Johannesburg, 19 Oct 2007
Computer Faire is back! As the country`s leading IT show turns 30 in 2008, it is returning to its roots and addressing corporate, trade and consumer users with an exciting show that will offer something for everyone.
"The market changes - and in the IT market it changes all the time," says Jo Melville, MD of organiser Exhibitions for Africa. "As a service provider, we need to change as well to meet market demands.
"The demand today is for a show that talks to both end-users and businesses, and we are meeting the need with the reinstatement of the popular Computer Faire brand.
"In its 30th year, the original show will return to its roots."
The new-look Computer Faire will cater to business, trade and consumer visitors, all of whom will have the opportunity to look at, play with and buy the latest in computing and consumer electronics products.
The show has already attracted lively interest from international contingents keen to market their products and services in South Africa and to meet local resellers or distributors.
From a business perspective, Melville believes the new format will offer opportunities for companies and individuals to meet and interact on "neutral" ground, while getting the opportunity to look at a range of what`s available in the market.
Office equipment, from printers to PCs, will be on show, as well as communications technologies and IT solutions for the business user.
For the consumer, a number of attractions are already lined up - including the home theatre experience that wowed audiences at the recent show in Cape Town.
Other aspects of the digital lifestyle experience will also be on show and available to buy, including mobile communications, gaming equipment and audio-visual convergence.
"As we celebrate 30 years as South Africa`s major IT show, Computer Faire 2008 will have something for everyone," says Melville.
Computer Faire began 30 years ago in Johannesburg`s Kine Centre, as a venture by the Transvaal Amateur Computer Club. As it grew into a bigger home at the old show grounds (now part of Wits University) it merged with rival exhibition BEXA (Business Equipment Exhibition).
With a distinctly corporate flavour, Computer Faire soon became less a venue for consumers than a serious exhibition catering mainly for trade and corporate visitors, and moved from its then home at Nasrec to Gallagher Estate in Midrand.
The merger in 2002 with Tel.Com gave the show even more of a corporate flavour and it changed its name to Futurex - and its venue to the Sandton International Convention Centre - to reflect its new serious business direction.
However, in this industry, change is inevitable and the growing consumer market soon made it clear that there was a need and desire for a show that spoke to the individual, home user.
In order to address this burgeoning market, Equip was added to Futurex in 2006.
The organisers, however, quickly realised that the show had, in fact, come full circle and had actually returned to fulfilling its original mandate of addressing all three sectors of the IT market - corporate, trade and consumer - in one industry-wide exhibition.
"It was at this point that we decided to return to the Computer Faire branding that was always so well-known and popular with South African IT users," says Melville.
"It is also appropriate that, in the year the show turns 30 years old, we are going back to our roots with an exhibition that will talk to every sector of the market."
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