Tel.com, the telecommunications exhibition and conference, is to go ahead in the second half of 2002 after Reed Exhibitions acquired the rights to stage the event.
The future of the show was thrown into doubt in April, after a management walkout at its owner, International Fairs and Exhibitions (IFE), the events subsidiary of JSE-listed Core Holdings.
"We have entered into a management contract with IFE and we will stage Tel.com in 2002," says Reed Exhibitions MD Jo Melville. Although the contract is between Reed and IFE, Melville says she did not deal directly with the rival company, but with parent Core.
Core COO Kathryn Fielding has also confirmed the deal. "We will obviously be somewhat involved, but the actual running of the show is via Reed," she says.
Neither company would comment on the payment terms of the agreement.
In contrast, the future of Comdex South Africa is far from certain. IFE launched the show with much fanfare in 2000, with Core saying Comdex was a major reason for its earlier acquisition of IFE and that the show would "significantly contribute" to earnings in the 2000 to 2001 financial year.
Fielding would not answer any questions on the staging of Comdex this year or in the future, saying it would be premature to comment on the situation.
When contacted by ITWeb in late May, Key3Media, the American owner of the Comdex brand, said only that Core was expected to make an announcement on Comdex "in the next few business days". However, the company has apparently removed Comdex SA from its listing of upcoming international events.
It seems unlikely that another player will step up to take over Comdex from Core either this year or in the future. Melville says market research conducted for Computer Faire, the annual event staged by Reed, indicates that the South African market does not hold the potential for more than one large technology exhibition.
Melville also says Reed would have no interest in associating the Comdex brand with Computer Faire.
"Computer Faire has always tried to [emulate German technology show] CeBIT, and it has far more parallels to CeBIT than to Comdex," she says. "We are not looking at having a go at Comdex."
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