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For Traders Association of Information Technology (TAIT), which was formed in
March 1996, and represents Mumbai's IT partners and vendors, Com-IT will be a
dream come true. The association has been planning to organize an exhibition for
a year now. Various meetings were held and plans were put into place throughout
the year to make Com-IT a grand success. TAIT has also formed different groups
to look into different aspects of the event, ie a group to look after bookings
for the exhibition, and another to focus completely on marketing and promotional
activities.
Seeing the success of exhibitions held in countries like Germany, Dubai and
Taiwan, members of TAIT plan to organize Com-IT on those levels and thus it is
promoted on international standards.
Champak Gurjar, Chairman-Exhibition Committee, TAIT said, "Com-IT is a
dream for us that will soon turn into a reality. Though this is the first time
that we have organized an exhibition, it would teach us a lot in terms of
bookings, preparations and promotion of the exhibition, which would help us
organize more such exhibitions in future. I have been associated with the
IT-industry since the past 15 years and have seen it grow tremendously. Our aim
is to create a platform for channel partners and vendors to showcase their
products and make this exhibition the biggest event in South Asia. We have
planned a lot of marketing activities for the exhibition, and would use all
available mediums like TV and print for marketing. We are not only focusing on
local manufacturers but also on international manufacturers and partners."
Speaking more about the need for an IT expo, Chetan Shah, General Secretary,
TAIT added, "The Indian IT market is going through a lot of innovations and
various products are launched everyday in the market. But due to the lack of a
proper platform, these products do not reach consumers. We want to make Com-IT a
platform for vendors and channel partners to display these innovative products
and technologies. This will, in turn, give us an opportunity to make people
aware about these products and develop contacts to increase partner's
businesses."
CHALLENGES FOR TAIT
The major challenge for TAIT is that it is the first time the association is
holding an exhibition, thus members are not familiar with activities like
bookings and contacting people for the expo. TAIT has also taken the help of
other associations by inviting their partners to the exhibition.
Another challenge that TAIT is facing is to do with the booking for this mega
event, but it has the support of its
400 members. But some members have shown concern that the stalls are very
expensive.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
The expectations from Com-IT exhibitions arranged by TAIT are on the higher
side. Though the exhibition is first of its kind arranged by TAIT for channel
partners, vendors, resellers and solution providers, the expectations of the
channel community and the organizers of Com-IT are on a higher side. It is being
promoted on international scale.
Though in a city like Mumbai, people hardly find time to go to exhibitions,
members have showed confidence about Com-IT's success. Shah said, "I don't
mind if 40,000 people visit the exhibition instead of 2,00,000. But what is
important is that we get the right kind of visitors to the exhibition."
Zainul Tinwala, CEO, HT Impex who owns the brand Zen and has booked a stall in
Com-IT said, "Though we don't expect any sales, but the exhibition would be
a brand building exercise for us. Lot of channel partners from Goa, Maharashtra
and Gujarat are expected to visit Com-IT and this will indeed help us to
showcase our Zen range of products. We hope to meet a lot of new partners and
educate them about Zen and our various other products."
"We have already send invitations to CIOs, CTOs and IT managers," said
Umang Mehta, Spokesperson, TAIT. Manoj Mansukhani, Head-Global Marketing,
Microworld who has also booked a stall in Com-IT said, "Exhibitions are
usually a good place to showcase your products as you have the right audience in
place. We have participated in exhibitions worldwide like CEBIT in Germany and
GITEX in Dubai and the response were very good. We expect large number of
corporates and channel partners to visit the Com-IT exhibition."
COSTLIER AFFAIR
Talking about whether
Com-IT is a costly affair than other exhibitions in the country, Tinwala said,
"We were planning to book three stalls with our distributors, but due to
high price and
budget limitations of our distributors, we have just booked one stall in
Com-IT." Mansukhani said, "Yes compared to other exhibitions in the
country, Com-IT is a costlier affair."
Com-IT will be organized at the MMRDA Ground in Bandra, Mumbai from Dec 7-10.
Around two lakh people are expected to visit the exhibition. TAIT has already
got confirmations from AOC, Cannon, Clipsal, Gemini, Zen, Intel, KYE Systems,
Logitech, MGE, Micro World, Moserbaer, Asus through Net Place, Linksys through
Net Place, Netgear, Quick Heal, Reliance Infocomm, TVS-E, Xerox, Zenith, Zyxel,
SanDisk, Umax, Hitachi, Wipro and Microsoft. Presently 105 stalls have been
booked for Com-IT.
TAIT has approached around 300 colleges in Maharashtra and has requested the
students to visit the exhibition. Apart from this, TAIT has also sent around
3,000 invitations to manufacturers and exhibitors in Taiwan and China. An
e-mailing community has also been appointed that will send e-mails to people
reminding them of the exhibition and the date of the event. TAIT would be
advertising in all-leading dailies in India and would be placing hoardings to
make Com-IT a huge success.
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