MISSISSAUGA – CommTech East wrapped up Wednesday in Mississauga after a record high number of attendees from the cable, wireless, ISP and related ICT industries packed the two-day event.
The annual confab, now in its fifth year in Mississauga, attracted representatives from over 200 companies who took in live demonstrations and seminars ranging from Remote Phy to FTTX to preparation strategies for the arrival of 5G. The trade show featured 92 exhibitors from Canada, the U.S., China, and Uruguay, including an outdoor exhibit by Mobismart Mobile Off-Grid Power and Storage.
“This year’s show exceeded our estimates”, said show organizer Linda Guzman. “The talk on the (trade show) floor has been that this is the best show that we’ve done in 13 years, and it’s definitely been the highest number of attendee registrations in the last 13 years.”
New this year was Monday night’s inaugural Information Communications Technology Awards gala which Guzman said would return next year with additional categories.
Also new was a charitable initiative between CommTech and Mississauga-based telecom equipment supplier Transglobal Systems of Canada (TSOC) that donated funds based on the number of photos taken with a branded photo frame at the 2017 show (pictured below). A total of $1,000 was raised for a new scholarship that will be awarded to an ICT student at Sheridan College in Oakville. Donations from the approximately 200 photos taken in front of the CommTech/TSOC logo board at this year’s show will be awarded at the 2019 gala.
“CommTech has been involved in charity and scholarship bursary donations for the last 10 years”, added Guzman. “We decided last year that we wanted to take it further, so we met with Imran Hasan, the president of TSCO, and discussed opportunities to work together. Based on the photos that we did last year, we decided to match each other’s donation of $500 to go towards a charity here in the Mississauga area, which we hadn’t done before. All our previous donations have been made in the Western provinces up until this time, but I wanted to give back to this community for making CommTech East so successful.”
CommTech and TSOC will take the photo initiative to the CommTech West Show and Seminars next month, and plan to donate funds to a deserving student enrolled at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT).
CommTech West will take place May 16 – 17 at the Coast Plaza Conference Centre in Calgary. The 2018 CommTech Charity Golf Tournament is scheduled for May 15 at Calgary’s Valley Ridge Golf Club, and funds raised there will be donated to diabetes research foundation JDRF.
