COMPASS organizes East India IT show

Computer Association of Eastern India (COMPASS) had organized an exhibition which was held at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, Kolkata, which was considered as one of the largest IT exhibitions held in eastern India. Sponsored by Seagate Technologies International the event was held for three days starting from 21st January 2001 and ended 23rd January 2001. Around 82 companies took part in the eastern mega event. 

Don Kennedy, VP (Sales & Marketing), Seagate Technologies International, was the Chief quest at the inaugural session and spoke on memory storage handling at a time when data management and storage costs are key issues facing enterprises today. The emphasis was on storage, as it formed the backbone of IT in an increasingly networked environment. 

The emergence of new storage infrastructures completed and enabled by new software development was placing storage in the forefront of enterprise computing developments. The world, he said, was in the middle of a storage revolution. Virtually overnight, organizations have been converting their storage capacity from gigabytes to terabytes and the number of users accessing the information is skyrocketing.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Bijoy Chaterjee, Principal Secretary (IT), West Bengal. MK Shah, President, COMPASS, had urged the state government in the inaugural session to increase IT expenditure in basic infrastructure and reduce sales tax. Mahesh Shah, President, COMPASS, had requested the state government to consult COMPASS while formulating IT policies and allow COMPASS representation in policy making bodies of the IT industry. 

A statewide communications and network connectivity will be set up so that educational institutes, public offices and information kiosks can have access to data and Internet connectivity. All new IT units will be exempted from paying stamp duty and registration fees which is expected to add and provide the necessary leverage towards growth and development of IT in eastern India.

N Dhanukia, Chairman, Exhibition Committee, had said that special arrangements were made for children below 12 years so as to initiate them into the world of multimedia and explore computers as an all round development in their education and personal development. Children center, Planet IQ had a fairly good response from the exhibition and is looking forward to the next year's IT event. 

The fair highlighted IT products, solutions, learning, services and business that is prevalent in the IT market today with companies spanning the wide spectrum of distributors and software developers from Orrisa, Bihar and other parts of east India. The objective of the exhibition was primarily for the identification of new business opportunities including launching new products and innovative concepts within the industry. It was also a platform for interaction with leading companies and other regional companies allowing them to develop new business partners as well as customers.

Most software companies that were participants in the exhibition had clients that spanned across the globe in both Web and e-business solutions. For example vSplash.com is a browser-based, multimedia-enriched, zero programming end-user website development site tool. 

Almost 70 percent of the participants were hardware dealers and it is expected by the next years' exhibition that the percentage involved in software development rose by 20 percent. The rest 30 percent included software solutions providers, Internet service providers and Web developers from across east India. Most visitors were potential buyers of hardware equipments who compared costs and details of the dealers. According to a dealer, "Although buyers who visit us at our stalls don't make instant purchases, they are however those that come back later after making a cost survey." 

The exhibition thus has not only helped dealers and other exhibitors but has also helped the general visiting population in making a viable decision when it came to making such purchases.

With over 164 stalls and four pavilions there were a total 84 participants from across Orrisa, Bihar, Meghalaya, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.