DISTREE APAC 2014 drives regional channel development for ICT & CE vendors

SINGAPORE – The second annual DISTREE Asia Pacific (APAC) ends today in Singapore. The three-day event gathered together leading channel partners from 20-plus countries across the region, with a total of more than 400 delegates participating. DISTREE APAC 2014 gave technology and consumer electronics (CE) vendors from around the world an opportunity to pre-schedule one-on-one meetings with senior channel executives and buyers.

DISTREE APAC 2014 was supported by Platinum Sponsors HP and Microsoft; Gold Sponsors Intel, Manhattan and Strontium; plus Silver Sponsors Energy Sistem, Mercantile and Valore. This year’s Event Partners were GfK, IE Singapore and Alibaba.com, with HP and Strontium as Technical Partners.

Ashish Kapahi, Regional Director for DISTREE APAC, said: “This year’s event set a new record with more than 1,700 pre-scheduled one-on-one meetings between vendors and channel partners. Many new distribution deals and retail agreements will be facilitated as a result of meetings that took place at DISTREE APAC 2014.”

“By bringing all of the key channel stakeholders together in one place at one time, DISTREE APAC provides the most efficient channel development platform for all vendors – whether they are new to the region or a leading player with established channels. As an independent event platform, DISTREE APAC provides an unrivalled opportunity to discuss the key issues impacting the market,” he added.

More than 200 companies were represented at DISTREE APAC 2014. The delegate list included 90 retailer and e-tailer executives, 80 distributor executives, 140-plus vendor executives, as well as influential speakers, industry experts and media partners. The number of vendors and channel partners participating at DISTREE APAC increased significantly year-on-year.

DISTREE APAC 2014 also included an extensive conference programme, including workshop sessions and summits run by Content Partners GfK and CONTEXT. Keynote speeches from GfK, HP and Microsoft, plus presentations from Intel, Energy Sistem, Valore, Logitech and InnJoo brought delegates up to speed on market trends and specific vendor strategies within the APAC region.

The popular ‘60 Seconds to Convince’ awards also formed part of the event agenda, giving dozens of vendors an opportunity to deliver a one-minute elevator pitch for their latest product on stage. Promate picked up the Best Design Award for its Cloud Floating Speaker, securing 48% of the final live vote. The IRISCan Pro 3 WiFi won the Best Design Award while Strontium collected the Best Presentation Award.

DISTREE APAC 2014 played host to the ‘Asia Pacific (APAC) Channel Academy: 2014 Awards’. The second annual awards ceremony recognised ICT and CE channel excellence. Hundreds of top retailers and distributors will vote live at a Gala Dinner on October 9th to identify overall vendor winners across 15 separate categories.

The first dedicated GfK Summit was held at DISTREE APAC 2014, focused on market and category trends and also providing information on its new GfK Supply Chain Management (SCM) Insights service. A new session, entitled ‘Smart Channels: Retailing Connected Devices, Wearables and Internet of Things (IoT)’, also made its debut at DISTREE APAC 2014. DISTREE Events has partnered with ICT research provider CONTEXT to deliver the Smart Channels Summit series.

Farouk Hemraj, Co-Founder & Director at DISTREE Events, said: “Planning is already underway for DISTREE APAC 2015. The initial feedback from vendors and channel partners has been extremely positive and we look forward to welcoming even more delegates to next year’s event.”

About DISTREE Asia Pacific

DISTREE Asia Pacific is the ultimate professional networking event for senior executives from the consumer electronics, digital device and ICT products channel in the Asia Pacific region. DISTREE Asia Pacific is a focused event for channel executives based on the successful concept of bringing high-level buyers from emerging markets into productive contact with vendors. For more information, visit www.distree-apac.com or follow us on Twitter @DISTREE_AsiaPac

About DISTREE Events

DISTREE Events specialises in the planning, organisation, staging and management of ICT & CE channel events. DISTREE Events is a Paris−based company owned by Infopro Digital. The team at DISTREE Events has successfully organised such events for the past decade, gathering more than 10,000 senior executives from 80 countries during that time. DISTREE Events spans the entire EMEA region, Asia-Pacific and Latin America with employees based in Paris, Dubai, Moscow, London, Singapore and Sao Paulo. For more information, visit www.distree.com or follow us on Twitter @DISTREE_Events

DISTREE Events
Liam McSherry, Marketing Director
+ 33 1 40 33 33 60
liam@distreevents.com

DISTREE EVENTS
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This release was published on openPR.