Gitex a stepping stone, still a long way to go

HYDERABAD: While Gitex Hyderabad, the first ever IT exhibition organized at

Hyderabad is termed as a flop show by all and sundry, but the state government

is terming the event as a stepping stone. "The event marks the beginning

for us as organizers and there will be much bigger shows in the future. This

event has given us a new experience and a will to conduct the same show on a

bigger scale. I cannot call it as a failure, and in fact we are going to start

the marketing exercise for the Gitex 2003 in a short time," said J

Satyanarayan, IT Secretary for the state of AP.

The exhibition was organized in close association with Dubai World Trade

Center (DWTC). Initially the government was expecting more than 150 companies to

show their presence, but only 45 companies actually participated in the

three-day event with about 260 delegates.

"This was mainly because of the situation in US after the September 11

attacks. Though the event was not open to the public, there was a good response.

The show had more than 3000 visitors. Personally I have not received any

complaints about the show from either any visitor or any participant, so it

would be wrong to call it a failure," he explained.

The government has already decided to hold the same event at National Academy

of Construction (NAC) near the Hitech City. "We are going to organize the

same event at NAC for the year 2003 and that would not be open for common

public. A similar arrangement would be made for common public, like we did at

the Necklace Road this time," he said.

However, the companies who participated in the exhibition have not done much

business at the exhibition. "We are not expecting any big deals out of this

exhibition, this is the first time for us in Hyderabad and possibly things would

improve next year," said a CEO of an IT company based at Hyderabad.

Majors like Satyam and Infotech Enterprises have parted with over Rs 5 lakh

to sponsor the event and they also describe the event as a stepping stone for a

bright tomorrow.