BANGALORE IT.BIZ-2010 CONCLUDES ON A HIGH

The curtains came down on the thirteenth edition of Karnataka’s premier ICT event, Bangalore IT.biz 2010 after three days of focused conferences and intense business meetings involving 1032 delegates from 334 Indian and Multinational companies.  One of the key thrusts of the event was to facilitate a B2B platform and a forum for thought leadership.

Speaking at the closing press conference, Principal Secretary to Govt., Department of IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka, Mr.Ashok Kumar C.Manoli said, “Our primary aim this year was to add value to our participants by responding to the current needs of the industry. This included focus on emerging sectors, opportunity to garner more business, knowledge enhancement and networking. We are delighted to note that all these objectives and more have been addressed at the Bangalore IT.biz 2010 and it has emerged as a focused B2B event”.

According to David Keynan, CEO , BDO-I2I,  Israel, “We have been working with the BangaloreIT.Biz event organizers for the last six months on enhancing the relationship between Karnataka ITBT ministry and the Israeli high tech industry. Now that the conference is over, we could say that reality has exceeded expectations in more than one way. The event was the trigger and venue for the Karnataka-Israel R&D collaboration agreement with Matimop, expected to be signed in few weeks at the ministers’ level. Mr. Avi Luvton, executive director Matimop, came to the event and had series of discussions with ITBT executives on ways to immediately take this agreement into action”.

Bangalore IT.biz 2010 with its core theme “Billion Strong- Empowered by ICT” captured major developments today through focused conference tracks that featured topics like e-governance, GIS, embedded technology, IT applications in Frontier technologies, animation and energy & environment to name a few. The International conference focussed on the benefits of cloud computing and growth drivers for IT in India. Eminent speakers and acclaimed captains from the IT industry shared their thoughts on the emergence of innovative and futuristic technologies at the Vision 2020 leadership talks.

Hosted by the Department of IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka and co-hosted by the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), the three day event comprising of Multi-Track Conferences, International exhibition, Partnering, CEO Conclave, IT Export Awards, Vision 2020 Leadership Series and Rural IT quiz received tremendous response from the industry with participants commending the efforts of the organizers in adding value to the event.

InterlinX an effective partnering tool was introduced for the first ever time in Bangalore IT.biz this year. The response to the tool was tremendous and exciting having over 250 active delegates in the system from 190 organizations. The delegates sent 450 meeting requests to each other using InterlinX to schedule their meetings during the event.

The Rural IT quiz driven by the department of IT and supported by TCS extended the competition across the country this year covering 14 States. To achieve inclusive awareness, the quiz was extended to the North-Eastern States and Jammu & Kashmir

Event Participation figures:

How Bangalore IT Event is being transformed

Since year 2008, our attempt has been to transform Bangalore IT Event into a B2B Platform driven by the objective of creating the right ambience to address relevant issues and conduct business. With this objective, the following steps were taken:

1.        We envisaged an integrated Event consisting of Conference, Exhibition, Partnering and Networking as various elements which would work seamlessly to deliver value to the participants in terms of knowledge exchange, showcasing of products, doing meaningful business meetings and building a network of contacts. While doing so, we focused on both Industry and Government Agencies from across India.

2.        The theme “Billion Strong: Empowered by ICT” brings strong focus on vast opportunities emerging in the various streams of IT Application. Hence, various topics like e-Governance, Energy & Environment, IT & GIS / Disaster Management, Cloud Computing, were integrated. The new topics like RIMS and IT in Aerospace, Nuclear & Defence were introduced for the first time. We continued with our focus on Embedded Technology. While, MSME Sector was brought in as a major focus area.

3.        To ensure that the Event becomes relevant to the Industry, we sought active participation of leading Associations in the Event.

• NASSCOM was requested to drive the central Plenary Session on “Impact of ICT at the Bottom of the Pyramid”.
• The State Government worked closely with ISA in developing the Semiconductor Policy. ISA became the facilitator for developing the Track on Embedded Technology.
• ABAI was engaged with Government for the development of Animation Policy. The AVGC Track was developed by them integrating all the key aspects for the growth.
• FISME was invited to bring sharp focus on IT MSMEs. This sector will indeed drive the future growth and hence FISME developed a Plenary Session on “MSMEs - Growth drivers for Indian IT”. FISME with NSIC also invited their members to participate and put up a Pavilion at the Exhibition. We have also encouraged MSMEs by presenting IT MSME Awards by FISME. The Rural BPO Award for two best BPOs was presented during the Inaugural.
• Continuing our focus on MSMEs, STPI invited 40 MSMEs from Tier II & Tier III Cities to participate in the Exhibition.
• ELCIA who was instrumental in doing one of the early IT Events in 2000 joined hands with us and has put together a Pavilion.
• CSI supported us for the Sessions “Energy & Environment” as well as “RIMS”.
• We introduced YESSS Programme in previous years to ensure that the Event fosters Innovation and creates opportunities for the Young Start-Ups. We invited TiE to champion this Session supported by STPI. We also invited IBM GEP (Global Entrepreneurship Programme), who have played a significant role.
• Apart from this, other Associations like CLIK & FKCCI also supported the Event.

Israel Delegation: The Indian IT Sector is transforming itself not only into a mere services Industry but also driven by innovative products and technologies. With this backdrop, we looked at Israel as one of the key countries to foster participation which in turn would bring rich dividends in the long-term. Israel is known for cutting-edge technologies in many sectors. It is heartening to note that Israel Delegation was led by Mr. Aaron Mankovski, Chairman, High Technology Industry Association (HTIA). This Delegation held meetings with Indian Industry to explore business opportunities.

InterlinX a collaborative web based Partnering Tool which is vibrant and full of activity where people can share their profiles, business offerings and objectives, partner with potential business partners, idea partners, forge technology alliances. The users can update their profile, view other profiles and can get linked up with likeminded professionals on a real time basis. An analytics tool will suggest various partners based on ones profile and interest areas. The prime goals of delegates are to network and make connections and InterlinX will assist this process. As it is web-based software, one will be able to access the registered ICT community at any time from any place. InterlinX is developed by SCI knowledge Interlinks.

Activ Interlinx is set to revolutionize the way people look at events and conferences. It’s an idea which will converge the digital network with the event platforms. Very soon we are also announcing the launch of Activ Nano Interlinx, Activ Edulinks & Activ Nutralinx.