GITEX 2018: The last Gurtam megabooth of the year

Visited Dubai, stopped by Burj Khalifa, took some sun on the Persian Gulf shore, shopped at Dubai Mall… We wish it was like this but it was not. We headed to GITEX Technology Week straight from the airport instead. Gurtam megabooth was located in the middle of the exhibition hall. We were watching it with just one thought in our heads: 10 more companies would join us the next day, and together we would feel so high that the Burj Khalifa visitors could become jealous.

Location

Perfect 220 square meters. People saw us when entering the hall, saw us again when leaving it, and recollected us at home. We were located in the middle next to true titans Du, Etisalat, Huawei. Sheikhs and ministers with their delegations were passing by, and I swear I could read it in their eyes how they were amazed by the location of our booth. One of them even stepped inside to feel this atmosphere.

Technology partners at the booth

Hardware manufacturers, the developers of Wialon-based solutions, and the lucky integrator from the UAE, InBound, got warmed up the day before GITEX at the Gurtam partner conference. So, at the Expo, they started selling within the first ten minutes. The visitors of Gurtam megabooth were getting trackers (from beacons to high-tech controllers), MDVRs, sensors, niche solutions, and firsthand implementation experience. Each of us was walking  countless circles around the booth accompanying potential clients, especially if they were newbie integrators. 

Selecting trackers

Mielta brought both the equipment and software (we will tell about it later). Here, we brought over the integrator looking for M1 and M7 terminals with satellite connectivity support and vandalism protection. As far as I know, the devices will soon go to one of the planet’s hot zones. 

Neomatica was showing their trackers next to me. The smallest and the most long-running trackers were among them. RFID system for moving and stationary assets offered together with the devices was a great bonus.

If someone needed OBD trackers, we sent them to Galileosky. But people took their time watching the Base Block Wi-Fi Hub demonstration. This terminal turns into Wi-Fi hotspot, gathers and sends data from the devices nearby when there is no cellular network coverage or weak GSM signal.

BCE was another hardware expert. The guys took care of the clients from two booths promoting the line of FM500 trackers. Depending on the model, the built-in accelerometer and crash detection option may by supported by RFID, several CAN-buses, and digital fuel level sensors.

Explaining the value of accessories 

Upon getting the requests on video monitoring, we acquainted the clients with Howen. The Chinese manufacturer shows their solutions with the help of Wialon: the latest models of MDVR with ADAS functionality, wearables for video monitoring, and mobile digital computers.

Escort was showing the measuring equipment and presenting perhaps the widest product line of all those taking part in the Expo. Wireless sensors, sensors with tracking functionality, accessories for attachable equipment, RFID solutions, and Sokol M weather station.   

RCS that was previously focused on the fuel control of moving and stationary assets surprised us as well. At GITEX, the company presented not just capacity and ultrasound fuel level sensors but new RFID solutions and inclination angle sensors as well.

Offering custom solutions

Mielta that we already know by their trackers, presented “Agroanalytics,” their agricultural solution.

KloudIP, the biggest Sri Lankan integrator, has been in the custom development sphere for quite some time offering the solutions for specific projects. At the exhibition, they were promoting them. They have the solution for security guards monitoring, the nurses control in private hospitals, the app for temperature monitoring and NimBus-based mobile app for passengers.

Codes Zone has a great experience in Wialon SDK development and consults those who need the solution for some specific project or a turn-key telematics business. In any sphere. As Milan Suletic, CODES CEO, told us: “We like doing the impossible with the tools that you can’t see in Wialon at once.”

And if you needed experience in project implementation in the UAE or the example of the integrator that got to build a successful business with Wialon, our partner InBound was working at the booth.

In the end, after showing the way Wialon worked with the selected equipment we shook hands (everybody knows it is far more important than the contract in writing).

We did it 5, 10, 100 times per day; with Indians, Arabs, Saudi; with integrators, fleet owners, and the developers of telematics solutions. If we had installed beacons at our guys, their track for the first hour would look like this:

If someone asks you about our sales funnel at the Expo, show them this picture.

Let’s get back to our co-exhibitors. 10 companies were exhibiting at the booth but it felt nearly double this number. Hardware manufacturers and local integrators were coming with potential clients to show them the scale of Gurtam operations. And while the client was being impressed, they could easily close the deal. After that, they stayed at the booth for some more time as implementation specialists.

Real situation. I am talking to a potential client about the project on personal monitoring. All of a sudden, the general manager of the largest connectivity provider in Iraq joins in and tells Wialon is the only system he entrusts the safety of his family to. And to prove this, he turns on Wialon mobile app on his smartphone and shows the location of his kids at the moment.

If I were my interlocutor, I would at least come home and google where Minsk is.

What’s more about Gitex? 

There are more and more connected “things” now. The companies want to connect everything: vehicles, houses, public transport, bus stops, enterprises, people. Local authorities, industry giants like Huawei, and ambitious integrators, again and again, were requesting the solutions for reading the data from water and electricity counters, enterprises chiefs were looking for the process optimization.  

Some of them were requesting integration with databases and management systems of municipal services and transnational corporations. Others were offering integrations with routing services, solutions for jamming protection, transportation and warehouses management systems. And some were asking about how to develop Wialon- and flespi-based solutions. May API and SDK help us to satisfy all these requests. 

“The largest and boldest exhibition” in the region, as promised by the organizers, really turned out to be like this. Huge spaces, top-notch solutions, 4,000 exhibitors, and above all – Gurtam community! You won’t find it anywhere in the Middle East.

Results

In 2018, Gurtam grew in the Middle East across all directions: office, GITEX booth, market share. This wouldn’t happen without our partners: exhibitors and booth visitors, experts, businessmen, consultants, developers, and all those making their everyday contribution to the development of Gurtam community. 

Thanks to the confidence you are giving us, we never hesitated to book the place for megabooth for the next year. GITEX Technology Week 2019, the same location, and several places at the booth are already taken. This is all you should know so to send us a message at marketing@gurtam.com and submit the participation request.

And then spend the evening watching pictures on Facebook and making sure again that Dubai will be definitely a success next time.