Channelling CeBIT

His presentation formed the platform for a panel discussion on the same subject, with Freeman, Cote and Michael Costigan, marketing director of distributor Avnet.

“Resellers are a very resilient bunch, they have great technical skills, their main skill is to be able to go out there and demonstrate the value of solutions,” said Costigan.

Freeman added that despite a tightening of the belt brought about by shrinking margins, switched-on resellers will be able to seize upon the wow factor around emerging technologies.

“Emerging technologies give us the opportunity of having a good marketing message to get attention when you market that product or solution. What emerging technologies do is to allow a reseller to put together a very good story that will get attention. Good marketing copy is often the key,” he said.

Jackie Taranto, managing director of Hannover Fairs Australia, the organiser of CeBIT Australia, said this year’s event was a runaway success.

“We had a great show this year with some terrific content in both the exhibition side as well as our conference events. We’re very happy also that we continued to bring so many overseas companies to Australia, contributing significant inward investment,” she said.

“We have had great feedback from our exhibitors and we’ve heard anecdotally of some great deals getting done on the showfloor. The quality of the business visitors has improved enormously over the past two years as a direct result of significant investment in our registration and marketing platforms, and that is gratifying to see.”

The NSW Government was also supportive of the event, with Verity Firth, Minister for Science and Medical Research, claiming that CeBIT plays a valuable role in promoting the state as an ICT innovation hub of Australia.

“CeBIT Australia promotes the strengths and export capabilities of the NSW ICT industry and showcases NSW as a leading location for high-technology investments in the Asia Pacific,” Firth said.