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It’s exhibition time for channel partners

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DQW Bureau
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Come December-January,Maharashtra and Gujarat channels are all getting geared up to rake in plenty of moolah showcasing all kinds of hardware and software products in their exhibitions.

These associations prefer to have the meets in these months primarily because of the cool climate and also because buying budgets are high during December, January and Feb-ruary for end-users and corpo-rates. These segments typically have higher targets before year ending that is the month of March.

The baby of all the associa-tions in the western region, Ankleshwar-Bharuch Informa-tion Technology Association (ABITA), will be the first one to hold its first annual exhibition from December 27 to 29, 2003. “ABITA is in discussion with vendors for sponsorship. This is the first time we are holding it, therefore we have also consulted associations from Surat etc. All these years we have missed out this opportu-nity as we did not have a asso-ciation,” said Manish Shroff, President, ABITA.

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On the participation from channel partners, he added, “There are tentatively 40 stalls to be set up and there will be also neighbouring cities like Narmada, Ahmedabad and Surat participating. Tentatively we estimate to spend close to Rs 6-7 lakh on the exhibition. Bharuch’s IT forum is also involved in the exhibition, therefore there would be atten-dance from IT and EDP mana-gers. Infact, Ankleshwar and Bharuch have a lot of indust-ries, therefore there would be a lot of corporate attendance.”

Vadodara’s BITA (Baroda Information Technology Asso-ciation) would also kick off its preliminary event in December with Vision 2004 before the exhibition taking place in January. At IT Vision 2004 there will be technical seminars and exhibitions, discussions on BPO and also presentations by vendors.

Associations like BITA have been holding exhibitions for the last six years and also have high budgets. “There are one to two lakh people coming in everyday for a period of three days. The expenditure for such kind of an exhibition is normally Rs 9-10 lakh, which primarily comes in from the sponsors. The profit percen-tage for the association is 10 to 20 percent, which is utilized for other activities,” explained Dinesh Patel, President,
BITA.

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Even in Maharashtra, asso-ciations like VCMDWA (Vidhar-bha Computer & Media Dea-ler’s Welfare Association) of Nagpur which is known for its yearly exhibition called ‘Comd-ex’ have huge budgets. “Typically the expenditure for Comdex is Rs 20 lakh and the entire amount is taken care of through sponsors and stall purchases. Out of this, there is at least Rs 3.5 lakh of profit made by VCMDWA. These profits are now being utilized to purchase property for the association,” said Sudhir Budhay, the newly-appointed President of
VCMDWA.

Computer Association of Nashik (CAN) on the other hand is holding the exhibition along with CSI. “CAN was previously holding its exhibition every two years but now we have decided to hold the same every year. As CSI (Computer Society of India) is also associated, there will also be corporate attendance at the exhibition. This year we are expecting 100 stalls to be set up with a total expenditure of Rs 5-6 lakh and we are expecting to make a profit of 20 to 25 percent,” pointed out Sharad Mishra, President, CAN.

Nancy Sudheer

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