Events are the main showcases for products in the electronics sector.
For the Electronics Valley of Santa Rita do Sapucaí, in southern Minas Gerais, innovation is a matter of survival. Companies see participation in trade fairs and missions as a chance to innovate, explore new niches, and boost business. “Exposec guarantees the annual revenue for many companies in the Electronics Valley. The fair provides a boost of energy to innovate. There's no point in showing up with last year's product, because you'll be wasting your time,” says Roberto Souza Pinto, president of the Union of Industries of Electrical, Electronic and Similar Equipment of the Electronics Valley (SINDVEL).
Exposec, the International Security Fair, which took place from May 22nd to 24th in São Paulo, featured the participation of 16 companies, including Alarmes Santa Rita, Citrox, Giga, Intelbras, JFL, Líder Indústria Eletrônica, MCM, Megatron, TDM, and TEM Indústria Eletrônica. “The strength of the fair goes far beyond generating orders. It stimulates the economy and sets goals for the coming year,” says Roberto Souza Pinto, who is also the owner of Alarmes Santa Rita.
For Roberto, trade fairs are unmissable opportunities to close deals. “New technologies allow for instant communication. In the past, a letter was dispatched by ship, which could take up to 40 days to reach its destination. Today, we communicate with images, voice, and text online. But when it comes to closing deals, none of that replaces personal contact and face-to-face interaction. That chance is at trade fairs and business missions,” he says.
Among the 150 companies in the Local Productive Arrangement (APL), 39 produce property and residential security equipment, supplying more than 70% in the Brazilian market. Products include vehicle or portable trackers with real-time, 24-hour monitoring, cloud access, and smart intercoms with wireless video doorbells. "The visitor who presses the doorbell button appears on the screens of up to five cell phones. The user can simply see or speak to whoever is at their door without leaving their bed or anywhere in the world," he explains.
The electronic ankle bracelet used for monitoring in the prison system, produced by Alarmes Santa Rita, is one of the highlights among the innovations of the last year. The security device, which weighs only 279 grams, is waterproof, hypoallergenic, flame-retardant, and more efficient and reliable. It works with a satellite location system, has worldwide coverage, and allows for cost reduction for the State.
The Electronics Valley is also present at international trade shows, such as the NAB Show in Las Vegas (United States), which takes place in April. Another fundamental trade show for the sector is the National Meeting of Providers of the Brazilian Association of Internet and Telecommunications Providers (Abrint), which began on June 5th and ends on June 7th in São Paulo. The event is aimed at regional fixed broadband providers.
“The focus is on selling Brazilian broadcasting products. Seventeen countries in the world have already been convinced to use the Brazilian standard,” he says. According to the businessman, Brazil has been excelling in the manufacture of digital TV and radio transmission technologies. “The Electronics Valley is so advanced in this sector that if an investor in the TV or radio field wants to buy a complete system, they will find the entire production chain in the APL (Local Productive Arrangement), from antennas, management and entertainment software, digital transmitters, telemetry radios for monitoring, cameras, complete studios to towers,” he assures.
Today (June 6th), participants in the Brazilian Electro-electronics Sector Project are on a trade mission to Honduras and Guatemala. The project is a partnership between SINDVEL and the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and aims to expand the participation of Brazilian companies in the electro-electronics sector, whether exporters or with export potential, in the international market.
