Photo Gallery: Melbourne Ingram Micro ExpoTech a hit [Updated - New Photos]

Guy Freeland, managing director of Ingram Micro Australia, said the event was the most successful ever, with the 1300 attendees setting a new record.

Ingram's reseller partners from across Victoria were invited to sample the latest technologies and chat to vendors at a number of interactive stands.

CRN's stand proved a hit, with people eager to jump into the cash grab machine and try their luck. Andy Xia from Fujitsu Australia took out first place and while some competitors fared better than others, those brave enough to venture inside the locked chamber provided much amusement for their friends and co-workers. CRN's post-expo drinks were also a success, with Steve Lovelace from Targus Australia winning the lucky door prize of a new Canon camera.

Expo attendees were generally positive about the value of the product demonstrations and the networking opportunities offered by the event.

Andrew Stuart, director of the Total Computer Group, said that he was pleased to have discovered new products that would appeal to his SMB customers.

“In the disaster recovery area I’ve found a few products that I think will be interesting to a few of our customers. Stuff I haven’t seen and wasn’t aware existed,” he said.

This sentiment was shared by Rob Michaels, sales assistant at Retravision Mornington, who was enthusaistic about the opportunity to interact with vendors and get hands-on experience with new products.

“I work in the IT sales area and there’s a lot of the companies here we deal with. People seem well informed and I’ve discovered quite a few new things.”

It wasn't just the resellers who were happy, with vendors too providing positive feedback. Phillip David, national IT sales manager, LG Electrical, said the show presented vendors with a precious opportunity to engage with resellers.

“We’ve had a lot of traffic come through. It seems a little bit more organised this year and I think the calibre of people coming through was a lot better, they’re asking a lot more questions and finding it a lot more interesting,” he said.

“We’ve found that a lot of companies can’t afford to do it on their own anymore so this is probably the best avenue to get everybody to have a look at all the products. We get a lot of feedback which is great because normally we’re dealing directly with distributors or the buyers and so forth. Here we’re dealing with the resellers who are selling it to the customers. In here you’re catering to your target market, which is the resellers, and that’s who we really want to target,” he added.

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