Bengaluru: The GATES ICT Reseller Channel Summit 2016, held in Bengaluru earlier this month, saw more than 170 enterprises participating in what became a unique platform to connect with more than 160 reseller executives and over 60 vendor representatives to discuss and seek business prospects for the IT industry.
The three-day event witnessed over 250 top executives from the ICT industry and brought together leading resellers from over 50 cities to network with senior executives and buyers.
The event’s second edition got bigger as national, regional and international ICT and business federations supported the initiative and showed a lot of confidence and commitment for the uniqueness of the format. TAITRA [Taiwan External Trade Development Council], FICCI, FAIITA and FITDAK expressed their appreciation too for the initiative.
Ashish Kapahi, CEO GATES, said, “The Summit got better and bigger as the ICT community widely felt that such uniquely formatted events will further augment the Smart India vision. The event witnessed successful meetings between vendors and resellers channel partners. Many business arrangements and new agreements were entered into as a result of meetings at the event.”
The event had attracted strong response with significant participation from Taiwan, Bangladesh, NEPAL as well as observers from Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong.
Scott Yang, Deputy Executive Director, Strategic Marketing Department, TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade Development Council) said, “The Taiwan Excellence companies at GATES represent the tip of the spear. Many top Taiwanese brands find great opportunity in India’s geographically-vast, fast-growing marketplace. Working together to create win-win relationships with local channel partners, Taiwan Excellence companies are well positioned to seize this potential.”
GATES introduced its Channel Forum, a community driven collaborative platform, which connects the members of the ICT reseller community with knowledge, tools and enablers they need to grow their business. It focusses in bringing all stakeholders onto a common platform giving everyone and equal opportunity to benefit and contribute. Champak Raj Gurjar, President FAIITA, launched the BETA, at the Gala Dinner & Awards Nite ceremony during the Summit.
Another highlight of the Summit was the SMART PITCH, which gave both new and existing vendors an opportunity to deliver an elevator pitch for their latest products on stage. HiTi won the Best Design & Aesthetic Award, while Dji won the Innovations Award. Shopmatic & Anker won the award for the best WOW presentation.
The event that saw workshops and panel discussions, led by Ryan Mackey, Consultant and Chief Media Officer, Gates, were welcomed by the channel partners. An elite panel was drawn from among the participants who discussed the challenges faced by the ICT channel in today’s disrupted world and key directions for 2017.
The panel expressed a high sense of optimism, especially for the telecom and e-commerce sectors. The channel stressed the need for a greater level playing platform between the brick & mortar and e-commerce channels. The panel also declared that the ‘online exclusive models’ is not a solution to address the differentiation issue as the product itself carries no distinction.
The panel unanimously agreed that online and offline are now both part of the same fabric and both contribute to the overall economy in a vast country like India.
Speaking to ‘Channel Times’, Asim Hussain, Head (Sales), X10 Financial Services, one of the sponsors of the GATES Channel Summit 2016, said, “We found the event extremely relevant for anybody connected with the ICT ecosystem. Besides, giving us networking opportunities to interact with decision makers at distribution entities, resellers and vendors , the event gave us useful insight into issues and opportunities in the ICT domain.’
“It was an absolutely remarkable experience to build relationships and generate business opportunity,” said Sanjay Joshi, Country Manager, Edimax Technology.
The event was supported by Toshiba as Platinum Partner, HP and X10 as Gold Partners and Edifier & Kingston as Silver Partners. The event’s Research Partners included GfK-India, NAVO Informatica & SPIRE Research & Consulting, and Media partners included Cell IT.