On the way to CEBIT |

CEBIT has been struggling for years against declining interest and declining visitor numbers. At the turn of the millennium, nearly 850,000 visitors visited the Hannover Fairgrounds, but last year there were not even 120,000 – and many of them even attended the evenings. exhibition because of his program. The technological evolution of recent years has shown that a horizontal fair, such as the CEBIT in the digital economy, is increasingly faced with a decline in demand, admitted the representatives of the fair company. Digitization is now the dominant topic in almost every trade show. "This influences the policies of the companies that are among the main clbadic exhibitors of CEBIT," he said. "They are increasingly using user shows as an introductory business platform."

Last year, the new concept had already generated strong criticism. We welcome the thoughts and efforts of the organizers to renew CeBIT, "said Alexander Stühl, sales and marketing director at Aagon in Soest. "However, the commercial aspect of this always-ahead technology fair is sorely missed." Mr. Stühl emphasized the few professional visitors and the clearly reduced interest of the visitors. IT company.

Although the advisory committee of exhibitors tried to spread the confidence and claimed to want to stick to the new CEBIT. "The show is a great success," said Heiko Mayer, chairman of the board of directors of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Germany and chairman of the CEBIT exhibitions committee at the end of the CEBIT 2018 congress. The combination of business and festival is doing well. On the exhibitors' side, you are behind the new concept. "The reorientation of Cebit is a decisive and important step in the right direction," Bitkom CEO Bernhard Rohleder said in an official statement from the lobbyist badociation. 32 years after its founding, the former computer fair had become a digital festival. "It's unique in Europe, it's a real first and such a success," Rohleder said. "The restart was a success and Bitkom is definitely back in 2019."

It will not come there anymore. With the decision to cancel the CEBIT, which was to take place from June 24 to 28, 2019 in Hanover, the organizers of the fair pulled the rescue rope earlier than planned. The new concept, based on the triad trade fair, conference and festival in 2018 and one event in summer, could not stop the downward trend in the number of visitors. Given that the negative trend in area bookings could not be stopped, the CEBIT will not be aligned in the future, according to the organizers. The "Hannoversche Allgemeine" has indicated that up to now, only about 6000 square meters could be rented for next year. At the same time last year, reservations were three times larger.

"L & # 39; German economy has repeatedly mentioned the thematic overlap between Hannover Messe and CEBIT in recent years, "said Jochen Köckler, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG." We will therefore transfer the topics that correspond to the contents of the Hannover Messe in terms of content. "

Oliver Frese, CEO of Messe Hamburg, asked the Chair of the Supervisory Board to remove him from office at the end of the year. "We take note of the decision of Mr Frese with regret and respect", the board of directors of Deutsche Messe AG accepted the request. It was very unfortunate to lose an equally experienced organizer and show board. "Frese has served the Deutsche Messe portfolio of events for many years, most recently as a member of the CEBIT Executive Board," said the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Lower Saxony Minister of Economic Affairs, Bernd Althusmann.

The end of CEBIT puts an end to much of the German computer history. As an office center and In the newly built hall 1, Cebit 1970 was part of the Hanover Fair, where information technology was launched. In subsequent years, interest grew and space capabilities were no longer sufficient. In addition, additional rooms do not solve space problems. For example, the Cebit first took place on 12 March 1986 as an independent trade fair – with over 2,100 exhibitors and 334,000 visitors – and after 32 years CEBIT's chapter and computer science ended in 2018, after which digitization returned to the forefront of the Hannover Fair.