EMAIL INTERVIEW -  Anto Budiardjo & Ken Sinclair

Anto Budiardjo, President of Clasma, Inc.,

Clasma is the marketing and conference company that is organizing BuilConn Europe in Brussels,
 October 26-28, 2004 (www.builconn.com).

Please send comments and questions to antob@clasma.com.

Sinclair:  Tell me about BuilConn Europe?

Budiardjo:  Having convened two successful events in the U.S. and knowing the terrain very well in Europe—I lived and worked most my life in the UK—we felt that this is the right time to take BuilConn to Europe. Although there are very significant differences in the way the industry works in Europe, the basic technology and strategy issues are the same; buildings, IT and the Enterprise are converging, and BuilConn is the only event anywhere in the world that focuses on this hot and important issue.

Sinclair:  Tell me about the selection of Brussels as a venue.

Budiardjo:  Brussels is very much the center of Europe from many different angles. Not only is it the political capital of Europe (the European Parliament convenes there) but it is also a great business location because of its central geographical location. With train, air and roads, Brussels is accessible for a significant number of the mainland Europe and UK population.

Sinclair:  What’s the main different between the European and American BuilConn?

Budiardjo:  Integration has been a very strong subject in Europe for years, probably more so than in North America, so the discussions about that subject should be more developed. On the other hand, the TCP/IP and XML subject seems to be less developed so there will be plenty of learning and breaking of new ground. On the open systems front there is not only LonWorks^® and BACnet^® but also IEB/Konnex which has been around in Europe for many years. New areas such as wireless and hosted services will be as new in Europe as they are in Americas.

Sinclair:  What about M2M?

Budiardjo:  We intend also to do the M2M event, again co-located with BuilConn in Brussels; it worked so well in Dallas and should do the same in Europe.

Sinclair:  Will the speakers and advisory board be from Europe?

Budiardjo:  Yes, BuilConn Europe is very much a Europe event; it’s not just a transplant of an American event into Europe. The people driving this are European (from Clasma’s London and Brussels office), the advisory board will be predominantly European and many of the speakers will be European. The only thing that comes from the U.S. is the name and concept that there is a need for the integration industry to gather and develop.

Sinclair:  How is BuilConn Europe beneficial to U.S. firms?

Budiardjo:  U.S. firms wanting to take their products to Europe will find BuilConn to be a great venue because of the focused audience that we are attracting, people from many corners of Europe who are interested in integration and open systems. Even if these firms cannot justify exhibiting in Brussels, they will see value attending BuilConn to better understand the market dynamics in Europe.

Sinclair:  Will integrators from the U.S. see benefit in going to Brussels?

Budiardjo:  If they are interested in seeing how companies in Europe have been doing integration, then it would be a great learning experience, maybe also to learn about new products that may not be available in the North America market.

Sinclair:  What are the dates?

Budiardjo:  October 26-28, 2004 – For more information visit www.builconn.com and click on the Europe link.

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