If you're attending this year's NAB 2006 in Las Vegas, we hope you include the RAIN Las Vegas Summit '06 (our fourth annual!) in your plans.

This year, our annual Summit will be Monday, April 24th, 12N-5P (with our customary RAIN Reader Cocktail Party following), just steps from the Las Vegas Convention Center at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel. (That's the Convention Center to the left of the hotel in the photo below.)

The special discount advance admission to the Summit is $50. Simply:

• Click the PayPal button below before Thursday, April 20th. You don't need to have a PayPal account, just a credit card. Paying by PayPal will automatically reserve your place at the Summit; there's no need to call us.
• If you are paying for more than one attendee , please e-mail us the names of everyone for whom you are paying admission (rainsummit@gmail.com or paul@kurthanson.com).

The regular entrance fee is $75 for payment received after April 20th and at the door. If you will not be paying viaPayPal, please call us at (312) 527-3879 to reserve your seat(s) for the event and arrange for payment. Seating is extremely limited, so please call and reserve a seat as soon as possible. Again, however, if you pay via PayPal, there's no need to call.

We're thrilled with the caliber of quality speakers and panelists that have agreed to be part of the Summit.

The RAIN Las Vegas Summit '06 is sponsored by BRSMedia, Net Radio Sales, and Webcast Metrics.

Keep watching this space for more details as we announce additional speakers and panelists. In the meantime, you can view details of last year's Summit's itinerary here, and read reviews of the event here, here, and here.

Save the date -- we hope you can join us!

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From Wall Street Journal: "In their pursuit of advertising dollars, Internet companies are winning some important converts: the consumer packaged-goods  companies that sell everything from cookies and cola to skin cream and soap.

"After years of cautiously experimenting with Web marketing, powerhouse advertisers like General Mills Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc. are cranking up online spending and increasing the range of brands they promote on the Web. General Mills, maker of Cheerios and Betty Crocker baking mixes, expects to nearly double online-ad spending in the current fiscal year. Kraft, home of Jell-O and Kool-Aid, plans to double its number of online-ad campaigns in 2006 and to increase the number of brands it advertises on the Internet by at least half.

"The shift underlines the Internet's threat to traditional media such as television and print magazines. It suggests that the boom in Internet advertising that has already fueled rapid revenue growth  in recent years at Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and other companies could continue as still other groups of more traditional advertisers step up online spending."

Read the entire article at the Wall Street Journal Online.