News release

Southwest Regional Business Matchmaking in Houston, Texas

New Corporate Patrons Join Cosponsorship

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), SCORE-Counselors to America's Small Business, and HP today opened the Southwest Regional Business Matchmaking event will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. Some 1,000 small business owners are attending to meet face to face with buying representatives from 200 federal, state and local government agencies and major corporations from throughout the country.

Since its inception in 2003, Business Matchmaking has - through regional events and through its post-Katrina special initiative - generated more than 40,000 one-on-one appointments resulting in more than $700 million in contracting opportunities for small businesses.

Three companies have joined the Business Matchmaking team in Houston as new cosponsors. They include Monster, the leading employment website which hosts over 40 million resumes; RIM (Research in Motion), the designer, manufacturer and marketer of wireless solutions; and Symantec, a provider of information technology security solutions to individuals as well as large and small companies.

Monster, RIM and Symantec join Aflac, Federal Express, MasterCard, American Airlines, Administaff, Lockheed, AMD, eAgency and Chevron as cosponsors for the Houston event, enabling small businesses and government and private sector buyers to participate in the Business Matchmaking project without cost.

"Business Matchmaking has been a tremendous success over the past three years and we're pleased to see this initiative continue to grow in 2006," said SBA associate administrator and director of communications Raul E. Cisneros. "We are fortunate to have new cosponsors such as Monster, RIM and Symantec joining us in creating even more contracting opportunities in the public and private sectors for small businesses."

"SCORE proudly supports this vital initiative to help small businesses reach new corporate and government markets," said SCORE CEO Ken Yancey. "SCORE provides expert business advice to clients through face-to-face and online Business Matchmaking events. SCORE will continue to provide this vital service to America's entrepreneurs."

"HP welcomes small businesses to this next Business Matchmaking event in Houston - the location of one of our largest U.S. sites," said John Dayan, vice president of marketing and business development - Americas, Personal Systems Group, HP. "Our commitment to empowering small businesses to achieve their vision is demonstrated, in part, by the fact that HP is one of the largest procurers of goods and services at Business Matchmaking events."

Complete details on Business Matchmaking, including the 2006 schedule and the new Online Network, may be found at http://www.businessmatchmaking.com.

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, global services, business and home computing, and imaging and printing. For the four fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2006, HP revenue totaled $88.9 billion. More information about HP (NYSE, Nasdaq: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.com.

About SCORE

Since 1964, SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" has assisted more than 7.2 million aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through counseling and business workshops. More than 10,500 volunteer business counselors in 389 chapters serve their communities through entrepreneur education dedicated to the formation, growth and success of small business. For more information about starting or operating a small business, call 1-800-634-0245 for the SCORE chapter nearest you. Or, visit SCORE on the Web at http://www.score.org.

About SBA

SBA, established in 1953, provides financial, technical, management and government assistance to help Americans start, run, and grow their businesses. With a portfolio of direct and guaranteed business loans and disaster loans worth almost $80 billion, SBA is the nation's largest single financial backer of small businesses. For more information on how the SBA can help entrepreneurs, visit http://www.sba.gov.

Disclaimer: SBA's participation in this Cosponsorship is not an endorsement of the views, opinions, products or services of any Cosponsor or other person or entity. All SBA programs, services and Cosponsored Activities are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. The SCORE Association is funded by the SBA (Cooperative Agreement No. SBAHQ-06-S-0001). Reasonable arrangements for persons with disabilities will be made, if requested, at least two weeks in advance. Contact: information@businessmatchmaking.com. Cosponsorship Authorization Number: 06-6100-04.