'International Alley' brings the world to Comdex

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by Doris Benavides, Rick Perera and Agam Shah

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (IDG) -- Among the promotional banners and company logos cluttering the floor here at the Comdex trade show, there are more than a few flags of a more patriotic stripe. National pavilions allow companies, especially smaller ones that can't afford their own space, to band together with others from their country.

From economic giants like Germany and the U.K., to the Caribbean island of Barbados and the desert emirate of Dubai, countries are seeking to give their promising technology companies a leg-up as they seek foreign customers and partners.

"Most of the Spanish companies are (too) frightened and intimidated by American companies to come and offer their services to this continent, so we back them to come overseas to offer their products," said Sergio Moraleda, sector and publications coordinator for the Spanish Electronic and Computing Exporters Association, Secartys. The organization offered an umbrella to 12 Spanish IT companies, up from four last year, its first at Comdex.

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At the Korea Software Industry Association pavilion, which represented a contingent of 50 companies from South Korea, visitors crowded around one booth to try a software package, 3D Plus, which converts normal TV signals into three-dimensional images. Users wearing special glasses gaped in amazement.

The software's maker, Soft4d Co. Ltd., was seeing the show through rose-colored glasses. Spokesman Hu Seok Kang said, "We have come to Comdex to meet distributors. For us, Comdex was very successful. We have received many offers to distribute our product. Many end users also wanted to see our product. We will be back next year."

The Swedish country pavilion boasted a number of success stories from past years at Comdex. "Of the 14 companies in (the pavilion during its first year) 1998, five of them are outside the Swedish pavilion today, and they have grown tremendously," said pavilion organizer Anita Jonsson, IT and telecom director at the Swedish Trade Council.

The Swedish government provides some subsidies for the pavilion, she said, but companies have to pay most of the cost. "We don't want to attract the companies because the government pays. It's costly to go international, and if they cannot afford it they shouldn't come here."

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One Swedish company that shared the Swedish pavilion in 1998, Cycore AB, has a large booth of its own this year near the country's pavilion, demonstrating its software for three-dimensional Web animations. "It's an excellent way to promote small Swedish companies. You get the first customers overseas, the first partnerships, at least the contacts. My personal opinion is that Sweden as a country does not promote these contacts well enough," said Cycore's chief executive officer and president Bengt Starke.

Tiny Barbados had a more modest assessment of the show. "We've had a number of good contacts, especially in the area of software development and call centers. Of course we need to follow them up when the show is finished," said Peggy Griffith, director of international business for the government-run Barbados Investment and Development Corp., which has put up a small Comdex booth for more than 10 years.

One of the companies visiting Comdex with the Singapore Trade Development Authority was disappointed with his experience. Dennis Goh, chief executive officer of wireless messaging sofware maker Iteru.net, said the U.S. market is lagging in the "mobile culture."

"I came to Comdex to penetrate the U.S. market and to talk to wireless players in the U.S. arena ... The mobile-messaging technology I was demonstrating didn't elicit too much interest. This Comdex doesn't have too much of a mobile focus. So this visit to Comdex didn't help a lot," Goh said.

One of the lonelier stalls among all the busy corporate displays at the Las Vegas Convention Center was sponsored by the Prince of Dubai. Dubai had another presence on the floor, at the Sands Convention Center, where the Dubai Airport Free Zone Authority, Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority and Dubai's Internet City banded together to promote Dubai as a business haven. This was their fourth year at Comdex.

"Comdex has helped us highlight the facilities and free zones available in Dubai. Mastercard (International Inc.) does all its credit card processing from Dubai's Internet City -- we have come here to show people that, so they consider Dubai in case they want to establish a Middle East presence," said Peter Streng, North American director for the Government of Dubai's Department of Tourism.

"Awareness doesn't grow in an instant, it takes years. So we plan to come to Comdex over the next few years till Dubai is on every businessman's lips. The U.S. is our biggest market, so coming to Comdex makes business sense," said Streng.

Not only had they come to promote Dubai, "We also hope to attract tourists to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates," said Streng.

Another country with a national pavilion, India, has good reason to promote itself in the U.S.: up to 65 percent of India's software exports land in the U.S., and India is the U.S.'s biggest software trade partner. So said Mohammed Shahabuddin, manager of business development for the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), an Indian software industry body.

"We are here to make the 'Made in India' trademark in the IT industry more respectable. There are a lot of misconceptions about the quality of our software products," he said.

Most of the software companies exhibiting their products and services in the NASSCOM pavilion have satellite offices in the U.S. "We will be back next year," said Shahabuddin.

"Comdex is a showcase of our abilities," said a spokesman for Compudyne Winfosystems Ltd., a company based in India specializing in conducting offshore software projects. "We hope to get some clientele and marketing mileage via Comdex. So far, the response has been satisfying, but I hoped I would have seen a lot more traffic. Nevertheless, Comdex has been good and we want to come back next year."

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Comdex Fall 2000

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