Sonic Foundry Hosts First Mediasite User Group Europe Forum in Amsterdam

AMSTERDAM, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ISE Booth #3A120 -- Sonic Foundry, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFO), the trusted market leader for enterprise webcasting and lecture capture, is hosting the first ever Mediasite User Group Europe Forum, an opportunity for Mediasite users across the continent to meet face-to-face in a collaborative environment, today in Amsterdam.

The MUG Europe Forum, which will become an annual event, takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University of Amsterdam, Academic Medical Center. With more than 80 percent of the event's sessions presented by users themselves, attendees will learn best practices, see Mediasite implementation examples from their peers and hear about the latest Mediasite initiatives from Sonic Foundry. They will share strategies for successfully expanding or upgrading Mediasite in their organizations, learn new ideas for applications and discuss the future of Mediasite with Sonic Foundry leadership.

Attendees will be able to meet other webcasting professionals from the Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. They will also hear success stories and strategies from speakers including the European Space Agency, Fontys University of Applied Science, Goethe University, Tilburg University, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, UNINETT, Maastricht University and the University of Amsterdam.

"Meeting face-to-face and learning what their Mediasite colleagues are doing opens doors to new applications and collaborative relationships among members," said Rob Lipps, executive vice president at Sonic Foundry. "With the Mediasite User Group approaching 1,000 members globally, Sonic Foundry is thrilled to be able to offer this valuable networking opportunity to our customers."

Lipps, along with Ray Hassell, vice president of international sales at Sonic Foundry, is attending the event to present Mediasite 6, which empowers users to watch any Mediasite presentation on iPads, iPhones, iPods and BlackBerry devices. All sessions will be recorded with Mediasite, and on-demand access will be provided to attendees after the event.

"Web lectures enable our students to view parts of a lecture as often as they want or need. As part of my PhD research, I am looking into how students find and use those parts of a Mediasite recording," said Pierre Gorissen of Fontys University of Applied Sciences Educational Development and Research Department in the Netherlands. "The MUG Europe Forum enables me to present the research to other Mediasite users, talk with them about how their students are using lecture recordings and learn from their experiences."

Sonic Foundry has a robust international customer base and a growing number of Mediasite User Groups (MUGs) around the world, including MUG Netherlands, MUG Japan, and the newly-formed MUG Australia/New Zealand, MUG UK, MUG Scandinavia, MUG Germany and MUG Czech.

The flagship annual user conference, UNLEASH, is Sonic Foundry's largest gathering of Mediasite users and is now in its sixth year. UNLEASH 2012 takes place May 7-9 in Madison, Wisconsin. Last year's conference was the largest, with 17 percent more in-person participants from nine countries and 35 states in the U.S. UNLEASH is also available as a hybrid event, with an active remote audience online.

About Sonic Foundry®, Inc.
Sonic Foundry (NASDAQ: SOFO, www.sonicfoundry.com) is the trusted market leader for enterprise webcasting and lecture capture, providing video communication solutions for education, business and government. Powered by the patented Mediasite webcasting platform and Mediasite Events group, the company empowers people to transform the way they communicate online, using video webcasts to bridge time and distance, accelerate research and improve performance. Product and service names mentioned herein are the trademarks of Sonic Foundry, Inc. or their respective owners.

Certain statements contained in this news release regarding matters that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements. Because such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, uncertainties pertaining to continued market acceptance for Sonic Foundry's products, its ability to succeed in capturing significant revenues from media services and/or systems, the effect of new competitors in its market, integration of acquired business and other risk factors identified from time to time in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Sonic Foundry, Inc.