Hyderabad to host mega IT event in October

With 'Business opportunities unlimited' as its theme
‘orbIT 2001’, a mega event to be organized in Hyderabad is all set to catch
the fancy of the infotech community. The first of its kind event focussing on
ICE (Internet Communication and Entertainment) will be held from October 4-6,
2001.

It comes as a fresh air after the US slowdown as it will
provide a platform to generate business opportunities for the Indians as well as
the foreign participating countries. This exhibition is likely to span around
4,500 square meters of stall area. This would cover 9,000 square meters of
constructed area in air-conditioned hangars. Around 250 companies are likely to
participate in the mega show including from India and abroad.

The aim of the exhibition is to project the state of
Andhra Pradesh (AP) as the emerging land of opportunity, a progressive State
Government and strong political will with an investor friendly FDI framework.

A major highlight of this exhibition will be the
e-governance initiative taken up by the state as well as its strengths in
software services, e-services, telecom software, embedded software and
entertainment technology. A large presence in the bio-informatics space is also
likely to be there because of AP being a favorable place for the same. The
exhibition is expected to attract around 35,000 business-focussed visitors and
300 to 500 foreign delegates who will be coming from all over the world to
witness this event.

“This is the first time that such an exhibition is
being organized in the state and we are expecting participation of around 80
companies from the state capital. As far as the investments are concerned, the
Global Investor Meet, which was held in Hyderabad recently raised $ 1.5 billion
worth of investment and business. Considering that the total AP IT industry is
around $ 1 billion, we should set a target of $ 0.25 to $ 0.5 billion worth of
business to happen during orbIT,”  revealed M Hussain, President, Cyber
Expo (the organizer).

orbIT  will organize conferences around various B2B
exchange programs. There will be common keynote/panel discussions, and
one-to-one business exchanges. CIO Exchange will see India's 100 CIOs meet with
vendors and service providers. There would be further exchanges under this for
convergence, broadbanding, CRM, SCM, datamining etc.

“As part of Country Exchange, foreign delegates will
interact with software services, IT-enabled service companies and State
Government agencies. Different country delegations would be given slots for
interacting with Indian companies. US has already confirmed its participation
for the mega event,” added Hussain.

Under the Industry Exchange, The IT industry would have
various B2B exchanges including an e-Governance exchange where State Government
agencies would have a face-to-face with vendors, an investor exchange where
entrepreneurs will meet VCs/angel investors. Conference will include country
delegations, CEOs/CIOs, IT and telecom industry professionals, financial
institutions, VCs/angel investors, and state government representatives.

The event is produced and developed by Cyber Expo, a
part of Cyber Media, which has already done several international events like
the Bangalore IT.com and the NASSCOM 2001 show.

(CNS)