ITAO to host Orissa's 1st IT Conclave

In an effort to spread the significance of IT across Orissa, IT Association
of Orissa (ITAO) is geared up to organize the state's first Information
Technology Conclave. Scheduled to be held on Feb 19-20, 2010, the two-day event
will gather OEMs, vendors, channel community and end-users on a common platform,
to deliberate over the benefits of IT, and propagate the usage and benefits of
technology.

Speaking over the plans to hold the Conclave, Dayananda Ratho, Secretary,
ITAO said, "Customer Summit will be held on the first day, where the OEMs and
vendors would address leading corporate houses and SMEs across the state under
one roof. On the second day, Channel Summit will be organized for the OEMs and
resellers, enabling the IT companies and vendors to reach to channel community
of Orissa in totality."

Also, the event will showcase an award ceremony felicitating channel
partners, OEMs, vendors and institutions contributing to the development of
Orissa. The IT Conclave Committee has already been formed, including members of
ITAO, government and educational bodies, and award nominations are under
consideration.

For awards, clear category lists have been prepared, including product
category, wherein best OEMs will be awarded; Channel of Orissa, wherein channel
partners from all across the state will be awarded; under another category,
government nodal agencies, technical institutes, best IT-enabled corporates, etc
will be felicitated. The association has claimed that the event will be attended
by leading government personnel, civil servants, corporate houses, steel and
aluminum conglomerate of Orissa besides the IT fraternity, which may open up new
avenues for the channels. Leading members of IT associations in East India will
also be present during the occasion.

The Conclave has a minimum budget of Rs 15 lakh and ITAO is planning to pull
up the budget to Rs 20 lakh. The association is hunting for sponsors and
official sponsorship communications have started being floated to the vendors as
well as other bodies. "The government of Orissa is associating with the Conclave
and the IT Secretary, PK Mahapatra is keen on coordinating the Conclave.
Although this time, the government is not assisting us financially, we are happy
about the support we have got from the state," Ratho said. However, the venue of
the Conclave has not been finalized yet and the Conclave Committee is
deliberating over the same, considering hotels and exhibition halls in
Bhubaneswar.