The Hindu Business Line : Infocom stepping out of Bengal

Kolkata, Sept. 4 Infocom, eastern India’s premier ICT event that is organised here every year by Businessworld and Nasscom, is all set to go national. This year, the ‘Infocom 2007 Conference Exhibition & Quiz’ will be held in Hyderabad between November 28 and December 1, according to Mr D.D. Purkayastha, Organising Secretary of Infocom 2007 and CEO of ABP Pvt Ltd - the publisher of Businessworld.

Mr Purkayastha told Business Line that, despite taking off as a regional event, Infocom had, over the years, evolved into the largest ICT event in the country. As such, it was in the fitness of things that Infocom “as a nation al event” was moved outside of West Bengal. Besides facilitating wider participation, this would provide a fillip to the event’s growing image in the Indian IT firmament.

The event would also continue to be organised at the regional level. The next Infocom in its regional format would be held here on February 21-24, 2008, he said.

The choice of Hyderabad as a venue for the “first Infocom 2007 national event” was determined by the availability of appropriate infrastructure in the city for hosting large-format IT events and air connectivity to and from other destinations, both domestic and international.

Infocom 2006 Conference & Exhibition that was held in Kolkata between December 6 and 10, 2006, attracted more than 1,600 delegates, 62 sponsors and 220 exhibitors. The total number of footfalls at the exhibition has been pegged at more than 100,000. The number of delegates, sponsors and participants at the Hyderabad event is expected to be higher.

For the Hyderabad event, ABP has tied up with CeBIT, the world’s largest annual trade show on information and communications technology.

On November 30, the 4th International Satellite Communications Conference would be held under the aegis of CeBIT. A debate on “Outsourcing is a boon, not a bane” would also be held. Among those taking part in the debate would be a few senators from the US, Mr Purkayastha said.

“Service Excellence through ICT” is the theme of the conference. Students from nearly 250 business schools globally will present papers on this theme. Six of them would be chosen by a jury for the Infocom Future Leadership Awards.

Almost all engineering colleges in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai will participate in the conference quiz.

Large media houses of the southern region would also partner the event, according to Mr Purkayastha.