IT exhibitions--growing, growing, gone!

Exhibitions seem to have become a good barometer of the state of the IT industry. And the response it evokes, a fair indicator of how relevant is the platform that it represents.

I recall the days when CSI used to rule the roost. Representation from the IT industry (mostly hardware vendors) used to be pretty heavy. In the early and mid eighties, you had just about three mainframe/supermini computer vendors and a host of micro computer vendors. The initial days of CP/M based systems allowed for a fair degree of differentiation. Awareness levels were rather low and it helped the vendors a great deal.

I remember my initiation into the CSI exhibition in Calcutta (I forget which year it was-probably 1986). IBM compatibles had just made their presence felt. Almost everyone was showing the same stuff-a PC with a 10 MB or 20 MB hard drive. My company had developed some rudimentary demos on Lotus 123 and other such software. HCL had just tied up for CAD platforms and was demonstrating Apolo stations- a rather ambitious stuff in those days.

While every exhibition does have a theme, it generally remains confined to the conference sessions. There is generally little in the exhibition area which kind of matches with the conference theme. (I guess everyone have their own compulsions).

The fact that CSI gave way to MAIT was probably a representation issue (and may be with 'political' considerations too.) The exhibit area was anyway dominated by the manufacturers in the CSI exhibitions. So representation from that perspective shouldn't have been an issue. May be it had to do with who hogged the limelight!

That way there wasn't really a marked difference between CSI and MAIT sponsored exhibitions. But the fact that MAIT was dominated by hardware vendors must have prompted the software lobby to create a platform of its oven. So we had another exhibition sponsored by

NASSCOM.

The popularity of these exhibitions has generally been dependant on the newness of the technologies on display. And so it was that CSI and then MAIT remained popular for quite some time during the initial years of the computer and then the networking technologies. However, with a large number of hardware companies calling it a day, MAIT was fairly depleted in strength. Moreover, there was also a decline in interest levels, probably because it did not project itself to be moving with the times.

Organizers of exhibitions must look at exhibitions like any product with birth, growth, maturity and decline phases. Somehow that is the most difficult thing to do. In someway, it's like trading in stores. Most people buy easily but get rather stuck when it comes to selling.

And so it is that in the age of Internet, an India Internet World creates waves and a lot of interest. How long the interest will last, will depend on how long, how many people feel it satisfies their curiosity. (Considering that Internet is in its growth phase, Internet related exhibitions should have a good run for quite some time)

Already we see a whole lot of exhibitions like IT.Com in Bangalore and similar ones in Kerala. One thing that is different with Internet related exhibitions are that these have created lot of interest among students too. In that sense these exhibitions should held good potential for organizations wooing the masses. If the Indian Engineering Trade Fair (IETF) is any indication, then Internet events should be a good draw for quite some time.

My feeling is that more exhibitions will sprout up with marketing segmentation and niche focus areas as other organizers try to cash in on the craze. I have seen this happening earlier with events like the WISITEX. (A word of caution here. A lot of exhibitions are sometimes organized together at the same venue. An IT event along with a book fair for instance, is likely to create a rather misleading idea about the number of serious visitors to either of the events.)

Do these exhibitions really help? And whom? Going by the large number of exhibitions being held these days, they certainly would appear to be helping. The CSI is still there. So is the MAIT. And a host of newer ones like the IIW. Organizers of exhibitions are also positioning themselves geographically while some try and create the international flavor, others try out national and regional strategies. Needless to say that there is an opportunity perceived by all.

But in a huge market place how do you judge if the participants really find it worth the money they put into the exhibitions.

One way would be to see how many repeat participants an exhibition attracts. During the growth phase of the technologies that the exhibition represents, it is quite possible for the exhibition to survive even when participants do not come back--merely because there are so many of them wanting to try their luck for the first time.

While the manner in which the exhibition is organized does make a difference in the number of participants as well as visitors, from a long-term perspective, the organizers would do well to keep the relevance of the project in mind. At the end of the day, the success of the exhibition like any other entity that is marketed, will depend on the soundness of the marketing ingredients.

Sumit Sharma is Associate VP, Microland and the author of the book titled 'The Corporate Circus.