It was a remarkable month for the channels last month. Two major happenings took place- COM-IT by the Mumbai’s Traders Association of Information Technology and The Gates. One common learning for me in both the events are, the tech arena is still open and it is our duty to make use of it in the right way.
TAIT has been organizing this event consecutively and the event has maintained to grab the attention of the visitors in India’s business capital. Despite the fact that the e-players have penetrated in deep roots of the country, the enthusiasm shown by the participants towards understanding the products was remarkable.
The notable aspect of the event is the guided tour by the association. The association has arranged private buses for many colleges across the city to give access for the student community for the latest gadgets. It is also said that the students shown keen interest not just the price parts, but also the technical aspects of various products.
However, the student community is forerunner in ROPO (Research online and Purchase offline). Many students were found comparing the rates of the products online with those showcased in the expo. What could be a better aspect in the coming years should be attracting the B2B customers to the venue. The ‘Guided Tour’ concept which is popular in global expos should be adopted in Indian exhibition scenario.
For instance, instead of calling the students or home users, whose purchase power is comparatively less than an enterprise, whose chances of purchasing a product online is less. There are plenty of CIO-forums in Mumbai where the members of those forums are predominantly the customers of those exhibitors. Also, the number of SMEs and SMB associations are prevalent across many cities. Like calling the students, the associations should invite the SME and CIO forums and felicitate them with logistical arrangements and introduce them the latest aspects of the technology. The association can also have technical sessions sponsored by the vendors which could be a good revenue generation activity for the association too.
There is no such associations had done it and this will help the SMEs and SMB to get educated on the latest technologies and get hands on experience with the technologies that is going to help the enterprises. Also, the startups are also getting funds from various venture capitalists companies and inviting a start-up company will always a smart move.
The IT associations across the country should think of inviting enterprises for their expos as guided tours and provide them access to the latest technology rather than concentrating only for the students and home segments but a target to reach a particular number of enterprise customers in the footfall.