Gearhouse Group Adds 10th Company

The complete conference and event solution, from registration to audience response systems, has taken shape in the newly formed company, Gearhouse ICS.

Talks about a merger between Inhouse Venue Technical Management IT and Global ICS started late last year. Gearhouse SA Pty Ltd. directors, Ofer Lapid and Nasser Abbas; managing director of Inhouse Venue Technical Management, Ashraf Omar; and managing director of Global ICS, Thabiet Waggie, are the key players in the Gearhouse Group's 10th company.

Omar explains, "I saw an opportunity within the information technology rental fields and contacted Thabiet to discuss our options."

"It was a natural fit," says Waggie, "since both companies service the conference and events industry. IVTM IT Rentals takes care of hardware rentals and Global ICS has developed a number of applications, including a registration system and a presentation management system for conferences."

On March 1, Gearhouse ICS Pty was officially opened. The new company now provides IT hardware, software, and project management services. Their newly developed products include; EventsCentral, which is the online and onsite delegate management and registration system, and MediaVue, the online and onsite presentation and content management system.

Omar says that at the initial development phase, business was somewhat erratic. "But we could see it would be profitable," he explains. "We are already receiving great international interest and foresee many more potential markets. Thabiet, in my opinion, is the best person to run this as you need someone with passion and love for the business; he has both."

Waggie, who has more than 10 years experience in the industry, explains that these applications were developed specifically for the South African market. "We have our own team of developers who look after our product," he reports.

Adrian de Vries is the lead software developer for both EventsCentral and MediaVue. "When we developed the software for EventsCentral, we really kept the end-user, our client, in mind," de Vries explains. "We have developed it so that the front-end is very easy to use, but it has full functionality. The client should not assume that it is lacking in any functionality because it is so easy to manage. EventsCentral can be customized exactly to our client's needs."

de Vries also developed MediaVue, which took about a year to finalize. "This program eases the process for presenters who can upload their presentations at a central point," he explains, "Then the presentation is delivered over the network to the relevant room, eliminating the usual running around with memory sticks. This system is unique in South Africa but it is on par with international standards. We do constant updates and modify it as we go along."

Waggie says "Gearhouse ICS Pty (Ltd) is committed to improving the events industry by using efficient information technology to raise the level of professionalism."

Gearhouse ICS has offices in Cape Town, Gauteng, and Durban.