Global technology channel event series DISTREE has chosen Nairobi, Kenya to launch its first ever African gathering.

DISTREE Events bring together vendors and resellers in regions such as Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and the organisers have finally decided to venture into the fast-growing East African technology market.

Speaking to ITWeb Africa, the Africa regional director for DISTREE in charge of Africa, Frederic Lestringant (pictured), said most vendors have been pushing to get a foothold in Africa.

DISTREE Africa will therefore be held at Kenya’s Safari Park Hotel from 19-21 June this year and aims to have over 400 participants from 25 countries.

“The idea came few years ago from DISTREE Events to have an African edition,” Lestringant said.

“We did not come up with this idea overnight. The idea was there. We then decided to move forward in 2014.

“We believe Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. There is a huge demand on many products and on IT it’s even more. There was a lot of demand from vendors who want to expand their business in Africa. Channel partners have also desired to meet new partners and network in Africa.

Farouk Hemraj, chief executive officer of DISTREE Events, confirmed this in an earlier statement:

“We’ve been listening closely to the needs of technology vendors, plus service and solution providers. They understand the power of our event format and have expressed a clear interest in seeing us expand into Africa.”

“The partners request was to have a one on one with other vendors, resellers or retailers of IT products,” Lestringant said.

Participants can register online and book meetings with other partners that are of interest.

During the conference every participant will have meeting times and dates with other partners.

Apart from the main one to one sessions, there will be workshops and speakers from industry experts.

“We expect vendors from hardware, software, accessories, those interested in mobility and vendors interested in cloud. We are trying to get vendors covering the whole spectrum of IT. It will address consumers and companies as well,” Lestringant added.

The DISTREE concept was launched in 2003.