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Bhavesh Patel, Ingram Micro’s commercial director, told PC Retail that the earlier date for Channel Expo 2007 made it difficult for everyone that wanted to attend to do so.
"It wasn’t a good time to hold it," said Patel. "It’s the last two days of the quarter and the end of the financial year and this makes a massive difference to vendors and retailers. It has meant that many retailers we otherwise would have liked to meet havn’t turned up. Also many sales staff from exhibiting firm’s have had to stay in the office, and those that have come have to be frequently checking in on the phone."
Patel also claimed that other shows going on meant people were being forced to choose, which further dilutes the amount of visitors.
"We’ve just finished CeBIT and there is another business trade show running at the same time," he continued. People are being forced to choose which is not good for turnout. A week or so later would have been better."
Despite this complaints, Ingram Micro generally had a good show. With 32 vendors exhibiting the distributor had one of the busiest stands at the whole event. The stand was divided into component, networking and storage areas, the highlights of which were products from Microsoft, Acer, Linksys and AMD.
"Our stall was the most populated, and we have registered a lot of new resellers. We have always supported the event and this year we began advertising six to seven weeks prior to the start. Overall, for us its been a successful show."
