18th ITCN exhibition and Fire and Safety, Security Asia Exhibition held from September 25 at Karachi Expo Centre left good imprints on the industry in general and the initial reports said it attracted mutual agreements to the tune of $250 million dollars.
The organizers claimed over 70,000 people from various categories including students from universities visited the exhibition. It was a huge success for them.
In contrast, Engineering Review’s interaction with a number of exhibitors shows that not every exhibitor was happy. The exhibitors in the category of fire and security seemed jubilant and earned attraction more than their expectation. However, lighting exhibitors, however, seemed a bit sluggish.
Despite an extended exhibition which covered a huge area in terms of space and technology, the number of local manufacturers remained very slim and ER could find quite a few local manufacturers including Haseen Habib Corporation.
Over 600 companies representing 25 countries participated in the event. However, the presence of Chinese exhibitors was so evident that many said they have now become part and parcel of our business and trade activity anywhere in Pakistan.
Yet another aspect was the absence of smart TV companies and telecommunication companies which were very much there in the exhibition last year.
In money terms, the worth of agreements more than previous years is surely a success no matter hardware companies were not visible like in last year’s exhibition.
On information dissemination side, the event had over 30 conferences and seminars on IT security, cyber safety, fire and control where experts and scholars shared their experiences.
Some IT experts believed that due to increasing awareness about IT this year attendance was much higher this time. However, an exhibitor said more professional presentations and people of high repute are required to be invited at the expo.
Murtuza Wahab, Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister and Shehla Raza visited the exhibitions. Wahab said that Sindh government also promoted such exhibitions and also interested in cooperating with the private sector in future.
On the last day of the exhibitions, Umair Nizam, Vice President, E-Commerce Gateway Pakistan said that it was a big challenge to organise two exhibitions at a time. However, the organisers have managed to accomplish the task, he added.
Umair Nizam, Vice President, E-Commerce Gateway, Pakistan said over 600 international and domestic IT brands were presented at the exhibition.
Umair Nizam said that both the exhibitions occupied six halls of the expo centre. He expected that over 150,000 people will visit both the exhibitions. Others claimed the number was around 70,000.
He informed that agreements worth $100 million were signed at the 17th ITCN Exhibition.
Imran Batada, Director, Center for Information and Communication Technology, IBA said that for the last three years they were cooperating in exchange of information.
