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Send Word Now’s Alert and Response Service Chosen by BOMA/Chicago for Emergency Preparedness

The Building Owners and Managers Association helps Chicago’s Commercial Buildings plan for Communication during a Crisis

New York, NY, May 23, 2007  Send Word Now™ the leading provider of on-demand alerting and response services, today announced that it has been selected by The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Chicago to assist with the association’s emergency preparedness planning. BOMA/Chicago will make the multi-modal alert and response service available to its 800 members for rapid communication during a crisis, or for everyday, time-sensitive situations.

The City of Chicago and BOMA/Chicago announced today new and vital communications and logistics protocols in the event of a large scale emergency in the central business district. In a special forum on “Creating a Culture of Preparedness,” Chicago’s Chief Emergency Officer Cortez Trotter will unveil an After Action Report that will detail lessons learned from an evacuation exercise held last September and recommendations for enhanced preparedness and response by both the public and private sectors.  One of the key findings unveiled in the City’s After Action Report  includes the critical need for additional communications response tools that guarantee redundancy and enable the Office of Emergency Communications and Management (OEMC) and BOMA/Chicago to contact building managers, engineers and security directors in real time in the event of an emergency.  

To that end, BOMA/Chicago will announce the acquisition and roll-out of the multi-modal alert and response service from Send Word Now.  In addition to BOMA/Chicago now being able to communicate with all of its members through Send Word Now alerts, the SWN Alert Service will also be available to BOMA/Chicago members for use with their tenant communities at a special member discount.

“Send Word Now offers a vital alert and response service that will effectively help us to notify our member buildings should an emergency occur,” said Ronald Vukas, executive vice president, BOMA/Chicago. “We implore our members and other Chicago Business District office buildings to sign up for Send Word Now’s services to make Chicago’s office buildings and the 650,000 employees working in those buildings more equipped to effectively respond to an emergency.”   

The SWN Alert Service uses multiple modes of communication - including text messaging, telephones, mobile phones, email, pagers, Blackberries, Treos and other PDAs – to deliver alerts within minutes of an incident.  Property management or security personnel can initiate an alert from the web, phone, email or internal information system application.

The two-way alert and response service enables real-time response to all voice and text alerts, allowing message senders to immediately verify and track whether a response was made. In addition to enabling immediate communication in a crisis situation, the service can be used to communicate in every day situations such as alerts about construction on a certain floor, a water main break, fire drills, and other building situations.

Send Word Now’s CEO Tom Shoemaker adds, “We are excited to have been chosen by BOMA/Chicago to help equip the city’s commercial buildings to more effectively notify people in the event of an emergency, as well as to initiate alerts for everyday communications.  We believe this will serve as a model for other cities across the United States.”

For additional information:

·    Details about SWN Alert Service

·    Demonstration of SWN Alert Service

·    Send Word Now in  Real Estate

About BOMA/Chicago

The Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago™ (BOMA/Chicago™) is the voice of the office building industry in Chicago, representing 270 buildings housing private, institutional and government/public uses in the City of Chicago and 150 companies that provide services to commercial office buildings. Now in its 105^th year and the oldest BOMA Association in the world, BOMA/Chicago represents the interests of the people and companies that own, operate, manage and service Chicago’s commercial buildings. Learn more at: www.bomachi.com

About Send Word Now

Send Word Now is the leading provider of on-demand alerting and response services driving effective communication during time sensitive situations. The easy-to-use, web based services are used by corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions to ensure fast, effective, two-way communication in real-time, ensuring continuity during time sensitive events - anywhere, anytime, regardless of location, device or connection. The company is headquartered in New York City. More information about Send Word Now can be found at www.sendwordnow.com.

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Press Contact:

Laura Sankowich

SWN Communications, Inc.

212-379-4928

lsankowich@sendwordnow.com