BES EXPO 2001 was held from 1-3 February, 2001 at Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi as per schedule. The earthquake on 26th January, which struck Gujarat left behind a lot of loss of life and property. BES was undecided whether to go ahead with the Expo or to cancel it in view of the great tragedy that struck the nation. After lot of deliberations it was decided to go ahead with organizing the EXPO as many exhibitors had already shifted their equipment and finalized their travel plans and if the show is to be called off at this late stage it may cause great inconvenience to them.

The inaugural function was held on the 1st February, 2001 in the Shahjahan Hall of Taj Palace Hotel. President BES (I), Shri R.K. Gupta read out a message mentioning about the massive earthquake which had struck Gujarat on 26th of January and a two minutes silence was observed in the honour of those who had lost their lives in this earthquake. President announced that BES would donate Rs. 1 lakh towards Prime Minister's National Relief Fund and the cheque was handed over by him to Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Hon. Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India who was the Chief Guest of the function. Shri R.K. Gupta then welcomed the gathering. Shri Pawan Chopra, Secretary, Ministry of I&B was kind enough to grace the occasion though he had not formally assumed his office. Shri Ramesh Bais, Minister of State for Information & Broadcasting presided over the function. Prof. K.K. Aggarwal, Vice-Chancellor, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University was conferred honorary fellowship of the Society. Prof. Aggarwal delivered the keynote address. The inaugural function was well attended with nearly 1000 people, many senior officers of Ministry of I & B and Prasar Bharati, large number of delegates, guests and exhibitors. The function was covered widely in the media. Major TV channels also covered the function. Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Hon. Minister of Information & Broadcasting in her speech mentioned that broadcast engineers have a great future but in view of the rapidly developing technology they have to keep abreast with the latest technology or they will be left behind. Shri Y. Venkateswarlu, Hon. Secretary, BES (1) proposed the vote of thanks.

In the afternoon session on 1st February, a tutorial on Digital Compression was organized. Shri R.K. Singh, Director STI(T) discussed the compression aspects of audio signals. He demonstrated the effects of bit rate reduction on the quality of audios signal. Shri Sundaresan, ADE, (Research), made a presentation on the video compression. The workshop was well attended by over 500 delegates. Many of the delegates felt that the time was too short and more time should be devoted for such tutorials in future. On 2nd February, 2001 three technical sessions were held, viz., Digital Video Broadcasting, Digital Audio Broadcasting and Automation in Broadcasting chaired by Shri B.K. De, E-in-C, Doordarshan, Shri A.S. Guin, CE (R&D), AIR & DD and Shri P.S. Sundaram, ex-MD, BECIL respectively. The keynote address of the day was delivered by Mr. Philip Laven of EBU, Switzerland on the 'Future of Broadcasting" and the session was chaired by Shri R.K- Gupta, President BES (I). Mr. Laven made a very interesting presentation on various aspects of broadcasting. On the 3rd February, 2001 Shri O.P. Khushu of ABU, Malaysia delivered the key note address. The session was chaired by Shri B ,K. De, E-in-C, Doordarshan. There were 3 technical sessions on that day on 'Privatisation of Broadcasting  and  Regulatory  Issues', 'Convergence and its Impact on Broadcasting' and'Direct to Home'. These sessions were chaired by Shri Mahesh Prasad of Sahara TV, Shri Manu Sahani, CEO, ESPN and Prof P.V. Indiresan former Director TIT, Chennai respectively.

The exhibition - BES EXPO 2001 was held in 7 halls, viz. Durbar Hall, Wazir Lounge, Alamgir Lounge, Mumtaz Mahal hall, Roshanara Hall & Jahanara hall ofTaj Palace Hotel. The exhibition was inaugurated by Smt. Sushma Swaraj, Hon. Minister of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. As many as 15 new companies participated this year including from China. In all 66 companies had their stalls. Close to 4000 people visited the exhibition. A large number of new products were displayed and many of them demonstrated the operation of their latest products. There was large participation to the exhibition from private industry and private channel operators.