Opportunity missed

The Cape Futurex ICT exhibition, held in late September, was an opportunity missed for organisers, exhibitors and visitors. It gave the impression of a watered-down version of its Johannesburg counterpart.

I know many Capetonians who fly to Johannesburg for Futurex when it happens there, however, few, if any, Gautengers come down to the Mother City when its local ICT exhibition is held. This is partly due to the fact that Johannesburg seems to steal the thunder for news worthiness, with most of the main company announcements being made there, and that Cape companies and organisations generally seem to make very little effort to support the local show.

The organisers could also do a better job of separating the two events, so as to make it more attractive to exhibitors and visitors.

When I first heard that Futurex was going to host another fair in Cape Town after almost two years, I was a touch apprehensive. Mainly because the 2004 fair was poorly attended and I felt the lessons from that year had not been learnt. Secondly, there is generally poor support from the big brand names that seem to think the coastal market is not huge, despite some very large projects on the go.

On both these issues I believe I am right, because, once again, Futurex Cape was co-hosted with a security and equipment exhibition that diluted its ICT value. On show were a range of goods and services from bullet proof jackets to open source software, from access control systems to boxes of soup. While this may make sense for the organisers financially, it just serves to confuse the visitors who pay one entrance fee to see only the third of the show they are interested in.

The Western Cape prides itself on being the country`s leader in IT innovation and putting SA`s name on the call centre map. Yet, there was little, if any, proof of this at the show.

Paul Vecchiatto, Cape Town Correspondent, ITWeb

Big brand names that would have been crowd pullers were absent. I am not only talking about the Microsofts of the world, but also some of the more specialised software vendors such as SAP - is the Cape Town implementation of its ERP system not a flagship project?

The Western Cape prides itself on being the country`s leader in IT innovation and putting SA`s name on the call centre map. Yet, there was little, if any, proof of this at the show.

Organisations, such as the Cape IT Initiative, the Provincial Government of the Western Cape, and even the City of Cape Town, could have had a presence there to show off their prize achievements such as the Cape Gateway project, the Khanya Schools project, or even just the range of online government services that have been developed.

However, Cape Futurex did attract some interesting exhibitors. Praise should be showered on the Cape Linux User Group, which raised the R10 000 needed to exhibit from donations and members and it saw a lot of interest in open source offerings.

Another was OEM Chaos Computers, a smallish Cape Town reseller that successfully pressured its suppliers to finance its exhibition, which actually won the best stand award. It also managed to attract a lot of sales leads through giving away free 512MB flash drives to people who left their details. That certainly beats the usual sweets and business card draws.

Cape Town hosts a series of ICT conferences every year, but few offer a chance for the local industry to showcase its offerings. Foreign-owned organisations arrange most of these conferences with the main aim to find a nice setting to attract their largely international clients.

There is a real need to showcase the Western Cape`s innovation. However, such a show needs to cater for local expenditure and offer companies and organisations the chance to practise their skills in preparation for international exhibitions.

There can be real value in these trade fairs, but unless the organisers and exhibitors do them properly they will be doomed to being curiosity shows littered with business cards.