InfoTech Mauritius

This has become a very famous annual event in Mauritius and this year InfoTech is supposed to attract over 85,000 people. They could be right because when I went there today, it was quite busy. However most people attending the event at Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre (SVICC) in Pailles were youngsters. This is because young people are more interested in new technologies than the older generation.

To be quite honest, I was very disappointed with my visit to InfoTech. There were not as many interesting stands as I thought there would be. Take for example, Mauritius Post, I don’t understand why they were there. The people at the stand were bored because no one showed any interest but you couldn’t blame them either. They were not using any of the latest postal technology that they could show off for the event. MBC was another one I remember looking odd there too. I talked a bit with the guy representing MBC and he said they were offering a free 10 mins interview style recording on DVD to visitors who wanted one. It won’t appear on TV and it’s just a fun thing for your own use.

Cash & Carry occupied a large space as they had the most things to display. However the range was mostly TVs, LCD screens and the latest phones. Jacey and VJ Computers were present and catered for laptops, computers and parts.

The people at the stand for the TechKnow magazine were giving out samples of their magazines in an attempt to attract new customers. It costs Rs100 for the magazine but you get 2 other magazines with it free. However I noticed that the issue they gave me was from 2010 (2 years back) and when I asked them to give me a more recent one, they were puzzled and said that’s the only one they were giving out. I just don’t understand this mentality. Why bother giving free copies of old editions? People don’t want to read old news especially in the ICT sector since new technologies happen ever so frequently and what was new then is undoubtedly obsolete now.

Anyway, the young people who attended the event were mostly interested in learning opportunities in the IT sector and career guidance. I found that the institutions there were more eager to get you to register with them instead of explaining things better and clearing the doubts that you have. On one leaflet for courses that I got, the website was not even listed and the guy who handed it to me had to write it down with a pen. And they say InfoTech is about emerging technologies, how ironic?