QCOM--Tenth Annual TELEXPO Highlights the Potential for Brazil's Domestic High-Tech Market, and Reaffirms The Event's Position As The Major Corporate Business Venue In The South-American Market
PR NEWSWIRE - March 31, 2000 21:11
SAO PAULO, Brazil, Mar 31, 2000 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Three events held simultaneously in Sao Paulo last week -- Telexpo (International Telecommunications, Networks and Business Internet Convention and Exhibition); InterExpo (International Corporate Internet Solutions Convention and Exhibition); and InvestNet Forum (Meeting of Investors and Entrepreneurs in the New Digital Economy) -- all promoted and organized by Advanstar Brasil, was just the right measure to turn the Expo Center Norte Exhibition Complex into the main corporate negotiations center of the South American market in just four days. More than 80,000 visitors, including executives and professionals from a large variety of economic sectors, had the chance to analyze, discover, and even close deals with the 650 exhibitors on the state-of-the-art global high technology during the events.
The exhibition's success and potential for domestic telephony caught even Telexpo's promoters by surprise. "I am truly astounded by what I observed during these four days at Telexpo in Sao Paulo", said Joe Flynn, Director of Technology Events for Advanstar Communications. "Of the 120-plus events that we promote worldwide, Telexpo is already the second largest after the MAGIC Fashion event in Las Vegas. The high-tech sector is without a doubt, among the most popular of all of our events, and has been receiving special attention from our company."
Carlos Eduardo Goncalves, Advanstar Brasil's General Director, celebrated the event's success and announced the dates for next year's event, which will occur March 20-23 at the Expo Center Norte in Sao Paulo. He also said that 80% of next year's exhibition space has already been reserved. "We will also increase the available area at InterExpo, which was extraordinary successful in its first year", he concluded.
Drawn by the new technologies, a multitude of businessmen, industry professionals and media representatives filled the hallways of the event's five pavilions and three annexes, which encompassed a total of 570,000 square feet.
Companies invested heavily to attract attention. For example, Motorola invited the entire Sao Paulo Futebol Clube soccer team to autograph t-shirts and to meet visitors in its booth. Its effort and investment seem to have worked, since Motorola announced the closing of a letter of intention for the sale of over one million cellular terminals to Telesp Celular. According to Gilson Rondinelli, General Director of Telesp Celular in Brazil, "the agreement should reach US$ 200 million in 2000."
Silvio Stagni, Motorola's Operations Director in Brazil, declared, "This is the largest commercial agreement in CDMA cellular terminals that Motorola has signed this year." The equipment will be supplied with a web browser that allows mobile phone users to access the Internet on their phone's display.
In a political lobbying effort, the company joined the group of North American companies formed by Qualcomm, Ericsson, Lucent, Nortel and Nec, which are competing with European companies Alcatel, Siemens, Nokia, Inepar and Intelig, to obtain the country's C-Band contract. Anatel, the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency, will announce its decision on the C-band before the end of the April. The government will be deciding whether to adopt the 1.8 MHz bandwidth (GSM -- European standard), or the 1.9MHz bandwidth (TDMA and CDMA, American standards), as well as which companies will be awarded contracts to explore this market, worth an estimated US$10 billion. Anatel's President, Renato Guerreiro, said that the selection would be based on the needs of the Brazilian people. "We will be taking into consideration the quality of service, the number of jobs created, as well as society's needs", he concluded.
There isn't an estimate on the amount of business conducted at the event, but many companies announced new partnerships, investments and new clients.
To Verner Dittmer, General Director of Siemens do Brasil, the event's most important aspect was making contact with potential clients. "The event works as a large showroom, where industry executives can find out about the most advanced telecommunications products available today," he declared. He said that 70% of his company's revenues in Brazil last year stemmed from the sale of new products.
Tigre announced a R$2 million investment to expand its polyolefin unit, which has just been inaugurated in Rio Claro, in the state of Sao Paulo. The plant manufactures pipes used as conduits for fiber optic cables. The production capacity will be doubled to 20,000 tons per year after the expansion. The company plans to enter the group of companies with revenues of R$ 1 billion or more.
For Marcos Rosenthal, President of Picture Tel do Brasil, many potential video-conferencing clients were waiting for this event to check out new products before making their final decision. Rosenthal believes that contacts made at Telexpo may be worth R$ 1.8 million in new business.
Cernet, an official Lucent Technologies distributor, estimates that contacts made at the show may generate close to R$ 5 million in business. According to the company's marketing director, Antonio de Campos, the event was very important in expanding the range of his company's contacts, and leveraging its business opportunities.
SND was another company reporting positive results. With the intention of becoming one of the top providers of convergence solutions, SND signed three international agreements with Adtran, Tandberg and Segate. These new partnerships will bring in R$ 2.16 million in business.
Earset, a company which participated in Telexpo with GN Netcom, said that the event generated a very profitable series of contacts with other companies, as well as sales of 3,500 products, worth a half million reals. To Sergio Gottihif, Director of Earset, "this is a very expressive figure to us." He said the results from his company's participation in the event were "excellent".
The first-ever INTEREXPO, a trade show focusing on E-Commerce solutions and held in the Expo Center Norte's Yellow Pavilion, attracted an extraordinary number of visitors, who intensely searched for information and solutions throughout the event. INTEREXPO's success provided an incentive for promoters to announce that the exhibit area will be expanded by 90% for next year's show.
InvestNet Forum 2000, the Meeting of Investors and Entrepreneurs in the New Digital Economy, was organized by the Software Technology Institute (ITS) of Sao Paulo and served as a testimony to the ebullience of the new and promising digital economy. "There has never been so much money available for good projects; this is a complete change of the national paradigm," commented Descartes de Souza Teixeira, ITS' Director. A total of 15 investors, including ABN Amro Bank, Banco Fator, Opportunity, Banco Pactual, Oracle, Icone Capital, BNDES, participated in the Business Roundtables, which featured a selection of 56 new projects submitted by entrepreneurs. These investors represent US$ 2 billion in resources for Brazilian IT companies. The event also attracted more than 600 entrepreneurs to its workshops on types of investments for the Internet's new businesses.
The convention area for the three events was also a success, with 2,000 industry professionals participating in more than 150 sessions presented by 300 specialists from various countries. The highlight was the discussion on the future of wireless communications in the country. For Luiz Carlos Moraes Rego, Conventions Director for Advanstar Brasil, "The convention presented an excellent opportunity of professional growth by putting together the best team of high-quality speakers to date. We will do our best to make the 2001 conference even better."
SOURCE Advanstar Latin America
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CONTACT: Cristina Turnes Comunicacoes, 11-6221-3416, cturnes@dialdata.com.br , for Advanstar Latin America /Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 144780 /Web Site: telexpo.com.br
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