Not Without an Expo

face="Times New Roman, serif">One
of the most auxiliary businesses for channel associations are IT
expos, which are held every year in their respective states. These
expos generally elicit good response from sponsors, exhibitors and
visitors. IT expo is one of the most attractive channel businesses in
the industry, with thousands of attendees seeking business solutions
for their daily needs, as well as single end-users looking for an
outright purchase backed by various offers and schemes. The IT expos
deliver traffic to the exhibit hall, and attendees make their way to
each booth. This means your booth will have visitors, who will offer
more traffic than you can handle. That translates into more leads,
more sales and more business which is why you are exhibiting in the
first place. Holding such an event with an educational program
teaches resellers, enterprises, SMBs, and customers, how to select
products, purchase or resell. This is where service providers learn
how to profitably roll out services their subscribers are clamoring
for. IT expo is where buyers, sellers, resellers, and manufacturers
meet to forge relationships and close deals. As far as the TAIT
(Traders Association Information Technology) COM-IT Expo is
considered, it is definitely India's largest annual international
exhibition and conference on computers IT products and services.
Staged annually in the last quarter, the COM-IT Expo held at
Exhibition Center not only brought together international
manufacturers, national distributors, channel suppliers offering the
latest products, services and technologies but also the CEOs, CFOs,
IT managers, technocrats and end-user. “Awareness programs are the
most crucial. With internal meetings, the plans are discussed, but
unless we make the members aware, it will not materialize. Activities
like IT expos keep on happening periodically and we make it a point
to communicate with our members on a regular basis, discussing about
their problems and solving it. We also organize stress management
programs and financial programs in order to improve logistics
efficiently,” shared Girish Rathod, President, TAIT. Successful
economies demand vibrant, efficient and latest technological
upgrading. These phenomenal changes are creating challenges for
planners and governments but, at the same time, are participating in
the event. It is however noticed that the associations in the West
seem to be the most subtle and has a co-ordination attitude when it
comes to interact with the visitors compared to the East. In the end
an association should match up to the expectations of the customer
and the visitors to make the IT expo immensely popular.

face="Times New Roman, serif">As
far as the latest Compass exhibition is concerned it was noted that
the event was not mapped out properly in terms of showcasing the
products to the customers and ranked low in attracting the crowd.
Moreover, there were no settled arrangements for talks with the media
and interactions compared to other IT expos in the West. It appears
that the eastern markets are a bit sluggish in terms of executing an
IT expo whereas the West is actively involved in minute details
regarding the exhibition. And, if such expos would be carried out in
the East, then undoubtedly, the market in eastern India for the
channel partners and distributors will boom.

face="Times New Roman, serif">IT'S
TIME FOR SERIOUS BUSINESS

face="Times New Roman, serif">According
to IDC, the coveted industry finding reveals that 56 percent of the
associations surveyed, do not organize exhibitions and trade fairs in
their respective regions. Pune's Computers and Media Dealers
Association (CMDA) has the largest turnover of Rs 2.5 crore from the
business-driven activities and expo, followed by Baroda IT
Association and Raipur-based Chattisgarh Computer Media and Dealers
Association. The IDC study inducted 18 new channel associations, this
year. The Trade Association of Information Technology (TAIT) got the
top position again, for the third time in a row. CMDA (Pune) and
Kolkata-based Computer Association of Eastern India (COMPASS) got the
2nd and 3rd rank respectively.

face="Times New Roman, serif">IDC
followed a pretested model for the evaluation of these associations,
based on inputs from the discussions with the executives of the
respective associations. The parameters on which the associations
were adjudged include membership growth, electoral process, awareness
programs, communication, frequency of internal meeting, and
organizing exhibition and trade fair in the region. Commenting on
profits earned by association, Thakkar said, “Basically there is no
earning from an association point of view as there is no commercial
motto because in the end it is a byproduct. As long as the profit is
considered the association can garner up to 10 lakh in profit
considering the footfalls, enquiries.”

face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-weight: normal;">VCMDWA
added that the profit depends upon the popularity of the expo thus
resulting in the sponsorship from the companies. The basic profit
earned through their expo was Rs 15 lakh. The association has evoked
tremendous booking response on the announcement of COMP-EX 2011 on
its 19 ^size="3">th face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-weight: normal;">
consecutive IT event during its general body meeting. It is not only
the popular expos that gain the maximum revenue, but even the smaller
associations like BITA (Baroda Information Technology Association)
also give strong competition to other associations.

face="Times New Roman, serif">"With
around 260 stalls set up over the three-day event, our BITA IT expo
held in 2010, manage to generate over 50,000 visitors and the
business transacted was to the tune of Rs 2 crore compared to Rs 1.5
crore," shared Nilesh Joshi, President, BITA. According to CMDA
authorities, even their expo helped in generating several orders for
participants and has resulted in yielding sales amounting to
approximately Rs 2 crore.

face="Times New Roman, serif">NO
DOUBT, EXPO RULES

face="Times New Roman, serif">With
such an astounding success garnered by the associations in the IT
expos one should not be surprised if an expo goes international in
the times to come and gets acclaimed worldwide. “TAIT plans to
merge communications, security and IT together which will definitely
help in recognition of COM-IT across the world,” stated Champakraj
Gujrar, Chairman, TAIT. Expressing his opinion on the same, Ugemuge
said, “Globally we are the biggest IT market and we need a big IT
exhibition which will result in growing phenomenally for the
associations in the IT market."