SANTA BARBARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--QAD Inc. (Nasdaq:QADA) (Nasdaq:QADB), a leading provider of enterprise software and services for global manufacturing companies, today announced that world-renowned inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil will headline the speaker lineup for its annual customer conference,QAD Explore, May 8-11, 2017, at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.

Described as the restless genius byThe Wall Street Journal and the ultimate thinking machine byForbes, Kurzweilis one of the worlds leading inventors, computer scientists, authors, thinkers and futurists.His keynote speech will take place onTuesday, May 9.

Kurzweils inventions include the CCD flatbed scanner, omni-font optical character recognition, and the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. He has written five New York Times best-selling books, including The Singularity Is Near andHow To Create A Mind. He is co-founder and chancellor of Singularity University.

Kurzweil also invented the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments (Kurzweil Keyboard) for which he received a 2015 Technical GRAMMY Award for outstanding achievement in the field of music technology. A recipient of the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002. He holds 21 honorary doctorates.

We are incredibly lucky to have Ray Kurzweil delivering a keynote at QAD Explore 2017, said QAD Chief Marketing Officer Carter Lloyds. His insights into the wide-ranging effects that computers, the internet and artificial intelligence have on the world are fascinating. With so many of our customers looking to leverage innovations like machine learning and the internet of things, its the perfect time to make Ray a part of our biggest event.

Explore is QADs largest annual event where customers, partners, sponsors and QAD experts come together for a week of informative sessions, hands-on training, manufacturing industry-specific presentations and networking. Theagendaprovides updates on key trends in manufacturing, strategic developments in the industries QAD serves, and information on new solution developments. Attendees will hear from over75 speakers, including QAD executives, customers and manufacturing authorities.

In addition to over 60 speakers, Explore features more than 40 workshops and hands-on training classes, many of which count toward APICS continuing education credits. The QAD Solutions Expo provides ample opportunities for sponsors and other members of the QAD community to exhibit, demonstrate and solicit feedback on their products and solutions.

Customers can register for the event atexpore.qad.com/register. QAD is offering an early bird registration fee of $1,295 (a $600 discount) for those who sign up byMarch 31. Full-price registration extends through the event. Registration includes access to more than 40 sessions, invitations to the Welcome Reception and the closing night off-site dinner, meals during the event, electronic access to all presentation materials, and access to the Solutions Expo show floor.

For the latest updates on QAD Explore 2017, follow @QAD_Community on Twitter, and look for #QADExplore.

About QAD The Effective Enterprise

QAD Inc. (Nasdaq:QADA) (Nasdaq:QADB) is a leading provider of enterprise software and services designed for global manufacturing companies. For more than 35 years, QAD has provided global manufacturing companies with QAD Enterprise Applications, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that supports operational requirements, including financials, manufacturing, demand and supply chain planning, customer management, business intelligence and business process management. QAD Enterprise Applications is offered in flexible deployment models in the cloud, on-premise or in a blended environment. With QAD, customers and partners in the automotive, consumer products, food and beverage, high technology, industrial products and life sciences industries can better align daily operations with their strategic goals to meet their vision of becoming more Effective Enterprises. For more information about QAD, call +1 805-566-6000, visitwww.qad.com.

QAD is a registered trademark of QAD Inc. All other products or company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to Investors: This press release contains certain forward-looking statements made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, statements regarding projections of revenue, income and loss, capital expenditures, plans and objectives of management regarding the Companys business, future economic performance or any of the assumptions underlying or relating to any of the foregoing. Forward-looking statements are based on the companys current expectations. Words such as expects, believes, anticipates, could, will likely result, estimates, intends, may, projects, should, would, might, plan and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to: risks associated with our cloud service offerings, such as defects and disruptions in our services, our ability to properly manage our cloud service offerings, our reliance on third-party hosting and other service providers, and our exposure to liability and loss from security breaches; demand for the company's products, including cloud service, licenses, services and maintenance; pressure to make concessions on our pricing and changes in our pricing models; protection of our intellectual property; dependence on third-party suppliers and other third-party relationships, such as sales, services and marketing channels; changes in our revenue, earnings, operating expenses and margins; the reliability of our financial forecasts and estimates of the costs and benefits of transactions; the ability to leverage changes in technology; defects in our software products and services; third-party opinions about the company; competition in our industry; the ability to recruit and retain key personnel; delays in sales; timely and effective integration of newly acquired businesses; economic conditions in our vertical markets and worldwide; exchange rate fluctuations; and the global political environment. For a more detailed description of the risk factors associated with the company and factors that may affect our forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's latest Annual Report on Form 10-K and, in particular, the section entitled Risk Factors therein, and in other periodic reports the company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission thereafter. Management does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law.

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World-Renowned Inventor, Author and Futurist Ray Kurzweil ... - Business Wire (press release)