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Sep 10 2008

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Crowne Plaza Reveals Partnership With Award-Winning Designer Stefan Sagmeister

Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts has today announced the next contributor to its Crowne Plaza Think Tank campaign - award-winning designer and typographer, Stefan Sagmeister.

Stefan Sagmeister is the second innovator to be revealed as part of this year's Think Tank campaign, which sees the hotel brand sign up a number of creative and business leaders as ' Crowne Plaza innovators'. Each innovator is working with the hotel brand to create a different product or service which directly benefits business travellers staying at Crowne Plaza hotels .

The partnership will see Stefan Sagmeister explore how and where people can find inspiration whilst travelling on business. The designer believes that travelling away from home and staying in a new environment is highly conducive to formulating new ideas as it delivers a fresh perspective, without being distracted by familiarity. Some of Sagmeister's art has been conceived whilst staying in hotels around the world, and it is from this that he has formulated a new bespoke piece of artwork at the end of September which has been created specifically for installation at the Crowne Plaza Hamburg.

The striking and exclusive piece will be on display on the front of the hotel from 24 September to 1 October and will feature life-sized mannequins holding placards to spell out Sagmeister's thought-provoking insight designed to further inspire Crowne Plaza guests: 'Travelling Alone is Useful For a New Perspective on Life'.

In addition to this, Sagmeister has designed a series of Think Notes for business travellers staying in Crowne Plaza hotels . The inspiration for this innovation comes from Sagmeister's own creative process where he notes all of his thoughts and moments of inspiration on index cards then brings them together to form new ideas. Each Think Note will feature a piece of his artwork on the front and a blank side on the back on which business travellers can capture their own moments of inspiration to aid their creative process. The Think Notes are playing card sized and will be available throughout the autumn in 47 selected hotels across Benelux, Germany, Italy, Middle East and UK from 25 September.

"Speaking of his involvement with the brand, Stefan Sagmeister said: "I am very pleased to be working with Crowne Plaza , not least because it is refreshing to see a hotel group thinking about thinking. Newly occupied hotel rooms have always proved one of my most frequent sources of inspiration and I find that working in a place far removed from the studio and other distractions significantly benefits my thinking process. This experience has, in turn, inspired me to bring my art to Crowne Plaza .

The Think Notes mirror my own creative process as being removed from familiar surrounds whilst travelling alone offers me a unique new perspective which alters how I am inspired. Hopefully that inspiration will be passed onto all those who interact with the art at Crowne Plaza hotels , whether through the Think Notes or the German installation."

The dedicated Think Tank microsite www.crowneplazathinktank.com will feature further information on Stefan Sagmeister and the innovator campaign and Crowne Plaza will be announcing a further innovator and their innovation over the forthcoming months.

- Ends -

Stefan Sagmeister
Stefan Sagmeister is an award-winning Austrian graphic designer and typographer. He is the author of the award winning design monograph 'Made you Look' and designer of some of the world's best known album covers including the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith.

In 2005 he won a Grammy for his Talking Heads box set Album design. Founder of his own self named company Sagmeister Inc. www.sagmeister.com

About the Crowne Plaza Think Tank Campaign
For more information about the innovators or the Crowne Plaza Think Tank campaign please visit www.crowneplazathinktank.com.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms. IHG owns, manages, leases or franchises, through various subsidiaries, over 4,000 hotels and more than 590,000 guest rooms in nearly 100 countries and territories around the world. The Group owns a portfolio of well recognised and respected hotel brands including InterContinental^® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza^® Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn^® Hotels and Resorts, Holiday Inn Express^®, Staybridge Suites^®, Candlewood Suites^® and Hotel Indigo^®, and also manages the world's largest hotel loyalty programme, Priority Club^® Rewards with over 39 million members worldwide.

IHG has more than 1,700 hotels in its development pipeline, which will create 150,000 jobs worldwide over the next few years. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group's holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.

IHG offers information and online reservations for all its hotel brands at www.ihg.com and information for the Priority Club Rewards programme at www.priorityclub.com. For the latest news from IHG, visit our online Press Office at www.ihg.com/media

For more information please contact:
Impact Porter Novelli
Nora Feidi
Senior Account Executive
PO Box 19791
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: 9714 3304030 Ext: 431
Fax: 9714 3304031
Email: n.feidi@ipn.ae