From 23 to 26 April 2002 ITE Group Plc was holding the 13-th International Information Technology Exhibition, Comtek 2002.

It's very pleasant to note that for the first time in 4 years the exhibition did not diminish its size. Moreover the number of exhibitors grew compared to Comtek 2001. Over 250 companies from 23 countries participated in the exhibition.
The main reason for growth was the increased number of new companies-producers participating in the show.

This factor confirms an interest from companies to a rapidly growing Russian IT market.
Mr. D. Forster from ATI noted:
"We participated at KOMTEK to show that the Russian market is important for our company. We aimed to present ourselves to the dealers, the press and the users. We received a great interest and a high frequency at our booth. Our clients, potential clients and business partners have all attended the show. Due to the excellent show-organization we were able to make a number of leads and new contacts for our future business in Russia. Therefore KOMTEK was very successful for our company".

There were a lot of new-comers at Comtek 2002. By everyone's consent the most impressive debut was VIA Technologies Inc. and Exact Software which have received the prizes from the organizers.

The number of visitors has also increased. In 2002 almost 72000 people visited Comtek. 31586 were registered in the B2B area of the exhibition.

We are glad to announce that the percentage of regional visitors grew this year. By an apt expression of one of the exhibitors "Comtek is the only exhibition that is respected in the regions!".

Igor Larin a marketing manager of IBM particularly noted:
"I would like to point out a traditionally high level of interest to the exhibition from the regional companies. Comtek for them is the main information technology Forum during the year."

Comtek was a part of the Information Technology Week and consisted of the two sections - consumer (Personal Computing Expo) and specialised (Business-to-Business).

Companies that sell to consumers were represented in pavilion Forum. The entrance to this pavilion was open for ALL visitors.

The second part of the exposition (pavilion 2) was open only for specialists. The registration area was much bigger than in 2001 which allowed all visitors to register timely and without queuing. A lot of exhibitors mentioned that the badges with the names and company names that visitors receive at the registration help them tremendously in their exhibition activity.

Business-to-Business consisted of the sections that have become traditional:

Business System Expo
Software Expo
Photo Publishing
E-Business Expo

In 2002 for the first time at Comtek had a new section introduced called "Information Security". In this section companies exhibited the latest products in data security and information access. The notable interest of the visitors to this section confirm the success of this new part of Comtek and the organizers announced that this section will be organized in 2003 as well.

The segmenting of the exhibition Halls, granted every category of the visitors a possibility to find the products and services they where interested in.

As noted Ludmila Pichugina, marketing director of Intellect-service:
"It's a great advantage that the exhibition is divided into business and consumer parts. This allowed to create comfortable conditions for exhibitors as well as visitors of the show".
It's a gratifying fact that companies who work with consumers and those who sell only to corporate users found theirs clients at the exhibition.

Ludmila Pichugina says:
"Two thirds of the visitors of our booth are the representatives of big industrial enterprises. They come from Vologda, Kemerovo, Togliatti and other industrial centers. Those who make key decisions regarding information at the plants came to the exhibition and visited our booth".

Dmitry Bobrov, head of representation office of VIA Technologies Inc. in CIS says:
"We evaluate the quality of visitors as very high. Different groups were represented. They were unified by the interest to our product and their desire to buy it immediately. A very big part of the visitors are the representatives of computer business and also important group - potential buyers from government and corporate structures."

For the second consecutive year, a high-level conference devoted to the development of information technologies was held alongside Comtek exhibition within the IT WEEK. The annual eBusiness Russia 2002 Conference took place at the Blue Hall of Expocentr on April 23-25.

The three-day conference was attended by more than 800 specialists. Topics covered at the conference included development of electronic business in Russia, application of information technologies in business management, effective use of on-line marketplaces, marketing and branding in the Internet, as well as personnel training in the new business environment.

The eBusiness Russia 2002 Conference enjoyed full support from Russian Government and business associations. A special report on government policies aimed at further growth in Information Technology was delivered by the First Deputy Minister of Information and Communication of Russia, Andrey Korotkov.

In 2003 Information Technology Week will be held from 22 to 25-th April.

See you at Comtek 2003!