CeBIT is the largest and most internationally represented computer
expo. The trade fair is held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's
largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. It is considered a barometer of current
trends and a measure of the state of the art in information technology. It is
organized by Deutsche Messe AG. With an exhibition area of roughly
450,000 m² and a peak attendance of 850,000 visitors during the dot-com
boom, it is larger both in area and attendance than its Asian counterpart
COMPUTEX and its no-longer held American equivalent COMDEX. CeBIT is a German
language acronym for Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie
und Telekommunikation, which translates as "Center for Office Automation,
Information Technology and Telecommunication".
The 2015 CeBIT expo was held from the 16th to the 20th of March.
History CeBIT was traditionally the computing
part of the Hanover Fair, a big industry trade show held every year. It was first
established in 1970, with the opening of the Hanover fairground's new Hall 1,
then the largest exhibition hall in the world. However, in the 1980s the
information technology and telecommunications part was straining
the resources of the industry fair so much that it was given a separate trade
show starting 1986, held four weeks earlier than the main Hanover Fair.
While by 2007 the CeBIT expo attendance had shrunk to around 200,000 from those
all-time highs, attendance rebounded to 334,000 by 2010. The 2008 expo was
marred by the police raids of 51 exhibitors for patent infringement. In
2009, the U.S. state of California became official Partner State of
Germany's IT and telecommunications industry association, BITKOM, and of
CeBIT 2009. focusing on environmentally-friendly technologies.
Other CeBIT-Branded shows As CeBIT continued to grow quickly and
was becoming too big on its own, it was decided to concentrate on the
professional market, while the home and entertainment market was given a
separate show, CeBIT Home, during summer, planned to be biennial. However,
after being held twice, the 2000 CeBIT Home was cancelled and the project was
abandoned. Since 1999 the CeBIT sponsor Deutsche
Messe AG has organized trade shows outside of Germany bearing the CeBIT
name: CeBIT Asia, in Shanghai, China
CeBIT Australia, in Sydney CeBIT Eurasia Bilişim, in Istanbul,
Turkey CeBIT America/USA in New York City,
United States. It was held in 2003 and 2004, but subsequently cancelled in
2005. CeBIT India, in Bangalore, India
CeBIT Global Conferences Running over a five-day period in
Hanover, Germany, the CeBIT Global Conferences are staged congruently with
the CeBIT exhibition. The conferences are dedicated to providing a 360°
overview of the digital industry’s four core markets: IT, Telecommunications,
Digital Media and Consumer Electronics. Noted industry figures and researchers
from across the globe are invited to speak on the latest relevant trends and
innovations as well as their impact on society and the working world. The
conference is divided up into keynote speeches, talks and panel discussions.
The CGC conferences are produced by Deutsche Messe AG, with the German
BITKOM association acting as the CGC patron since 2009. In 2014, the CGC were
staged with 140 speakers on three stages with a program of 70 conference hours
and 3000 participants. Target groups of the conference are CXOs, managers,
experts, visionaries and out-of-the-box thinkers, Conference languages are
English and German. Recent conferences have featured the
following keynote themes: • 2008: “Improving Life in the Global
Village”. This installment of CGC attracted 1900 visitors and 43 speakers
attending the keynotes and discussion sessions.
• 2009: “How Will We Be Working, Living and Communicating in the Coming Years?”
This CGC drew 3,133 visitors from 88 nations, with some 2,200 guests
following the conference via live streaming.
• 2010: “The Challenges of a Changing World - ICT for Better Lives and Better
Business“, attracting some 4,000 guests from more than 100 nations. Just under
4,000 guests also visited the conference via live streaming.
The motto of the CeBIT Global Conferences for 2011 was “The Power of
Creativity and Innovation”. = Speaker excerpt 2014 =
Steve Wozniak, Co-founder Apple Computer, Jimmy Wales, founder
Wikipedia, Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and Chairman, Kaspersky Lab, Mark
Shuttleworth, founder, Canonical, Neelie Kroes, Vice President, European
Commission, Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Chairman and Co-Founder, Open Data Institute,
Dean Douglas, CEO Unify, Cristina Riesen, General Manager Europe,
Evernote, Mikko Hyppönen, Chief Research Officer, F-Secure.
Over the past years, speakers at the CeBIT Global Conferences have included
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California; Kevin Turner, COO,
Microsoft, Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board, Intel, Jon Iwata SVP
Marketing & Communications, IBM, Reid Hoffman, Chairman and CEO, LinkedIn;
Scott Durchslag, COO, Skype; Dr. Werner Vogels, Vice President & CTO, Amazon,
Stewart Butterfield, Co-founder of Flickr.com, Michael T. Jones, Chief
Technology Advocate, Google & Founder of Google Earth; Mark Kingdon, CEO,
LindenLab. CeBIT Awards
CeBIT has also become a platform for recognising achievement by ICT
businesses, particularly in Australia. The awards include the Excellence in
Communications Award, the Advanced Retail Technology Award, the Innovative
IT Security Award, and the Early Innovators Award. Notable past winners
include Motorola, McAfee and eWAY. See also
CES The European Seal of e-Excellence Award
COMDEX COMPUTEX
References ^ Organizer of CeBIT
^ "CeBIT – Daten und Fakten – Geschichte der CeBIT". Cebit.de. Retrieved
2011-12-17. ^ "Homepage CeBIT2014 - CeBIT".
^ 20 Jahre Centrum für "B" und "IT": Die CeBIT hat Geburtstag – By Detlef
Borchers, heise online, 8 March 2006 ^ Attendance for CeBIT increases to
200,000 ^ "Cebit 2010: Besucherzahlen leicht
angestiegen". Golem.de. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
^ "Authorities seize gadgets during patent raid at German tech fair".
International Herald Tribune. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
^ "Schwarzenegger goes to Cebit". Theinquirer.net. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
^ "Techbrief - Cebit To New York". NYTimes.com. 19 March 2002. Retrieved
2011-12-17. ^ "CeBit America 2005 canceled - CNET
News". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
^ 21 May 2007 Topics: Business > Awards. "Australian companies fare well in CeBIT
awards :: Voice+Data". Voiceanddata.com.au. Retrieved
2011-12-17. ^ [1]
^ [2] ^ [3]
External links Official website
The history of CeBIT Overview of worldwide CeBIT events
CeBIT Australia official website