All change at CeBIT

CeBIT is changing. The IT trade show first opened its doors in Hanover, northern Germany, 21 years ago, and will do so again between 15 and 21 March 2007. But 2008 will be different, as the event undertakes a "180° shift in focus", in line with changing market dynamics, says Sven Prüser, CeBIT's senior vice president.

So what's going on and why is such a change deemed necessary? Clive Longbottom, a service director at Quocirca, believes that shows such as CeBIT have to reinvent themselves or die. "If you look at the late 1980s, it was the boom time for shows. They were massive because technologists went and they had budgets. IT directors would go from stand to stand and would be prepared to spend a lot of money," he says.

By the late 1990s, however, the demographic had changed to "tyre-kickers" who were attending "to see what was sexy, but had little influence let alone buying capability". This led to the demise of large-scale generic events such as Comdex, which was held annually in Las Vegas, "because it was just geeks in the end and the vendors were saying 'we've been charged x amount of money for a stand and we've got no leads and no return on investment'," says Longbottom.

As a result, most big shows in the US are now oriented to specific vertical markets such as retail or technologies such as CRM, because they are more focused and generally more cost-effective.

Although Longbottom acknowledges that CeBIT is still probably the largest IT trade show in the world, he also points to the fact that visitor numbers have halved from a peak of 850,000 in 2001 to about 424,000 in 2006. Moreover, big names such as Lenovo, Motorola and Nokia have all hit the headlines over recent months saying that they will not be paying for exhibition stands this year.

Lenovo says of its decision not to attend the show: "Lenovo does not have a booth at CeBIT 2007. The company focuses in Germany on marketing activities that show a direct return-on-investment like road shows or partner-recruiting events."

But Prüser is sanguine. "If organisations have nothing to show, then it's probably better not to appear. But Motorola and Nokia are. They'll have a lot of people at the exhibition and will be co-exhibitors with Vodafone. So they'll occupy some of the space that Vodafone rents, which is a cost-saving and a very efficient thing to do," he says.

As for visitor numbers, while Prüser acknowledges that they have fallen since 2001 when "the industry was dominated by the dot-com economy and was having a champagne party", he also says that they have now stabilised.

He also believes that the quality of attendee has improved since those heady days. Six years ago, "a lot of visitors came just to be informed about the market, which was good for us, but bad for the exhibitors as they were mainly just talking", but that has now changed.

"The number of people wanting to do business on the spot has now increased tremendously. About 85 percent of visitors are business or IT decision-makers and there are, of course, also retailers, dealers and distributors, which want to keep in touch with new technical developments and talk to suppliers to help them plan for the year ahead," Prüser says.

Moreover, he adds, CeBIT "is still the most international show in the world", with foreign visitors remaining fairly consistent at about one quarter of the total or 104,000 in 2006.

The statistics come from a sample survey that is undertaken among about 5,000 attendees each year. The figures are independently audited and approved by Ernst & Young before being provided to exhibitors.

But Prüser also accepts that shows such as CeBIT need to change in line with...

...the fast-moving industry to which they cater. This means that, following "intense discussions" with exhibitors and the show's professional visitor group, the organisers have decided to change its focus in 2008.

"The industry used to be oriented towards technology itself, so five years ago, perhaps, a key topic might be Intel launching its new processor generation. But that's not the main focus now. The main topic is the use of that technology so we decided that the emphasis of the show had to be changed to reflect that and to reflect the requirements of those using it," explains Prüser.

As of next year, the show will be divided up into areas that mirror its three key types of attendees — one group of halls will be aimed at the professional user, another at the public sector and the third at retailers and distributors, which will be called Digital Lifestyle.

"The idea is to design the floor plan in such a way that buyers can find things easily. Basically, the same companies will be exhibiting, but they'll not be showing products so much as solutions. So, for example, Intel wouldn't present its processors, but in co-operation with the gaming industry, it would showcase how its products are being used," Prüser says.

There will also be an increase in business-oriented presentations by vendors on key topics such as telematics to help visitors understand how the technology can benefit them. User organisations will likewise be asked to talk about their own experiences of implementing certain technologies and to provide best practice advice to peers based on this.

In addition, a wide range of "match-making" services will also be introduced. Such services were first offered five years ago to facilitate talks between small to medium-sized companies in Latin America and the EU in order to help them find potential partners.

While the concept has since been broadened out into new areas, such as matching university research and development departments with possible commercial backers, the aim is to expand this still further.

As Prüser concludes: "Everyone benefits. Visitors have more useful appointments, exhibitors generate more profit and journalists get more information. And if everyone is satisfied, we, the organisers, are too."