Com-IT : Recession Hits Com-IT Expo 2008

The global recession in the economy, which is giving sleepless nights to the
people in banking, finance and IT industry, hit the Com-IT Expo 2008 hard. The
number of exhibitors went down by almost 20 percent. At the same time, corporate
also distanced them­selves from the show.

The event, organized by Mumbai-based Trade Association of Information
Technology (TAIT) was inaugurated recently at the MMRDA exhibition ground,
Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai. TAIT, founded in March 1996, represents the
interests of IT industry. The organization represents more than 350 IT companies
com­prising resellers, systems and network integrators, distributors,
sub-distributors and solution providers.

The recession

The impact of recession was seen throughout the event. While the number of
participants was slightly lower, as compared to the previous year's footfall,
the attendees complained that the participation was cold. Further allegations
were also leveled against the organizers that proper publicity was not done for
the event, to attract visitors, especially corporate, who are

the large buyers. This year, 90 exhibitors attended the biggest IT fair of
western region, much below than the expected number of 125.

Gamers day out: Fun loving visitors turned up at the AMD stall in the four-day long Com-IT Expo 2008. Visitors as well as exhibitors had first hand experience of the two new games unveiled by the company

“The number of partici­pants has gone down this year. Obviously the global
recession has had an impact on the expo. But still we can call it a successful
event, as the difference is not much,” said CW Kadwadker, Executive Secretary,
TAIT. He confirmed that some of the corporate have canceled partici­pation at
the eleventh hour. Almost negligible participation was seen from Taiwan and
China, which are hardly hit by the global recession.

We still rule

Some of the exhibitors dealing with gaming, security and low-cost products
did not feel the pinch of recession. Enough number of people visited, comprising
channels and end-customers. Some of them have also received handsome amount of
business queries, which they are looking forward to convert into buying.

“This year, our objective was to give consumer some sort of relaxation and
entertainment. In our stall, people could come and experience the latest games
launched by us,” said Rajshekhar Bhatt, National Sales Manager-ATI Product Line,
Chipsets Business, AMD. Lot of people, especially youth were trying their hands
at the latest games like Need for Speed, Undercover and FIFA-2009, which were
unveiled on the day-one of expo.

Similarly, people selling low-cost products remained untouched by recession.
Aztech Tele System, one of the participants in the expo had generated a decent
amount of business in the four-day event.

Building brand

For some exhibitors, it was just a brand-building exercise, while others
were using the platform just to up-hold their existing channel partners and get
some new alliance.

“I was there to showcase our product Divoom range of speakers, which is
expected to be launched in the month of December. Along with that, we showcased
our five dozen other existing products,” said Zianul Tinwala, CEO, HT Impex.

Similarly, Mircoworld also did not launch any new products at the exhibition.

AKHILESH SHUKLA

akhileshs@cybermedia.co.in