Thoughts on CeBIT
by teknetia
For those who don’t know, CeBIT is the show intended for the technology industry to all get together and show off their wares to one another and potential customers (as in distributors, etc. not end users). A few years ago this was a really great idea and very relevant to everyone. Companies used to time their entire product release cycles around shows like CeBIT to get the maximum possible impact on their clientele, that’s how relevant they were.
CeBIT 2009: A show that is no longer relevant to it's own industry.
However in the last three years of my (enforced) attendance at this show with my employer, I have watched the show shrink and fade into obscurity. In 2008, CeBIT was all 5 halls of the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, along with conference facilities in the Bayside Convention Centre and Parkside Convention Centre. This year, it is a measly 3 halls plus a small, under visited e-Health hall in Parkside.
In isolation, it is possible to view this as a vendor revolt against the obscene costs SCEC impose on their exhibition companies which then impose on the exhibitors, however CeBIT Hannover is faring no better on the other side of the world. I attended last year with my employer there and found that even though the show stretched over an impressive 22 or so halls, most of them where only half full with walls up to give them impression the show is still large!!
With the rise of the Internet and the savvy nature of the technology business, shows like CeBIT are beginning to lose their value to the industry. I for one would never employ someone into a technical role who was not able to research solutions to their problems using the Internet, telephone calls and maybe the odd vendor meeting here and there and therein lies the problem – any technical person worth their salt knows how to leverage the Internet to avoid shows like CeBIT.
We, as a company, have decided to roll back out exhibition presence worldwide. Once of the first shows to be cut: CeBIT Australia.
Comments
My understanding is that CeBIT has always been a good expo, but I have heard that the interest in the event has been dwindling.
Employers would much rather have employees research for free rather than pay to go. that is why events such as CeBIT will slow down, particularly when as mentioned all the information is up for free on the net, you just have to find it. and usually you dont need to dig too deep for it either…
Hi Chris,
I personally don’t see this as a good exhibition anymore. Few to no vendors time releases or announcements around CeBIT (at least CeBIT Australia) these days and in fact many of the majors don’t even attend anymore. The likes of Dlink, Netgear, Google, IBM, HP, etc. no longer attend the show.
In fact, I would hazard a guess based on a quick walk around the exhibition that half the floor space is government funded/supported as pavilions – the German pavilion, Korean pavilion, Australian pavilion, etc. I think the huge increase in this type of floor space shows that the exhibition is becoming commercially unattractive – companies are only interested in exhibiting if the costs are reduced in this manner.
Perhaps I am too harsh as someone who has to spend 3 days of my time talking the same schpiel to a thousand people, but I do think the show is becoming more and more irrelevant.