DUBAI, 11 September 2007 — GITEX Technology Week kicked off on Saturday. This is the 27th edition of the GITEX ICT trade show, which this year has been rebranded as a “technology week” and includes three elements: GITEX Business Solutions, GulfComms and Consumer Electronics. The exhibition is combined with the GITEX Global Conference, plus the GITEX Shopper and Consumer Electronics Expo.
Exhibition space at the show is sold out. The GITEX organizers, Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), stated that 3,300 companies are participating in total with over 572 of these participating for the first time. Individual companies from 82 countries are at the show joined by 28 national pavilions.
While this all sounds grand and nary a discouraging word has been printed in the local press about the show, the truth is that this year all is not well at GITEX. Oh, it’s true that the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre is filled with souls from around the world desperate to flog their ICT wares to someone, anyone. But the crowds are thin, and the anxiety among the exhibitors has filled the venue with negative energy.
“It’s the timing,” said Hussain A. Al-Mahr, a consultant for Naizak. “GITEX this year comes at the end of the holiday season. It’s the start of the school year in Saudi Arabia and Ramadan will be coming at the end of the week. The staff working on our stand told me that the first day of the show was empty and Sunday was okay. It’s just not what we expected.”
It’s not what anyone expected and there is dismay among the entire ICT community that DWTC insisted to hold what is supposed to be the third largest global ICT event at such an awkward time. Those familiar with GITEX may recall that last year the event was held in November. With numerous other events taking place around the world holding to an annual timing is essential.
Look at the case of Eutelsat. It may not be noticed by anyone outside the telecommunications industry, but in Zabeel Hall, the venue for GulfComms, the stand for Eutelsat is empty. Where are the staff of one of the largest global providers of satellite infrastructure? They are in Amsterdam at IBC 2007, the electronic media conference and exhibition, one of the world’s leading broadcast technology events which is held in September every year.
“The GITEX organizers have to be more considerate of the requirements of exhibitors when scheduling a show that aims to combine so many different elements,” said Jean-Louis Garcia, president of satellite service provider Globaltt.com. “We have come in from Brussels and our budget for GITEX is 30,000 euros. In previous years, GITEX was amazing, but I can’t say that this year. The quality of the contractor which did our stand’s construction was really lacking. The temporary staff costs twice as much this year as last. On the first two days of the show we had 10 serious inquiries about our services. Divide the 30,000 euros by the five days of the show and that means each inquiry cost us 1,200 euros. That is unacceptable and makes no business sense. As trends change, companies have to re-examine where they exhibit and we will certainly be reconsidering our participation here.”
Another company which will be reconsidering their participation is Hitachi. They were exhibiting at the back of Sheikh Rashid Hall — their location assigned by the organizers.
“We used to have an excellent location at GITEX at the corner of Hall 4. Now we are in a place where visitor traffic is nonexistent,” said Rohit Lohia, a Hitachi marketing executive. “Some months back when the organizers decided to change the set up for GITEX we were informed, not asked, about our new location. It was a take it or leave it proposition. We participated half-heartedly this year. It seems that consumer electronics exhibitors are really not welcome at GITEX anymore. The focus is more on business solutions.”
While DWTC is touting the numbers of exhibitors, attendees have been trying to figure out which vendors have chosen not to have stands at the trade show this year. These include Microsoft, Toshiba, LG and IBM. Having a presence at GITEX does still seem to be important to international vendors, but that presence can be through a local distributor or as the sponsor of a specific portion of the event, not necessarily by taking direct space on the show floor.
“The truth is that if a company doesn’t participate in GITEX, it isn’t the end of the world,” said John Ross, GM, Middle East and North Africa for OKI who was out on the show floor checking out the competition. “This is the second year we didn’t participate and the sky hasn’t fallen in on us. In fact, our business in the region has grown dramatically in that time and we expect that our sales will continue to grow. We now put on targeted roadshows. In fact, we have an A3 Color Roadshow coming up in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh, Alkhobar and Jubail at the end of October.”
He continued, “Roadshows are a better value proposition for us. We invite people who might be interested in our printing solutions and then showcase solutions to meet their needs. Vendors need to understand that the business environment is changing in the Middle East. Companies don’t like sending their staff off to Dubai for days on end — it’s expensive and inconvenient. More and more, potential customers think that if a company is really interested in serving them, then that company will come to them. Plus, just note how product lifecycles have become shorter and shorter. Vendors can’t launch new products only at one show, once a year anymore. If a company is new in the market and is looking to grow their channel and find distributors, then maybe GITEX is an acceptable value proposition, but for OKI, it’s not.”
While the general mood at GITEX was depressed, some companies did state that they were pleased with how the show was going. NEC Display Solutions’ Director of Sales for the Middle East and Africa, Frank Vodermair, felt that GITEX was a better place to exhibit than Germany’s CeBIT.
“CeBIT attracts many end users. We don’t like dealing with end users at a trade show,” said Vodermair. “We come to GITEX to see our partners and distributors, and of course our customers. Now, we have opened NEC Display Solutions Middle East office in Dubai for LCD, PDP and projectors and we hope a local presence will grow our customer base further.”
Another company which also asserted that the event was going well was HP. They’ve been exhibiting directly at GITEX for the last 10 years and HP’s participation this year is in line with their campaign to make the computer personal again.
“We believe that GITEX is a great forum for several things,” said Sherifa Hady, Consumer Business Manager, IPG, HP Middle East. “It’s a place to meet key retailers and the media, and the most important thing is that here we can have a display of our most important products to be there for enterprise customers, small and medium businesses and even consumers to come and see what products we have and how they work together. In some cases we don’t necessarily have the opportunity to have our notebooks put next to our printers and be all set up and working for our customers to see. So this is one of the main goals in our being at GITEX.”
Hady added, “This year we have a presence both in Hall 3 for business solutions and then over at the consumer electronics portion of the show, we have our consumer oriented products set up. These are our desktops, notebooks, photo printers and cameras. We are printing on mugs and placemats. We’re trying to show consumers what’s possible. We do want to see the end users. At the GITEX Shopper we have a creative workshop where people can see how our products work together and what they can do with them, before they make their purchase.”
So, where does GITEX go from here? About a decade ago, the largest IT exhibition in the world was COMDEX. Now people don’t even remember its name. Unless DWTC learns rapidly how to make GITEX “personal” for both exhibitors and attendees, the show’s fate is not hard to imagine.
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