ITAO to host Orissa's 1st IT Conclave

In an effort to spread the significance of IT across Orissa, IT Association

of Orissa (ITAO) is geared up to organize the state's first Information

Technology Conclave. Scheduled to be held on Feb 19-20, 2010, the two-day event

will gather OEMs, vendors, channel community and end-users on a common platform,

to deliberate over the benefits of IT, and propagate the usage and benefits of

technology.

Speaking over the plans to hold the Conclave, Dayananda Ratho, Secretary,

ITAO said, "Customer Summit will be held on the first day, where the OEMs and

vendors would address leading corporate houses and SMEs across the state under

one roof. On the second day, Channel Summit will be organized for the OEMs and

resellers, enabling the IT companies and vendors to reach to channel community

of Orissa in totality."

Also, the event will showcase an award ceremony felicitating channel

partners, OEMs, vendors and institutions contributing to the development of

Orissa. The IT Conclave Committee has already been formed, including members of

ITAO, government and educational bodies, and award nominations are under

consideration.

For awards, clear category lists have been prepared, including product

category, wherein best OEMs will be awarded; Channel of Orissa, wherein channel

partners from all across the state will be awarded; under another category,

government nodal agencies, technical institutes, best IT-enabled corporates, etc

will be felicitated. The association has claimed that the event will be attended

by leading government personnel, civil servants, corporate houses, steel and

aluminum conglomerate of Orissa besides the IT fraternity, which may open up new

avenues for the channels. Leading members of IT associations in East India will

also be present during the occasion.

The Conclave has a minimum budget of Rs 15 lakh and ITAO is planning to pull

up the budget to Rs 20 lakh. The association is hunting for sponsors and

official sponsorship communications have started being floated to the vendors as

well as other bodies. "The government of Orissa is associating with the Conclave

and the IT Secretary, PK Mahapatra is keen on coordinating the Conclave.

Although this time, the government is not assisting us financially, we are happy

about the support we have got from the state," Ratho said. However, the venue of

the Conclave has not been finalized yet and the Conclave Committee is

deliberating over the same, considering hotels and exhibition halls in

Bhubaneswar.