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Despite
a poor initial response, GITEX Hyderabad 2002, an international
information technology trade fair scheduled to be held here
between January 7-9, 2002, has attracted a decent level of
participation from IT companies. GITEX is the flagship IT
exhibition from Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), a leading
exhibition organiser based in Dubai, and is a three-tier event
with a trade fair, consumer exhibition and seminar. This is
the first time the event is being hosted outside the Middle
East. Till date, around 50 IT companies from around the world
have shown interest, of which around 25 have confirmed participation.
Wahid Attallah, general manager, DWTC, said the event coming
to Hyderabad would bring trade visitors closer to the actual
market, since Hyderabad is soon emerging player as a player
to reckon with on the Indian software scene. According to
Vijay Menon, international project manager-exhibition sales,
DWTC, Gitex Hyderabad 2002 will feature only the trade fair
and the seminar, while the consumer exhibition will be a part
of the show beginning next year. The seminar, called ‘The
India IT Forum’ is being organised by the Confederation
of Indian Industry (CII), with around 25 eminent speakers
and 200 delegates from IT and related industries from around
the world.
Speakers include Pramod Mahajan, India’s IT minister,
N Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, R S
Pawar, chairman, NIIT and Ahmad Bin Byat, CEO, Dubai Internet
City. The sessions would cover topics ranging from strategies
to tackle the slowdown, e-Security, IT-enabled services to
infotainment and growth of the IT industry in India.
Though the show has been scaled down in view of the current
recession, the Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (HYSEA)
has booked around 500 square metres of space at the trade
fair. In addition to this, there are around eight confirmed
participants from Dubai. The participation of the government
of Andhra Pradesh and the Techno Park of Thiruvananthapuram
are yet to be confirmed. Menon adds that while participation
may not be a problem, overbooking seemed to the more likely
issue that would have to be dealt with.
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