The fifth edition of GATES India Business Channel Summit, which was recently held in Goa, Summit brought together leading channel partners from 40 cities across India and witnessed over 260 senior executives from international technology brands.
The conference aimed at addressing the critical information needs of IT channel. A panel discussion, titled “Top Channel Voices,” featured senior executives debating how digital transformation is fundamentally changing the way the channel operates and delivers value to customers. As Jiten Mehta, Managing Director at Magnanimous Systems, said: “Digital transformation has been led by technology companies. Now the user needs to decide what’s right for them.”
Panelists discussed the anticipated impact of new and innovative technologies in India, including the versatility of hybrid cloud and the upcoming rollout of 5G networks. Aditi Jhawar, Director at Bardroy Infotech believes that great power comes great responsibility. “5G represents great power. Let’s see how we can manage it responsibly,” she said.
Ashish Kapahi, Executive Director at GATES, added: “There is real power in partnership. Our mission is to bring together – at one place, one time – the top decision-makers and influencers from across India. That mission has not changed over five editions. It explains why GATES is more than just an event; we’ve become a channel community.”
The Summit was supported by Deskera and Netgear as platinum sponsor, Ransnet and Western Digital as Gold Sponsors and Capitalworkz and Epson as Silver Sponsors. Several industry executives shared their critical perspectives on trends and directions in the marketplace addressing the gathering of channel partners. Research Partners at GATES Summit included Quadmark and Navo Informatica. Event Partners SPIRE Research and M&A experts Regent Partners facilitated workshops at the event. Taiwan’s foremost nonprofit trade promotion association, TAITRA, led a delegation of Taiwan Excellence brand partners to meet India’s top channel partners at GATES Summit.
RV Ramprasad, Sales Director for India and Subcontinent at Epson, said, “GATES is an excellent forum where we can exchange ideas, where the partners stand to benefit from the wealth of knowledge and wisdom brought in with every session and gives a fair representation to the integrators, vendors and other experts.”
The event also witnessed the most interesting session – GATES SMART PITCH that provided vendors an opportunity to deliver a 90-second elevator pitch for their latest product or solution on stage. This informative and entertaining session featured three awards, with winners chosen in real-time through electronic voting by the audience of channel partners.
GATES hosted the prestigious India ICT Industry Excellence Awards 2019 at the GALA Dinner. Through live electronic voting, channel partners recognized vendors for their exceptional channel performance in India over the past year. Award winners include:
- HP was voted COMPUTING Vendor of the Year
- CANON was voted IMAGING Vendor of the Year
- WESTERN DIGITAL was voted STORAGE Vendor of the Year
- EPSON was voted PRINTING Vendor of the Year
- DELL & SAMSUNG was voted DISPLAY Vendor of the Year
- BITDEFENDER was voted SECURITY Vendor of the Year
- NETGEAR was voted NETWORKING Vendor of the Year
- CYBERPOWER was voted POWER MANAGEMENT Vendor of the Year
- MICROSOFT was voted SOFTWARE Vendor of the Year
- GOOGLE was voted CLOUD Vendor of the Year
- EPSON was voted OUTSTANDING OVERALL PERFORMANCE
GATES GOLD Special Awards
- OMNICHARGE was voted NEW TO MARKET Vendor of the Year
- AVERMEDIA was recognized for INNOVATIVE PRODUCT
- DESKERA was voted INNOVATIVE SOLUTION
CHANNEL EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR
For the first time at the gala awards, GATES Summit honored an executive for his commitment to the channel community and social contribution. Paramjit Singh Juneja, CEO of Secant Technologies, was recognized for his 20+ years of leadership at the IT consulting the solution provider, working in partnership with the industry’s leading brands. The award highlighted his strong support for non-profit organizations in the area of educational advancement.