Over fifty thousand visitors, mostly students from the private and public academic institutions of the capital, crowded the fair on five days.

A total of 120 companies participating in the exposition showcased a wide range of locally developed software on payroll, human resources, equipment inventory and production management system, L/C, ISP dialing and billing system.

Some of the exiting projects included Air Speed and Direction Detector, Transport Pool Management System, 3D animation, Talking Dictionary, Bangla Type Tutor, 2D and 3D animation-based software on entertainment and education.

"I personally loved the Water modeling system that was being displayed at one of the e-governance project stalls," said Margoob Chowdhury, a student of North South University.

Some stalls even gave away souvenirs, demo and free software to the visitors, which also pulled a huge crowd.

The Young IT Entrepreneurs program sponsored by SEDF was a highly motivational contest for the aspiring IT entrepreneurs of the nation.

The ICT Job fair and the Danish pavilion were also among the favorites at the fair.

Bangladesh Association of Software & Information Services (Basis) in collaboration with SEDF arranged a grand line-up of impressive seminars starting from the 2nd day of the exposition.

'Offshore phenomenon- market trends and challenges' was the first among three seminars on ICT development of Bangladesh that took place on November 26 with Dr. Pradeep K Mukherjee, managing director, NeoIT (Bangalore, India), as the keynote speaker.

"Sustainable value can only be added to an establishment with global outsourcing," said Dr Mukherjee while discussing present day issues on offshore aspects related to Bangladesh ICT sector. He also pointed out lower production cost as one of the key factors for global outsourcing influences, while citing how capacity and quality building should be handled at the same time.

"Brand means trust and as such proper branding is necessary," he said.

Referring to IP protection as a major ingredient that international clients will seek while choosing local offshoring offers from Bangladesh, Mukherjee also mentioned how the government should amend a data security act.

'Export opportunities for animation services' followed the inaugural seminar with Joan Vogelesang, president and CEO of the Canadian Toon Boom Technologies (TBT) Inc. as the main speaker.

Mentioning how low manpower cost has been a preference by most western companies, Joan believes that Bangladesh animation will soon be in the world frontiers. She also stated that TBT will keep their interest on local animation attempts positive, as long as quality and international artistry is maintained. She also promised training and skill development investments from TBT to local animation developers, while stressing the importance of building a straight business plan and establishment of interactive communication with the world leaders in animation.

Basis President Sarwar Alam delivered the keynote speech at the seminar on strategic roadmap for ICT sectors of the country held later on the same day. A vibrant discussion on the export issues of ICT products followed among the panel of guests with a versatile and active participation from the audience.

"To build an ICT driven country the ICT industry needs major spending from the public sectors," mentions Sarwar Alam, while also claiming transparency in all government participation. "We must compel the government to spend 2% of the ADB revenue as promised," he added, citing development of well-trained software experts in the local industry to enhance capacity of products.

The third day of the software gala started with a seminar on 'Role of E-Governance in national productivity'. Discussions included how e-governance can boost national productivity and thus lead to enhanced economic growth.

"E-governance can be an effective tool through which most of the tedious daily government activities can be more easily handled," said Faruq Sobhan, former chairman of Bangladesh Enterprise Institution, present as a special guest at the seminar.

Anwar Chowdhury, the British High Commissioner in Dhaka, presented a speech on 'Britain's experience on e-governance' at the event.

In his keynote address, SASM Taifur Rahman, project director, Support to ICT Task Force (SICT) Programme, Ministry of Planning said, "Such a system will reduce corruption, facilitate efficiency and ensure proper usage of resources."

Another paper on 'E-government & productivity' was presented by J Satyanarayana, CEO, National Institute of Smart Government (NISG). He also presented the keynote paper on 'Public Private Partnership for E-Governance Initiatives' at another E-government seminar which followed the first one.

"E-government can be used to provide efficient, convenient and transparent services to citizens, businesses and so on of the nation," pointed out Satyanarayana.

The speakers hinted at the importance of the private sector's partnership with the public sector for generating an innovative and useful e-government system.

Later that day, a business advantage seminar, organised by Inpace Communications, was held on behalf of Intel and was presented by Shrikant Patil, director, APSG, Intel Asia.

Patil mentioned how the transistor industry has built what we find as technology in today's world. He also stated how a competitive pace, enabled by technology development, needs to be set by local ICT business sectors of a country in order to globalise its efforts. Referring to digital transformation of a nation, he specified technology and culture as the two driving factors, while stating how the people, process and policy of a country actually build the culture within.

"The government needs to pick up a spending habit to produce a sustainable ICT industry in due time," Patil said.

The most important among the three seminars held on November 28 was on 'Intellectual Property Right (IPR): Enforcement Challenges' having Dr. Prabuddha Ganguly, CEO, Vision-IPR, India as the main speaker.

The main speaker pointed out the necessity of trained attorneys in software and computer related IPR, the rapid adaptability of the judicial system at handling advanced technology related to IPR issues and the efficiency of enforce- ment agencies to ensure IPR in the nation.

Chief guest, Barrister Moudud Ahmed, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, informed that the formulation of such an act is on the agenda of the government.

"We will soon have a cyber law in Bangladesh, which is now at the final stage of drafting," said Moudud. He also asked for suggestions and proposals, which may be incorporated in the amendment of Copyright Act.

Dr. Ananya Raihan, senior research fellow, Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) presented the keynote paper at the e-commerce seminar -- 'Legal and Financial regulation Issues for e-commerce in Bangladesh'.

He pointed out the redundancy of the current technological infrastructure at supporting online authorisation of e-commerce transactions.

"Bangladesh Bank can launch a pilot project through which the technical and legal viability of e-commerce payment system can be experimented," said Dr. Raihan.

He also advised that in such a case, the government can follow the footsteps of the neighbouring nations who have excelled in such mechanisms.

Another animation seminar on 'International Standard Requirements for 2D Animation services' was held on the same day having Melanie Desclez, production manager and president of Plan Large (Canada) as the main speaker.

On the concluding day of the exposition, Wiwan Tharahirunchote, president, One Asset Management, Bangkok, mentioned the need for high investment in human capital in the initial stage. She was addressing a seminar on 'Financing issues for local software companies'.

Wiwan repeatedly emphasised professional demonstration of software while on the lookout for a financing client company. She also mentioned on how a growing IT industry needs to be very careful from being fragmented, as a lot of small companies with lower costs but a thin capital will pull down the market value of any product.

"We need aggressive overseas marketing and capacity building in Bangladesh," stated Wiwan, while addressing the obstacles the industry may face in overseas establishment.

Earlier a seminar on the 'Use of ICT as a competitive tool for export oriented RMG/Knitwear sector' was arranged by BASIS.

Several private seminar sessions were also held in different time slots at the event location on a wide ranging number of topics. Two such seminars on 'Customer Relationship Management Solution' and 'Online Banking System Solution' were organised by Daffodil Computers Ltd. They were held on the third day of the SOFTEXPO where Johan Ulander, CEO, Hansa World and Khalique Kadri, managing director, PIBAS, respectively presented the keynote speakers.

Topics including 'VOIP in private sectors towards ICT driven Bangladesh', and 'Benefits of integration and automation in enterprise resource planning (ERP)' allowed keynote speakers Fazlur Rahman, director, Coordination, TIMB, and Raihan Ahmed, CEO, Seven Circle (Bangladesh) Ltd. to express their views and ideas in two separate seminars on the same date.