LONDON, January 28 /PRNewswire/ --

- The Winner of the $100,000 USD Live EDGE Prize Package Will be Announced Live by Premier Farnell's CEO Harriet Green

- Winning Design in the Opinion of the Judges Will Have Creative and Intuitive Design Using Electronic Components That Will Have a Positive Impact on the Environment.

Premier Farnell plc (LSE: PFL), the leading multi-channel, high service distributor supporting millions of engineers and purchasing professionals globally, has announced open registration to the technical conference and awards ceremony for Live EDGE - Electronic Design for the Global Environment. The awards ceremony will announce the $100,000 USD prize package winner and the five highly commended designs receiving $5,000 USD each.

All participants, press, design engineers and those who are environmentally concerned are invited to take part in the first ever Live EDGE event. The web based on-line event takes place on Thursday, 31 January 2008 at 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. GMT (U.K.). Participants can register via the Web at http://www.live-edge.com, (attendance is limited).

The technical conference will give participants the opportunity to chat live with Harriet Green CEO of Premier Farnell, Sir Peter Gershon, Chairman of Premier Farnell and one of the Live EDGE judges, and the winner of the competition. Participants will be able to chat with technical experts from top electronic design manufacturers, download free technical articles, network with other attendees, learn about Premier Farnell job opportunities, win prizes and find out about the next Live EDGE Challenge.

Since its launch in May 2007, over 3,200 design engineers, students and academics from 102 countries have registered for the competition. The top 10 countries for registrations are the U.S., U.K., China, India, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Brazil and France.

The 2007 Live EDGE competition panel of judges comprised; Sir Peter Gershon, - Chairman of Premier Farnell, plc - Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a governor of Imperial College, Professor Sir David King - Former UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser and Head of the Government Office for Science, Mr. Mark Kenber - Director of The Climate Change Group, Dr. Alla Cordery - Head of Electronic Engineering, Oxford, Mr. Rob Rodin - President of eConnections USA, and Mr. Max Huber - President Sharp Microelectronics.

About Live EDGE:

The winning entrant will receive a cash prize of US $50,000 as well as the support to move the design towards production. The support package, estimated to be worth an additional US $50,000, will include the services of an electronic design consultancy that will develop the design to prototype stage, assistance with legal matters and IP registration, marketing and publicity, as well as Premier Farnell's help in securing investment funding. The group will actively market the end product to millions of customers globally through their leading edge Web page, catalogue and direct marketing.

More information about the Live EDGE Challenge is available at http://www.live-edge.com.

About Premier Farnell

Premier Farnell plc (LSE:pfl) is a leading high service, multi-channel distributor of electronic, maintenance, repair and operation products and specialist services throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. It goes to market with a differentiated value proposition, world-class marketing, a stocked range of 400,000+ products, and access to 4,000,000 more items from 3,000 top manufacturers. The company has group sales of GBP823.1m and 4,100 employees globally.

While global in scope, Premier Farnell recognizes the individual needs of each market and has continued to internationalize its model accordingly, trading locally under different brand names. Its primary electronics businesses trade as Farnell in the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Newark in the US, Canada and Mexico, and Premier Electronics in China. In Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Brazil the operation is known as Farnell Newark. For more information visit the website at http://www.premierfarnell.com

Contact details for publication and editorial enquiries: Jenny Peters Head of Corporate Communications Premier Farnell plc Tel: +44-(0)207-851-4102 Mobile:+44-(0)-7921740548 Email: JPeters@Premierfarnell.com

Issued by:

Jonathan Roberts, Account Director, Pinnacle Marketing Communications Ltd, Prosperity House, Dawlish Drive, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 5LN, UK Email: jonathan@pinnaclemarcom.com Tel: +44-(0)20-8869-9339 Web: http://www.pinnacle-marketing.com

Ref.: PF 152/A

Contact details for publication and editorial enquiries: Jenny Peters, Head of Corporate Communications, Premier Farnell plc, Tel: +44-(0)207-851-4102, Mobile:+44-(0)-7921740548, Email: JPeters@Premierfarnell.com. Jonathan Roberts, Account Director, Pinnacle Marketing Communications Ltd, Prosperity House, Dawlish Drive, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 5LN, UK Email: jonathan@pinnaclemarcom.com Tel: +44-(0)20-8869-9339 Web: http://www.pinnacle-marketing.com