The IMC 2018 conference and exhibition attended by more than five thousand delegates. Delegations from 20 countries participated in the event, which saw more than 300 companies showcasing their latest and best technologies, products, services, and applications.

More than 50,000 curious visitors attended the various sessions and viewed the futuristic solutions on display at the exhibition stalls. An extremely relevant addition at this edition of the IMC was the presence of high-level ministerial delegations from several BIMSTEC and ASEAN countries.

Among the companies whose participation contributed to the success of IMC 2018 were global and local giants such as Samsung, Intel, Ericsson, Nokia, Cisco, NEC, Accenture, KPMG, E&Y, Facebook, Huawei, Sterlite, Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, Airtel, and BSNL.

Several exhibition stalls set up by these companies attracted crowds of interested visitors, while leaders from the companies enriched the discourse through their participation in the various plenary sessions. The exhibition stalls covered a variety of interesting possibilities, hinged around 5G, Internet of Things, Augmented and Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Smart City Solutions, Fintech, Health-Tech, Autonomous Cars, and Cyber Security, amongst others.

An interesting feature of this edition of the IMC was the focused attention on the critical Start-ups ecosystem. More than 200 start-ups marked their presence at the event, with their booths displaying ideas and innovations which seek to leverage the potential of digital communications to create and meet ever-changing consumer needs – in areas such as artificial intelligence, integrated services, healthcare, pharma, security, safety, food, sports, social networking, travel, education, and disaster management, among others.

The mega three-day event was inaugurated on October 25 by Manoj Sinha, Minister of State for Communications, in the august presence of Suresh Prabhu, Minister for Commerce and Industry, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, and Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs. Also, gracing the inaugural function were big players of the telecom industry like Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Sunil Bharti Mittal.