Success for inaugural IT & Telecoms focussed exhibition

The techmesh IT & Telecoms EXPO on the 30 September was an opportunity for delegates who wanted to gain further awareness of the Yorkshire and Humber IT & Telecoms sector. On the day there were 31 IT & Telecom companies from around the region showcasing their latest trends, innovations and services.

Skyrack Technology, based in Selby , showcased their Voice Connect range of products. They did a live demonstration of the High Definition features available over WIFI connectivity. Hosted voice and IP PBX services were high on the agenda of many potential customers and resellers alike.

Gavin Sweet from Skyrack Technology said: “techmesh provided an interesting regional conference and IT tradeshow forum for Skyrack to take the opportunity to do some early autumn marketing. The show was well attended, with particularly good crowds in the morning”.

Catherine Carlyle from Caltech CRM exhibited on the day, she said: “We met lots of potential clients and partners and a partner/client post event meeting has already taken place.

The quality of the delegates was great. We have done other IT focused events at the Armouries this year, but they didn’t bring us potential leads at all and delegate turn-out was very low.

techmesh expo had a vibrant feel to the day and there was lots of delegates there. The speakers were of a high calibre and we found the show invaluable. “

Mark Williams from Refractiv exhibited on the day, he said: “With guests from Google on our stand and the chance to win a 12 month subscription to Google Apps Premier Edition we were confident that the day would be a success.

In fact the event more than met our expectations. Visitors to our stand were keen to see Google Apps for themselves - with the collaboration potential of Documents a particular favourite. We also showcased a few of our most recent website and software development projects.

All in all, the techmesh EXPO was a roaring success. Thanks to everyone at techmesh and Connect Yorkshire for a great show, thanks to Alfred Biehler, Enterprise Channel Manager at Google for coming up from London to see us, and thanks to all who visited our stand. We look forward to next year!”

Running alongside the exhibition was a conference with opportunities to listen to keynote speakers from the largest IT & Telecom companies in the World. The conference attracted many delegates from as far afield as the United States of America! Pictures and Videos from the exhibition and conference can be found here: http://techmesh.org/expo/expopictures

techmesh will now focus on it’s monthly IT & Telecoms networking events held around the region. Each techmesh event allows members to network with other IT & Telecoms buyers, sellers and listen to industry keynote speakers.

The next techmesh event will be held in Sheffield on 20^th October at the Jurys Inn, with James Walker from Cisco as keynote speaker. For further information visit: http://techmesh.org/events/view/133

techmesh launches first Yorkshire and Humber IT & Telecoms Exhibition and Conference at Royal Armouries, Leeds September 30

techmesh, the IT & Telecom business network for Yorkshire and Humber, has announced that its inaugural exhibition and conference will take place on Thursday, September 30, 2010 at the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

techmesh IT & Telecoms EXPO 2010 is a free event and will enable attendees to discover the latest trends in the industry and learn about future technologies. Sponsored by inTechnology, the UK’s largest pure-play managed IT service provider, Simply-Does-IT, a specialist newly-formed business with the objective of reducing IT costs and Leeds-based cloud computing hosting services provider virtualDCS, the one day exhibition will feature Yorkshire and Humber IT & Telecom businesses being showcased to potential clients, partners and peers.

Gary Rowbotham, techmesh programme manager, said: “The techmesh EXPO will be an opportunity for Yorkshire and Humber’s IT & Telecom sector to demonstrate their products, services and new developments.

“Collaboration and working together is one of the best ways to drive the sector forward. techmesh allows IT & Telecom companies in the region to meet, exchange and share information. By encouraging best practice and partnership working, this fuels the ambition of making Yorkshire and Humber a highly regarded destination for IT & Telecom businesses to locate and trade.

“We have consistently seen companies in the region engaging with businesses elsewhere who were unaware of the availability and quality of companies available to them. techmesh aims to make this EXPO one of the most successful the region has seen.”

Throughout the day there will be a conference with a number of break-out sessions providing opportunity to listen for free to keynote speakers from some of the largest IT & Telecom businesses in the world. These include: Google, Microsoft, Virgin Media, Xerox, Mitel, VMware, Crypto Card and conference sponsors; InTechnology, virtualDCS and Panintelligence.

Richard Quine, Divisional Product Director, Voice & Unified Comms, at InTechnology and one of the keynote speakers at the techmesh conference said: “techmesh offers InTechnology a superb showcase for its complete end-to-end managed service proposition, ranging from managed networks, data centre hosting and managed data services through to leading-edge hosted IP telephony and Unified Communications solutions.

