The 4-day event to be held from September 22 to 25 2004 at the Chennai Trade Centre is expected to attract 150 exhibitors, senior corparate technology and information officers from India's leading manufacturing and service industries.

The products that would be showcased include application development / internet platforms and web services, application integration and middleware, business intelligence / data warehousing, e-commerce, customer relationship management, supply chain management, hardware platforms, telecom infrastructure and networking.

For the first time, Connect will feature concept zones covering interactive products and equipment demonstrations. Connect 2004 will also feature four enterprise ICT conferences focussing on three broad verticals — manufacturing, services and governance. This includes conferences on wireless technology, 'i-govern', smart manufacturing and 'i-serve', said Ranjit Pisharoty, convenor, IT & BPO Panel, CII-Tamil Nadu.

The conference on wireless technology will focus on emerging trends and opportunities in wireless modules of IT solutions. 'i-govern' would focus on the quality of IT in public services while smart manufacturing and i-serve conferences would focus on role of IT in efficient manufacturing and customer service through information technology enabled services (ITES). Case studies companies will also be presented at the conferences.

In addition, there will also be a conference on computer education in schools.

Conferences apart, Connect 2004 will also have separate interactive sessions CIO / CTO's on all days. The organisors expect around 20,000 business visitors.

According to Pisharoty, CII has received participation confirmations from delegations from Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Singapore and Canada.