SIMO TCI


SIMO TCI was a computer expo held every November in Madrid, Spain from 1961 to 2013. Its name stands for Salón Internacional de Mobiliario de Oficina / Tecnologías de la Comunicación e Información, due to its origin. From 1991, it took place in Madrid's Exhibition Centre IFEMA.

History

It was conceived as a trade fair devoted to office furniture and its first edition was held in 1961. In 1962 the IBM 1401 and Bull Gamma 60 where showcased, and as electronic, computer and telecommunications equipment were being introduced, the trade fair was gradually turned into a computer expo, to the extent that it would end up moving office furniture to a separate fair. Since 1969, there was more space devoted to computers that to office furniture, but until the late 1980s there was some exhibition space devoted to office furniture.
In its most successful years from late 1990s to early 2000s, it was considered the second largest computer fair in Europe after CeBIT, as more than 900 exhibitors were present, distributed in 65,000 m² taking up eight IFEMA pavilions, and reaching up 300,000 visitors.
In the late 2000s the number of exhibitors started to decline. This led to the cancellation of the 2008 edition. In 2009 was resumed as SIMO Network, devoted exclusively to business-oriented computing and IT professionals, but this approach wasn't successful and the last SIMO TCI took place in 2013.
Taking advantage of the name, SIMO Educación was started in 2014 by IFEMA, devoted only to educational technologies and a much smaller scope.

Sectors (early 2000s)