The G2iX Apac sales team, Jerry, Jerome and I participated in the recently concluded HK International ICT Expo held at the HKConvention & Exhibition Center from April 13-16. This is our 2nd time to participate which was held simultaneously with the HKElectronics Fair and the HK International Lighting Fair. Interestingly the weather that week was comfortably nice -- it dropped from 26 to a cool 15 degrees in 2 days and had some drizzles. One thing to note also for those who would like to join in the next year's event is to check the hotel where the HKTDC will book you. Hotel accommodation is included if you are an exhibitor; hopefully they allow hotel change request. The hotel we stayed at, we simply nicknamed "Roach hotel", not Pacquiao's coach Freddie but the "Joe's apartment" kind, which gives you an idea about the room. In fairness there were no cockroaches around but because of the room's aged condition, it made you feel that one would spring out sooner or later.
It felt that there were more visitors this year compared from the last, a good sign of gradual improvement from the global recession, although a co-exhibitor friend of mine commented otherwise. We focused on promoting our latest offering, the mCloud controller during the event. Cloud computing was still a hot topic with several sessions about it. We had our own presentation done by Jerome entitled "Cloud Enablement for Enterprise and Service Providers," highlighting our mCloud controllers' ability to enable current data center resource to become a cloud provider instantly. Cloud computing is still loosely defined, as in many other places. Most only focused onthe machine virtualization or VPN's and not on platforms and software application deployment. Visitors to our booth appreciated very much mClouds' comprehensive coverage on Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), all the way to Software as a Service (SaaS), designed for private clouds for enterprises and data centers. mCloud's rapid time to market, low cost and built-in automation tools in the provisioning and deployment for both the application and virtualization layers were also among the key features that impressed visitors.
We were also happy to meet old friends and clients like Achievo ,Clarence and Joan, HKLIA Allan Kan and BETP officer Ms. Carmela Panes among many others. We also met new potential partners and visitors to whom we presented our services: Exist software development services, Maestro S+ Sotware Engineering automation Build and test tooling and mCloud offerings.
More than 1200 companies displayed their newest products and services in the fields of Computer & Peripherals, Telecom, Networking & Wireless Technologies, Enterprise Solutions, IT Outsourcing, Digitainment [digital entertainment] & Multimedia, E-Logistics & Retail Technologies, Home-grown Innovations, and Trade Related Services. 2 things also caught my eye; these are, 3D TVs, and ebook readers everywhere. There were several companies showcasing their latest 3D TVs, those with 3D glasses and those without. Although I should say that 3D TV is still in its early stages and the best way I could describe those 3D TVs not requiring glasses is like the 3D stickers we usually see. Vertical lines are visible to create the effect and it can only be effective at a certain angle. Ebooks are also everywhere with all types of form and quality. Jerome was able to grab a nice Sibrary branded ebook reader -- it uses Nokia standard battery which makes replacement battery convenient when it wears out. As expected you'd find almost every new branded gadget having a knockoff version from a China manufacturer; after all, those branded gadgets were also built in China -- the world's factory.
Check out our profile pics at the G2iX booth.