Kathmandu, January 14:

Curtains came down on the the six-day long technology exhibition CAN Info-Tech in the city today. Over 115 exhibitors (companies) who wound up their wares had mixed reactions to the huge crowd that descended on the BICC ground, the venue of the fair over the last few days.

Ram Sharan Pandey, director, Ishan Infosys Pvt Ltd, a hardware company, appeared more than satisfied with the response generated for his products at the fair. He claimed to have made some bookings apart from serious queries for the two new products, multi-function printer and the LCD monitor that Ishan Infosys launched at the fair.

“We should have something like CAN Info-Tech at least twice a year,” he said, “Only then we’ll reach a state when there would be IT knowledge in every house.”

On the telecom front, Spice Nepal’s Mero Mobile, which occupied a prime location at the fair, claimed to have done brisk business. “We sold a lot of pre-paid cards and interacted with our valued clients and potential customers. Our contests were a big hit as we had pen drives and T-shirts for prizes,” said Soma Thapa, chief, customer care, Mero Mobile.

Websurfer Nepal Pvt Ltd which offered bonus bandwidth of 128KBPS for the payment of 64 KBPS and 2 MB for the payment of 1 MB at CAN Info-Tech this year claimed to have found some interested customers. “While there were no actual sales as such because our focus was on corporate sales, we managed to promote our product line and establish our brand as a reliable competitive broadband company,” pointed out Suman Lal Pradhan, marketing director.

“Since CAN happens to be the only platform to get exposure, we don’t have any other option,” he conceded.

However, there were exhibitors who went back less than satisfied as actual bookings or sales proved rather disappointing compared to previous years. Some complained of the unmanageable crowd, half of which was not interested in the displays and were there to stroll around in the sun.

Chaturbhuja Chalise, marketing executive of Cybernetics Pvt Ltd, the authorised seller of HP Compaq laptops, was more than satisfied with the CAN Info-tech. “We have got bookings for more than two dozen laptops,” he said.

Microtech Computer, which is primarily into computer education said it entertained very few genuine students interested in the courses. “While at CAN 2006, we had made about 50 registrations, this year it trickled down to only 10 admissions,” said Dhiraj Pradhan, assistant training manager at Microtech.

Megatech Trade Group, which introduced touch screen monitors and very small key mouseless computers at the fair this year, too claimed to have found a bleak response. “We managed to book only 30 PCs, out which only 70 per cent will actually work out,” said the company’s CEO, Shailesh Lohani.

“This could, in fact, be the last year of our participation at CAN,” he confessed.

According to some exhibitors of branded computers, there were certain participants who were misleading buyers by selling assembled Celeron PCs as Pentium IV for anything between Rs 15,000-17,000. This had a negative impact on the sale of genuine brands of Pentium IV PCs which come for Rs 44,000.

“As organiser, the CAN needs to take such unscrupulous exhibitors to task,” pointed out a concerned participant.

Setting new record

KATHMANDU: The 13th edition of CAN Info-Tech 2007 has been a huge success in terms of alluring visitors. The six-day event has been able to attract a record-high number of 305,000 visitors during the country’s biggest annual ICT event.

“We are encouraged by the overwhelming response of the public,” said C N Upadhaya, coordinator of the event. He informed that CAN is now set to organise a separate show on software ‘Softech 2007’ on May 2 to 6 in Kathmandu and a regional ICT trade show and conference ‘Lumbini Info-Tech-2007’ on February 15 to 18 in Lumbini.

The success of CAN Info-Tech this year will definitely be instrumental in stimulating a new economic development in the country, said Biplav Man Singh, president of CAN.

“CAN has envisaged ‘New Nepal— an e-Nepal’, with a view that ICT enabled tools and services could bring about an economic revolution in the country,” said Singh, adding that the slogan of ICE Conference — ‘ICT for Socio-economic Development’ is in line with promoting its use in all aspects of development. — HNS