Gujarat expos high on innovative ideas

Three cities in Gujarat will have expos that begin towards the end of January
and will continue till mid February, 2005. They are Baroda, Bharuch and Surat.
Baroda IT Association (BITA), which is having its expo from 28th to 30th January
has come up with a new way to make Barodians aware of the expo and visit it.
"We will carry out a rally on 28th January only in Baroda on two-wheelers
and four-wheelers. Stall holders and BITA members will participate in the rally
that will tell the people of the products on display at the event," said
Priyatosh Gupta of BITA. With a publicity rally like this, BITA expects to have
around 88,000 visitors during the three days of the exhibition.

To keep visitors interested in the event, they can have a keen look at 132
stalls that will be put up, for which Rs 15 lakh have been invested. With this
investment, the look and feel of the expo has been changed too. For the first
time, there are only 12 stalls in one dome this time, giving more free space to
visitors to move around and see the products displayed. "This has been
specifically done to avoid the place getting over-crowded during peak hours and
people jostling over each other to have a dekko at the products," said Amit
Shah, Secretary of BITA.

Another first is on the vendors front. Microsoft will have a direct
participation for the first time. Till now, it used to be a participant at the
event, but only through its dealers or distributors. But which range of products
of Microsoft are to be displayed is yet undecided. Other vendors who will
participate are IBM and HP, which will be through channel partners.

After a gap of nearly 20 days, Ankleshwar Bharuch IT Association (ABITA) will
have its IT expo from 19th to 21st February, 2005. This event also has some
firsts attached to it. "The entire exhibition will be Wi-Fi enabled, which
is our first attempt at it. Also, from a single cable, television and Internet
both services will be available," said Manish Shah, President of ABITA.
Till now, the event used to be held in a hall. Its for the first time that it
will be held in a open ground, and thus a dome-like structure is created to
cover the stalls.

With Rs 5 lakh invested for this event, it will have around 50 stalls.
Leading vendors like Intel, LG, AMD, Intex, Samsung are some of the
participants. Also, for two days, there will be conferences for IT managers and
one day will have a conference, keeping students in mind for that. Thus, the
ABITA expo is targeting students and corporates alike for the event.

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