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Press Release: June 2, 2008

Scott Berkun on CNBC's New Business of Innovation--O'Reilly Media Alert: The First Episode in the New Series Airs June 2nd!

Sebastopol, CA�Last year CNBC launched the "Business of Innovation"--a groundbreaking series about reinventing businesses and building entirely new markets to meet untapped customer needs. A second season starts tonight. The new series focuses on how to make innovation happen in order to maintain a cutting edge. And Scott Berkun, O'Reilly's bestselling author of The Myths of Innovation ($24.99), joins this season's panel of experts.

"The new series raises important questions about what's going on right now, and it was a thrill to be part of the discussion in every episode," said Berkun about his experience. Berkun, who lives in Seattle, worked on the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft from 1994-1999 and left the company in 2003 with the goal of writing enough books to fill a shelf. The Myths of Innovation is his second book.

"Innovation is the most important topic in the business world today helping companies stay ahead of the curve, maintain a competitive edge and gain a global advantage," said Susan Krakower, Vice President, Strategic Programming and Development, CNBC. "The goal of this program is to provide companies and business executives with a blueprint to innovate in their own organizations and position themselves as industry leaders."

Joining Berkun on the innovation expert panel are Suzy Welch, business journalist; Dr. Ranjay Gulati, Professor, Harvard Business School and Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University; Keith Yamashita, CEO and Founder, Stone Yamashita Partners; and Vijay Vaitheeswaran, Global Correspondent, "The Economist."

The panel of thought leaders aims "to dissect the topic and provide guidance for viewers seeking to innovate in their own organizations," noted the show's creators.

Tonight's episode--The Human Element--"focuses on how innovative companies are coping successfully in a flat world that is globally integrated, where the generation and cultural divide is getting bigger and the choices--for employees and customers--are increasing at lightning speed."

Throughout the new Business of Innovation series, award-winning journalist Maria Bartiromo, CNBC's newsgathering team, Scott Berkun and the expert panel "will demonstrate how to side step the pitfalls and supply real tools and concrete strategies for viewers seeking to innovate in their own organizations."

Hosted by CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, the second season of the five-part series airs today, Monday, June 2 at 9PM and 12AM ET and will air five consecutive Mondays at 9PM and 12AM ET on CNBC.

Find more information about Scott Berkun and The Myths of Innovation, here: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596527051

For more information about the "Business of Innovation," including a complete rundown of CEO guests and thought leaders, see: http://innovation.cnbc.com

For the CNBC press release about the "Business of Innovation," see: http://www.cnbc.com/id/24930966

About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

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