After the maiden success of Engeetech 2010, an International Engineering, Industrial Products and Machinery Expo & Symposium held in Kolkata in November 2010, the next edition of Engeetech is scheduled at Chennai, from February 10-13, 2011.

Engeetech is an industrial exhibition organised by IPFonline Limited, the publisher of Industrial Products Finder, and ASK Trade & Exhibition Pvt Ltd. By leveraging the experience and expertise of the IPF brand built over the last 4 decades, the company hopes to provide further opportunities to the MSME segment through the focussed platform of Engeetech an unparalleled interface with their prospective customers.

There is also a concurrent event, BACE Expo & Symposium - the 5th International Building, Architecture, Construction, Engineering Technology Trade Show, planned simultaneously.

Often described as the Gateway to South India, Chennai has a diversified economic base supported by the automobile, software services, hardware manufacturing, healthcare, and financial services industries.According to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Chennai is estimated to grow to a US $ 100 billion economy, 2.5 times its present size, by the year 2025. The city is base to around 30 per cent of India's automobile industry and 35 per cent of its auto components industry. A large number of automotive companies including Hyundai, Ford, BMW, Mitsubishi, Komatsu, TVS Motors, Ashok Leyland, Nissan-Renault, Daimler Trucks, TI Cycles of India, TAFE Tractors, Royal Enfield, Caterpillar Inc, Caparo, Madras Rubber Factory (MRF), and Apollo Tyres have set up manufacturing plants in and around Chennai.

While automobiles is only one part of the industrial story, Tamilnadu has a much wider industrial base with the city of Coimbatore known for its strong cluster of foundries, pumps and machine tools manufacturers. The state has a well-developed supply chain of vendors catering to the requirements of the entire industrial spectrum from light to medium and heavy industries. Both Chennai and Coimbatore have strong local industry associations with thriving domestic and export sales.

Next on the list of major contributors to Chennai's economy are the many software and software services companies that have development centres here. This includes major software companies like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Hewlett Packard, HCL Enterprise, IBM, Mahindra Satyam, CTS, MphasiS, Polaris Software Lab, Capgemini, Accenture, Amazon.com, eBay, Symantec, Verizon, etc. Meanwhile, electronics manufacturers based in and around Chennai include Nokia, Motorola, Dell, Samsung, and Foxconn among others. Telecom giants Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent, pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer and chemicals giant Dow Chemicals have research and development facilities in Chennai. The TICEL Biotech Park and Golden Jubilee Biotech Park at Siruseri house biotechnology companies and laboratories.

Against this backdrop, a focussed event for the general engineering industry is an excellent value proposition for Chennai. The visitor response to the maiden Engeetech event at Kolkata was the most heartening feature. The organisers are confident of an encore at Chennai, given the very buoyant industrial growth figures and overall positive outlook for the current year.

In conclusion, it must be said that tradeshows continue to be the most effective platform for business networking, launching products, identifying vendors/distributors, showcasing latest technology, and demonstrating live product/machine capabilities. Engeetech will be no exception. The organisers are making every effort to make these two events a grand success, providing a unique experience to both visitors and participants. Focused visitor promotion efforts are planned. These include event-specific newsletters, business visitor invitations, email campaign, mobile hoardings, and print and electronic advertisements, to ensure high decibel visibility to the event.

(For participation, please contact branch offices of IPFonline Ltd at 12 locations across India, address details on page 4 of this issue)