More importantly, it will enable InTechnology to highlight the significant business, financial and operational advantage that accrues from the positive adoption of Cloud-based managed services: reduced cost; more affordable access to enterprise quality IT; better utilisation of resources; improved responsiveness and agility; increased productivity; greater flexibility and control; and leaner and greener working.”

Peter Sturgeon, director of Simply-Does-IT, comments about the EXPO, “As a new business based in Yorkshire we are delighted to be involved with EXPO. It gives us a real opportunity to showcase NetSuite and to explain why we think that SaaS and some of the other technologies on view can make a real impact, financially and with customer service, on businesses in the region.”

Commenting on the EXPO Richard May, director of main conference sponsor virtualDCS, said: “We are very pleased to be sponsoring the EXPO as it provides an excellent opportunity for the region’s leading authorities in IT and telecoms to meet and exchange ideas.

“techmesh is Yorkshire’s preeminent IT and telecoms business network so its events are of significant interest and value to everyone who attends. We are looking forward to telling delegates about virtualDCS, what we have to offer and how it can deliver substantial, quantifiable business benefits.”

By accessing data, software and services online through the internet instead of onsite is called ‘Cloud Computing’ and is currently one of the fastest growing trends in the industry.

James Akrigg, Head of Technology for Partners at Microsoft and one of the keynote speakers at the techmesh conference said:

“During this decade we are going to see some of the biggest and most substantial changes in our industry. This year is ‘IT’s Time to Change’ as we embrace the future of cloud computing and drive efficiency and effectiveness across all businesses. The vision to deliver continuous connected cloud services to every person and every business has already begun.”

Jim Farmery, Assistant Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward, which is supporting the event, said:

“The digital industry in the Yorkshire and Humber region is a thriving one, and we’ve done all we can to promote this growth.

“One of the key things we’ve done is set up Digital Region, a partnership of local authorities and public sector organisations that have joined forces to provide high-speed internet access for more than 40,000 businesses and over a million homes in South Yorkshire.

“Through schemes such as this we hope to enable the continued growth of the sector in our region, which will benefit the local and national economy in the long-term.”

Anyone interested in attending the free event should register at www.techmesh.org/expo.

Alternatively contact the techmesh team on 0113 384 5641 or email expo@techmesh.org to find out more information.

Talking technical with techmesh

Recently, techmesh held their second TechTalk event at the Aspire in Leeds. The evening began with networking and canapés as guests marvelled at the elegance of the prestigious Aspire building, which used to be the site of Yorkshire Bank.

The evening commenced with an introduction from Jim Pendrill, Editor of Yorkshire Business Insider and award-winning business journalist. Jim introduced the presenters and question time panel for the evening and announced the topic; ‘Cloud Computing and using Software-as-a-Service’.

James Akrigg, Head of Technology for Partners at Microsoft then took to the stage and began to unveil how Microsoft is innovating and developing their software to be more Cloud focussed. This included an exclusive demo of Microsoft Office 2010. Microsoft intends to completely reshape their software delivery approach, rather that just offering its software on premise, they are allowing over 400 million Windows Live users to access slimmed down, online versions, of its popular Office software.

Matt Holmes, Managing Director of Liquid Accounts, who are a new techmesh sponsor, discussed how Liquid’s accounting software was developed to be used in the Cloud. Matt decided to mix up the proceedings by using an alternative software provider for his presentation, Google docs. Matt’s presentation mapped out how Liquid Accounts began, raising investment to the sum of £770k and how they intend to capitalise on future trends.

The evening was then thrown open to a panel ‘question time’ format, taking questions from the audience. The main issue of concern was security in the cloud; will encryption be sufficient enough and what if data is lost? As with all web based services, there is no guaranteed security level for Cloud based applications, this was a heated topic on the evening. But in addition, there is no guaranteed security when a data server is destroyed at the office following a flash flood. One explanation that was suggested is that Hotmail have been operating their email service in the cloud for many years, this demonstrates that Cloud computing is not just a new development and is being tailored for more business and cost savings.

The event was a great success with nearly 80 delegates. We need your feedback on future events like this. Did you attend and was it useful? Did you not attend for any reason and what events would inspire you in the future? Send us an email info@techmesh.org

The next techmesh event is in Sheffield on 30th June at The Circle, S1 4FW. The keynote speaker for the evening will be from IBM. George Taylor from Digital Region will be discussing the services available for businesses in South Yorkshire. For further info visit: http://techmesh.org/events/view/60.

Join techmesh today to attend techmesh: Sheffield for free!