History of Europe

CeBIT:The showcase of bits &bytes

by Axel Franz, NDR.deFeinste Bürotechnik:Equipped with a laptop, mobile phone, modem and printer, this mini office is at CeBIT 1990.

Decline in visitors and exhibitors? When Deutsche Messe AG invited people to the first independent CeBIT in Hanover in 1986, such terms were foreign words. Electronics have been making their way into administration since the 1960s, and interest in modern office technology is growing rapidly. Office machines have therefore long been represented at the traditional Hannover Messe industrial show.

The trade fair even offers suppliers from this branch their own area under the keyword "office industry", but there is a lack of exhibition space. In 1970 a new quarter was created for this sector:the largest ground-level exhibition hall in the world with more than 70,000 square meters on three floors.

CeBIT =Center for Office and Information Technology

With the huge hall, the "office industry" also gets a new name:Center for Office and Information Technology, or CeBIT for short. How lucky the term was chosen is evident to this day, as many visitors associate it with the bit, the smallest amount of data in computer language. In fact, the Hanover Fair is increasingly about bits and bytes. Data processing is gaining a foothold in almost all areas of industry and ensures that providers from this sector are booking larger and larger spaces. Soon the trade fair organizers can no longer accommodate all interested parties:the flood of computer and software companies is beyond the scope. In 1980, information and communication technology became the second largest trade fair segment after electrical engineering. In 1985, hundreds of IT companies had to be content with a place on the waiting list.

The fair divides

But the organizers are finding it difficult to devote a separate fair to this area. After months of talks with exhibitors' associations and industry representatives, the decision is made:From 1986 there will be a separate Hanover CeBIT trade fair in March, four weeks before the industrial trade fair. However, the step remains controversial:the greater space available is countered by the fear that a trade fair without an industrial environment could be less attractive. Nevertheless, on March 12, 1986, the first independent CeBIT opened on 200,000 square meters with 2,142 exhibitors. Of these, 190 companies come from the new telecommunications sector. In the years to come, it will become a booming sector and the core segment of CeBIT. The organizers are satisfied with a total of 334,400 visitors during the eight days of the 1986 trade fair.

In the years that followed, the young trade fair grew steadily and quickly became one of the fixed dates in the calendars of all industry giants. CeBIT 1995 went down in history as a mega trade fair:more than 6,100 exhibitors and 755,000 visitors crowded the exhibition grounds, which had long since been fully used. Computers are now standard not only in business, there are also more and more private users.

CeBIT Home flops

The huge public interest is increasingly becoming a problem for the fair:mobile phones and PCs attract many young people who overcrowd CeBIT as onlookers and souvenir hunters. They stand in the way of the concept of a trade fair. The organizers react with significantly higher admission prices and cancel one day of the fair. In addition, they launched CeBIT Home in 1996:a trade fair specifically for consumers in the electronics industry. However, the plan does not work out, the fair does not find the expected accusation and is already abandoned in the year 2000.

From boom to crisis

CeBIT itself continues to boom. At the peak of the Internet euphoria, countless mini-companies in the IT sector are formed and rush to the stock exchange and trade fairs. At the turn of the millennium, more than 7,800 exhibitors and 750,000 visitors came to Hanover. Then the Internet bubble bursts and the industry falls into crisis. In 2001, the fair, which has been organized for a long time, can still shine with good figures, but the mood is subdued. A year later, this is also reflected in meager deals.

Visitor number drops to initial level

After many years of constant growth, CeBIT is now fighting against shrinking visitor numbers.

Since then, CeBIT has been fighting against shrinking exhibitor and visitor numbers. Several large, popular companies are no longer coming to Hanover, while others are reducing the size of their exhibition stands. In 2004, Messe AG counted almost 500,000 guests and in 2010, as a result of the global economic crisis, only 4,157 exhibitors and 334,000 visitors - fewer than in the premiere year 1986. The products of the IT industry themselves also call the fair into question:ever faster data connections at reasonable prices , video conferences and the global presentation and advertising medium of the Internet. Are large trade fairs on rigid dates still relevant?

More conferences are part of the new concept

The trade fair management is constantly adapting its concept to current developments and is thus trying to reverse the trend. In order to reduce costs, CeBIT 2010 will be shortened to just five days. There are also more congresses and corporate events. In addition to information about new products, discussions and conferences are increasingly taking center stage. This is how CeBIT 2011 is advertising the 25th anniversary of the "CeBIT Global Conferences". In addition, for the first time the trade fair is not structured according to subject areas, but according to target groups. End users are also welcome again. The balance is still modest:After the five days of the fair, the organizers registered a small increase of 5,000 visitors compared to the minus record of 2010.

Fewer visitors again

However, the skeptics appear to be right. In 2012 the number of visitors dropped again significantly - to just 312,000. Messe AG justifies this with a one-day strike in Hanover's local public transport system. In terms of content, the focus is on "trust and security in the digital world". Consumers are lured to the exhibition center with an entertainment area consisting of music and games as well as many smartphone accessories.

Less bulk, more class?

Windows 8 is here. No longer brand new, but Microsoft's "Surface Pro" tablet computer celebrated its German premiere.

Even a year later, the CeBIT lacks the major technical innovations. The central theme of the 2013 fair is the made-up word "shareconomy" - share and benefit. CeBIT also has to share, namely the interested parties with other trade fairs and the Internet. Since the number of visitors fell again by twelve percent to around 280,000, the trade fair management consoled itself with the fact that the quality had improved. "Class instead of mass" is the new motto.

Red card for amateurs

In 2014, the trade fair organizers decided on a radical cut. You are officially counting on trade visitors. The interested laypersons who were once courted are no longer welcome. A day ticket now costs 60 euros, 20 more than a year ago. At the end of the five days of the fair, around 210,000 visitors were interested in the subject of "datability", an artificial word that stands for the safe and sustainable handling of large amounts of data. The number of exhibitors remains almost constant at 3,400.

"d!conomy" becomes a success

A new year, a new made-up word:"d!conomy" is the CeBIT motto for 2015. It is intended to show how strongly the economy and society are being permeated by innovations in information technology. The current partner country China alone sends around 600 exhibitors and thus one in five to the exhibition center.

The concept and the name seem to have caught on, because in 2016 it will stay with "d!conomy" - with the addition "join-create-succeed". CeBIT no longer wants to be a pure computer or IT trade fair. The organizers see it as a platform for the digitization of the economy and society. An extensive congress program supplements the presentations at the exhibition stands. There are hardly any major new themes in 2016. It is again about focal points such as cloud services, smartphone apps, 3D printers and IT security. The partner country changes from big to small:Switzerland instead of China. The visitor and exhibitor numbers are stabilizing and are again in the range of around 200,000 interested parties with around 3,300 suppliers.

2018:decline to the end

However, the breakthrough does not succeed. In 2018, CeBIT will be competing for visitors with a completely new concept. More events, more concerts, more conferences, party and fun. More young people are to be lured to Hanover - the decision-makers of tomorrow. But the response remains moderate, only 120,000 people come to the exhibition center - despite cheap evening tickets. Then in November 2018 CeBIT came to an end. The organizers announced that there will be no more computer fairs in 2019. "Industry-related digital topics" should be accommodated at the Hannover Messe.

Agricultural fair is ahead

The exhibition with the most visitors in Hanover is now the Agritechnica, the world's largest show of machines for agriculture. It takes place every two years and attracted around 450,000 visitors to the exhibition center in 2015, almost a quarter of them from abroad.