Neolectum - Hannover Messe - CeBIT - CeMAT - WIN - Business Solutions - digital living

CeBIT 2008 – Hannover, 4-9 March

The new-look of CeBIT 2008

CeBIT, the world’s biggest trade fair for the digital industry, has a new format. It offers more efficiency, more variety, and the running time has been cut by one day. For the first time the show runs from Tuesday to Sunday (4 to 9 March). The international flagship show is now much more closely geared to the needs of users. The various market segments have been grouped together into three main display sections:

• “Business Solutions“,
• “Public Sector Solutions“ and
• “Home & Mobile Solutions“.

These three pillars of the show are underpinned by a fourth section, “Technology & Infrastructure“.

CeBIT 2008 offers notably more in terms of content and variety. One example is the integration of the TeleHealth conference and exhibition into CeBIT. Among the new themes for 2008 are “Consulting & Services”, “Learning & Knowledge Solutions” and “design: driving innovation”.

The supporting conference program – now renamed “CeBIT Global Conferences” – is also being substantially expanded. High-calibre speakers from all over the world have been signed up for the CeBIT keynote addresses and the newly created Executive Labs (panels of experts debating the issues). Among the hot topics featured prominently at the forthcoming event are green IT, recruitment, Web 2.0, eGovernment, mobile communications and healthcare.

The official Partner Country for CeBIT 2008 is France. The opening keynote addresses will be given by Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and BITKOM president Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer.

Further contents about CeBIT: CeBIT visitors can “activate” complimentary tickets by cellphone • New technologies for doctors at TeleHealth 2008 • Medicine launches into cyberspace • Web 2.0 and Social Networks move into the business community • The Future of Mobile Broadband Communications • Women to enjoy free admission to CeBIT on International Women’s Day • Large-format flat-screen TVs more popular than ever before •

CeBIT 2008

Deutsche Messe relaunches CeBIT website

Deutsche Messe has just launched a revamped version of the website devoted to the world’s biggest ICT exhibition, CeBIT. The website is now more tightly structured and will be continually expanded in the weeks to come. By opening day of the upcoming CeBIT show in March 2008, the website will have developed into an indispensable navigation tool for visitors to the show.

The smooth changeover to the relaunched format has expedited the introduction of additional new enhancements: within a few weeks, the website will feature country-specific offerings targeted directly at international visitors. Web surfers from France for example will be able to read comprehensive information on France’s Partner Country presentation at CeBIT 2008 upon opening their own national CeBIT homepage.

And upon loading the Chinese version of the CeBIT website, visitors from China will be treated to important information on entry requirements for visiting Germany. The technology behind the website automatically detects the location from which the visitor has accessed CeBIT.com, and reacts by activating the country-specific offerings.

Several weeks before the opening of CeBIT there will also be a vastly improved exhibitor and product search facility, allowing visitors to use the online “Fair Planner” to plan their individual CeBIT tours right down to the last detail.

During the event, the new CeBIT website will also serve as a highly useful program planner containing up-to-the-minute information on anything and everything to do with the show.

CeBIT launches its own IT weblog

Four weeks before the world’s largest ICT show opens its doors to the public, CeBIT has launched its own weblog (“blog”). At www.01blog.de well-known online authors will discuss the burning issues affecting the IT industry. Four out of five of the most heavily interlinked English-language blogs deal with IT topics and aspects of everyday technology. In the German-speaking “blogosphere” the situation is very different, however: not one of the ten most popular sites centres on modern technology. The goal of 01blog is to popularize IT-related issues among a German-speaking audience.

In essence a blog is an easy-to-use online journal. Several million blogs now exist worldwide and cover a vast thematic spectrum. This new medium is becoming increasingly popular in Germany. The readers have the opportunity to send their comments directly to the authors. Blogs have the tendency to quote from each other. This results in a high degree of interlinking.

01blog will bring together several prize-winning authors. Johnny Haeusler (Spreeblick.com) will submit regular contributions. The line-up will also include Kathrin Passig and Sascha Lobo (Riesenmaschine.de), as well as Mario Sixtus (Handelsblatt). All of the above are winners of the prestigious Grimme Online Award. The team will be augmented by Felix Schwenzel (who specializes in mobile communication, web, hardware), Julia Soergel (art, robotics, future developments) and Leo Becker (gadgets, software, entertainment). 

 Source: Deutsche Messe (Nov '07 + Jan '08)

TOP - Cover -

France, the Partner Country in 2008

CeBIT expects French record participation

CeBIT, the world’s biggest ICT show, expects a record participation by France, the official Partner Country in 2008. “We are working on the assumption that France will mount an even more extensive presentation in the coming year,” emphasized Ernst Raue, Board Member of Deutsche Messe AG, speaking in Paris last Friday. France is a dynamic force in the European ICT market. This applies to all the business sectors featured at CeBIT.

France’s contribution to CeBIT 2008 will be one of the highlights in the partnership between the two ICT associations BITKOM and Syntec Informatique (106 French companies exhibited at CeBIT 2007).

Ulrich Dietz, who sits on the BITKOM Executive Committee, announced that France will be the German ICT industry’s official “Partner Country” in 2008. “This will bring two of Europe’s high-tech markets even closer together,” he said.

An outstanding feature of the Partner Country program will be the German-French ICT Summit at CeBIT. Dietz: “Among other things this summit will promote a dialogue between business and politics about Europe’s high-tech strategy.” BITKOM and Syntec Informatique expect to welcome high-ranking politicians from the two countries.

The new CeBIT

CeBIT 2008 will be based on a revised concept. “We have reinvented the show in the 22nd year of its existence,” Raue explained. “The new CeBIT will have a clearer structure, a higher profile and an enhanced thematic content. This new structure has been designed from a visitor’s viewpoint.” Even more so than in the past, visitors are interested in finding answers to complex ICT questions. “The three-pillar structure comprising Business Solutions, Public Sector Solutions and Home & Mobile Solutions will fulfil this requirement,” Raue explained.

In addition, CeBIT has become more efficient as it is no longer divided by a weekend. Next year, CeBIT will take place from Tuesday to Sunday (4 to 9 March 2008). The show will cover an extended range of topics and will be augmented by an extensive supporting program. Boasting more than 1,200 forums and congresses, this program will reinforce CeBIT’s unique role as a source of new ideas and as a platform for knowledge transfer. This manifests itself in the fact that CeBIT will be the venue for the world’s largest international forum on “Green IT”.

“The IT industry is at a watershed with regard to climate protection,” Raue said. CeBIT will highlight this issue at the “Green IT Village”, which will also include an extensive congress program. Published to coincide with CeBIT 2008, the “Green IT Guide” will look at the central questions confronting the IT industry in relation to the climate debate. As Raue pointed out, this is the “first-ever reference work on the subject of Green IT”.

Compared with other EU member states, France’s ICT market is growing at a fast rate. BITKOM forecasts 3.4 percent growth for 2008. France ranks as Europe’s third largest ICT market. Private demand is a major factor in market growth. Nearly 60 percent of French households already own a PC, while one household in two has broadband Internet. WLAN technology and Internet telephony will bolster growth in the coming years. Software and IT services are fuelling expansion in the B2B sector. •