Multimedia exhibition opens amid SARS fears

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While many international exhibitions in the region were canceled due to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the fourth annual Indonesia International Telecommunication Media and Information Technology Conference and Exhibition kicked off on Wednesday despite low attendance.

Juanita Soerakoesoemah, general manager of event organizer PT Rantai Expo International, said only 50 exhibitors were taking part in the event, half last year's number.

According to Juanita, the lower attendance was caused by the SARS outbreak.

"We have many international participants who pulled out just days before the exhibition began," she said, adding that there were 1,000 participants including 130 conference delegates at this year's event.

With such low attendance, she said it was only aiming to attract 10,000 visitors to the four-day exhibition, down from last year when more than 17,000 visitors poured into the exhibition.

Separately, one of the participants, Budiman from PT Indovisual Presentatama, a distributor of LCD projectors, said his company was hesitant in joining the exhibition given the market downturn.

"Had the organizer not allotted free space for us in the exhibition in the first place, we would not open our stand here. The market will be very weak during this year's first semester," he said, pointing to growing business uncertainties, partly due to SARS.