COMDDAP EXPO 2006 supports software developers, technology SMEs

Start:	Oct 5, '06 10:00a
End:	Oct 8, '06
Location:	COMDDAP Tent, which will be built for the second time on the seven-hectare concert area of the Fort Global City in Taguig City.

COMDDAP EXPO 2006 supports software developers, technology SMEs
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The Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines (COMDDAP) will provide a venue for software companies and other small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to promote their technologies at the annual COMDDAP Expo.

COMDDAP plans to put up a software pavilion at the country's biggest technology and computer event on October 5-8 at the COMDDAP Tent, which will be built for the second time on the seven-hectare concert area of the Fort Global City in Taguig City.

Open to local software developers, manufacturers, programmers and designers, graphics design agencies and other technology entrepreneurs, the software pavilion will be part of 1,500sq.m. of exhibit space within the 3,600-sq.m. COMDDAP Tent, the largest customized exhibition venue of its kind that will house about 200 booths measuring anywhere from 12sq.m. to 54sq.m.

"Having done this in our past exhibitions, we'll continue supporting startup technology companies in selling their products to the market," said COMDDAP president Juan G. Chua.

According to Chua, software exhibitors at the expo's "software alley" will get a subsidized rate of P10,000 for every six square meters of space.

Some 40,000 visitors, mostly from trade and professional sectors, come to COMDDAP Expo to upgrade their systems or buy new equipment. The expo began in 1986 and has become the country's longest-running and market-driven computer trade show.

"SMEs themselves form a growing and vibrant information and communications technology (ICT) market, which upgrades technology requirements to be more productive and competitive," Chua said.

Accounting for over 90 percent of some 900,000 existing enterprises in the country today, only 30,000 SMEs use ICT, based on available data from the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).

Research group International Data Corporation (IDC) Philippines forecast local IT spending this year to reach US.56 billion, 66.5 percent of which will go to hardware, 23.2 to services and 10.3 to software. IT spending last year by SMEs alone in the Asia Pacific region reached US825 billion, according to another market research.

COMDDAP treasurer and event chairperson Gigi Ngui said the COMDDAP expo is more responsive to market needs by both mass and corporate consumers, including SMEs, as the expo becomes a one-stop ICT shop encouraging interaction between buyers and sellers to come up with tailor-fit solutions to ICT concerns.

"Our theme 'See IT, Use IT, Buy IT' reflects this. Consumers can actually test the technologies they would need or tinker with the products, get technical advice from exhibitors and buy them at marked down prices," Ngui said.

A non-stock, non-profit industry association, COMDDAP counts among its 45 members leading local ICT players and affiliates of global leaders Borther, Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and Toshiba.

Inquiries may be forwarded to Gina Dimayuga through COMDDAP secretariat hotline 810.3814 and 892.7947 or email ginavildim@comddap.org and exhibit@comddap.org.