ITWeb's second DigitalLife Expo kicked off at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg this morning.
The first half hour saw 400 people through the doors, nearly double the number in the same period last year, and consisted of IT professionals and digital enthusiasts alike.
ITWeb's CRM and events director, Angela Wressell, says the expo is targeted at everyone in SA. “We are all consumers of technology. So people need to be aware of which technologies are out there for them to use.” She says the products being showcased, as well as the workshops, are for the whole family.
Many attendees feel the expo is consumer-focused, which is great for people's awareness. “This is a great opportunity for people to know what is available in the market, see the new technologies and learn how to use those technologies,” says one attendee.
“I am looking forward to the free workshops. Digital education is crucial in SA at the moment. We need to catch up with the rest of the world. The digital home shows how much we can use technology in our homes.”
“It's a great social space for us to interact with other technology lovers and share skills,” says a tech enthusiast. “There is a lot of technology out there for people to experience. This expo indeed has a lot to offer.”
“The expo is fantastic,” says another visitor. “It's a perfect opportunity to view the latest and greatest technologies from all the leading vendors.”
“This is a greatest digital initiative in SA at the moment,” says Michelle Bothma, an exhibitor. “The expo is alive and exciting as there are new products on display today.”
SA is indeed catching up with the digital world, says Vuyo Mvulane, an exhibitor at the expo. “The expo is much needed in SA at the moment as big events like 2010 are coming to the country, so it makes sense if people are digitally advanced as well.”
With 41 stands featuring the best digital has to offer, exhibitors include Telkom, MTN, Vodafone and MWeb, as well as smaller players displaying a variety of the latest gadgets and technologies.
Also featured is a walk-through Digital Home, including a children's room, office, home theatre and entertainment room, to demonstrate how a range of technologies can be integrated to suit individual lifestyle needs.
Visitors can win products and technologies displayed in the Digital Home, worth R250 000, in association with the Saturday Star.
There are many other opportunities for visitors to win prizes, such as cellphones at the MTN stand (including an HTC Touch Diamond cellphone), iPods at Intel, PlayStations and cellphones daily, and a Mecer Cosmos PC with Intel Core i7 processor will be drawn on the last day.
The expo runs today, Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 5pm (6pm on Saturday), at the Sandton Convention Centre and features digital entertainment, services and content, mobile living, computing, home automation and more.
For more photographs of the buzz at the DigitalLife Expo, click here.
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