IT's Big Bash Date:   Tuesday , November 28, 2006 Seventy thousand people, 250 companies, 160 international firms from 15 countries, 350 Indian and foreign delegates and 14 state governments—their presence ensured a bustling environment at one of Asia’s prime IT events. We are talking of the BangaloreIT.in 2006 held at Palace grounds. Started in 1998, BangaloreIT.in has been attracting IT majors from India and abroad. Besides positioning Bangalore as the Silicon Valley of India, the event is also seen as assisting in getting foreign investments into Karnataka as well as India. Held over four days and hosted by the Karnataka government with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), the ninth edition to the annual IT exposition was loud with its theme “Brand Bangalore is the Best.” The event saw seminars, pavilions and trade shows—all with its motto of providing a forum to encourage interaction among CEOs, CTOs, HRs, IT professionals, delegates while pushing the already booming Indian IT business to its next level. Among the seminars held at the plush Grand Ashok, HRinIndia and the ISA emerged as the crowd pullers as professionals and delegates witnessed CEOs and HR Heads deliberate on the changing role of HR. The topics discussed included challenges like ‘What CEOs expect from HR?’, ‘HR role in Managing Change’ and ‘HR Challenges in M & A’. The ISA Round Table Conference had discussions from ideas to execution on setting up a semi-conductor company in India while the SME forum discussed issues being faced by Small and Medium Enterprises who stand to lose out in comparison to their larger counterparts. A new addition to this year’s mega event was the exclusive IP Zone showcasing the city’s tremendous potential for IP creation. Held under the theme ‘Innovative India’, it had several companies like Tejas Networks, SemIndi and Ittiam display products developed by them. Other events during the four-day expo included the Rural IT Quiz, Awards Nite Creativity that gave away unusual awards for the most innovative participants of Bangalore IT.in and the CEO Conclave, offering incisive options and deep insights. Huge pavilions spread across the Palace Grounds was a major attraction covering the emerging IT areas under e-Nations, STPI, e-States, e-Infocom, e-Software, e-Facilities, IT Parks, e-Gaming and e-Hardware. Australia, Britain, China, Germany, Russia, Spain and the U.S. were among the major countries to be represented by their companies and international firms such as Texas Instruments, Xerox, WEP, Infosys, Cognizant, Reliance and Wipro participated in the event. Trade delegations from Britain, Australia, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, China, Taiwan participated in the exposition. But the event lacked its yester year success. Apart from the drop in footfall, participating companies too fell short of impressing the crowd. Many saw the event as a crowd puller rather than any strategic business investment. “We plan to make it 100 per cent business and market driven next year onwards,” said MN Vidyashankar, Karnataka’s new IT secretary. But the coup de grace came from HD Kumaraswamy, Chief Minster of Karnataka, when he indicated increased wireless broadband access to encourage telecommuting. Tagged ‘Bangalore Unwired’ project, the Government said it would make Bangalore the first city in India to provide seamless wireless broadband connectivity covering a range of about 40km radius.