltd,

Tel: [phone], Email: ; Claire Haikings,

Farnell, Europe Tel: [phone] ext 3433, Email: 

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