FYI Lizette
X-Spam-Score: 1 X-Spam-Score: 1 Date: Wed, 04 May 2005 01:46:59 +0300 From: Francis Hook <francis@ace-media.net> Reply-To: francis@ace-media.net Organization: Ace of Spades User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.7.2) Gecko/20040804 Netscape/7.2 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Subject: IMPORTANT: ICT Africa postponed to June 27-30
NAIROBI 3rd May 2005 - Following developments in the organisation of the Presidential Forum, the organisers of ICTe Africa, in consultation with key sponsors, organisation partners and exhibitors, have taken the decision to postpone the event by six weeks to 27-30 June 2005.
The government of Kenya, a facilitator of the Presidential Forum, has requested more time to coordinate the effort which requires invitations to be sent to 16 African Heads of States, 15 CEO's, Presidents of leading global player companies in the ICT industry and over 20 prominent African ICT companies. Through the Ministry of Information and Communication, the government has suggested a five-month preparation period in which it can coordinate a successful meeting . The new proposed date for the event is 5th October 2005.
The Presidential Forum, which was being developed in close collaboration with the NEPAD Council, was a key element in ICTe Africa as it provided a powerful platform for ICT stakeholders to address key issues affecting the industry as well as the continent at large. In light of the new dates, the organisers of ICTe Africa held lengthy discussions with exhibitors and sponsors. As a result it has now been mutually agreed that a postponement is inevitable and serves to allow more time for various preparatory activities which many participants had deferred in anticipation of the confirmation from the government of the Presidential Forum.
The organisers of the fair wish to reiterate their unwavering commitment to the realisation of a high quality, well attended event for the benefit of all sponsors, exhibitors, participants and partners. It is with renewed vigour that the organisers approach this new date and extension of time. Global Fairs TT-Messe will endeavour to capitalise on the additional time to inject more value added activities for the benefit of all participants.
We kindly request your tolerance as we revise the schedule and work towards the new dates. At the heart of this re-organisation will be the interests of the sponsors, exhibitors and speakers without whose participation we would be unable to grow and develop ICTe Africa into a premier event. Despite operational setbacks, ICTe Africa has received much acclaim from many quarters.
We realise this postponement will cause inconvenience to many participants and are making provisions to lessen the effect of the date change. For those exhibitors who have already shipped their goods for use at the fair, we have organised secure storage facilities to accommodate their valuable shipments. We are presently notifying all logistics partners of the new dates and will announce any changes in due course. All the pre-negotiated preferential rates at hotels, transport companies, airlines, etc will remain valid and we will send out a renewed bulletin on the current list of providers with whom we have negotiated discounted rates. The organisers request to be involved in resolving any problems experienced as a result of this postponement.
We trust you will continue to join hands with us despite the postponement as we look forward to a truly successful ICT Africa in June. We wish you all the best in your planning and look forward to welcoming you to Nairobi.
Francis Hook for Global Fairs TT-Messe NAIROBI, KENYA (GMT+3)