Digi-Key Corporation Announces

Digi-Key Corporation Announces electronica 2008 Corvette Winner German hardware developer wins showstopper prize

Thief River Falls, Minnesota – February xx, 2008 – After giving away a customized Harley-Davidson Fatboy® motorcycle at electronica 2006, Digi-Key Corporation upped the ante for electronica 2008, selecting a 2008 Chevrolet Corvette for its showstopper giveaway. The winner of the car was Stefan Gies of Aachen, Germany.

Organized by Messe München International (MMI, Munich Trade Fairs International Group) and touted as the world’s leading trade show for electronics components, systems, and applications, electronica takes place every second year in Munich, Germany. The 2008 exhibition, held November 11-14, attracted more than 73,000 trade visitors and 2,800 exhibitors, including Digi-Key Corporation making its second appearance at the show.

According to Digi-Key President and COO Mark Larson, “The bigger prize required a larger booth, which also correlated to Digi-Key’s growth during the past two years in the European marketplace.” In addition to the red Corvette, Digi-Key’s booth featured several kiosks loaded with interactive software that provided visitors with information about Digi-Key. Staffing the display, visiting with, and answering the questions of customers were key Digi-Key personnel from its US headquarters as well as its Customer Support Center located in the Netherlands. For fun, soccer balls were given away, and a Marilyn Monroe lookalike posed with visitors for photographs. To qualify for the Corvette giveaway, which took place on the last day of the show, all a visitor needed to do was have his attendance badge scanned at Digi-Key’s booth.

For the car winner, it was almost a situation where wishing made it so. On Friday, November 14, Gies, a hardware developer, showed co-workers a trade magazine that included a Digi-Key ad featuring the Corvette. “Look at my new car,” he teased. “They laughed,” said Gies. However, he got the last laugh when back in his office a few minutes later his mobile phone rang. “Congratulations,” the caller said. “You are the winner of the 2008 Corvette from Digi-Key.” At first, Gies had difficultly comprehending his good fortune. “I was at a loss for words. I thought it was a joke from my colleagues.” Eventually, he was convinced the call was genuine. “I still could not believe that I was the winner of the car,” he said. “My heart pounded with excitement.”

Gies had registered for the car while attending electronica 2008 with coworkers. “In the afternoon on Wednesday, November 13, I visited Digi-Key’s booth with five colleagues,” Gies said. “A very nice woman asked me if I wanted to win the Corvette. ‘Yes, of course,’ I responded, and she scanned my badge.” Gies, 37, lives in Aachen, Germany where he obtained an electrical engineering degree from the University of Aachen in 1998, Since 2006, he has worked for Atecom, a provider of solutions for the transmission of broadcast content over broadband networks. Married with two children, ages one and eight, Gies and his wife, Stephanie, made the 400-mile trip from Aachen to Munich to pick up his Corvette one week after being notified of his windfall. “Thanks to all for the wonderful prize,” he told Digi-Key.

Digi-Key serves the European marketplace with several currency and language-specific catalogs as well as websites for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Customer service and technical staff serve customers from a Customer Support Center in the Netherlands. Customers are also served around the clock 365 days a year by staff at Digi-Key’s headquarters in Thief River Falls, Minnesota, USA, where the electronic components distributor’s Product Distribution Center is located. Europe currently represents one of Digi-Key’s strongest areas of growth. Digi-Key is currently ranked the fifth largest distributor of electronic components in North America and ninth largest in the world.

About Digi-Key Corporation One of the world’s fastest growing distributors of electronic components, Digi-Key has earned its reputation as an industry leader through its total commitment to service and performance. As a full-service provider of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, Digi-Key has been ranked #1 for Overall Performance for 17 consecutive years from among North America’s more than 200 distributors (EE Times Distribution Study/August 2008). Offering more than 1.5 million products from 400 quality name-brand manufacturers, Digi-Key’s commitment to inventory is unparalleled. Access to the company’s broad product offering is available 24/7 at Digi-Key’s top-rated website, www.digikey.com.

Editorial Contact for Digi-Key Corporation Lesley Harmoning Manager, Advertising Digi-Key Corporation 218-681-8000, Ext 1656 [email protected]

Caption for Photograph: As the lucky winner of a random drawing at electronica 2008, German hardware developer Stephen Gies and his family pose with the 2008 Chevrolet Corvette he received from Digi-Key Corporation.