CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of current trends and a measure of the state of the art in information technology. It was organized by Deutsche Messe AG. With an exhibition area of roughly 450,000 m² and a peak attendance of 850,000 visitors during the dot-com boom, it was larger both in area and attendance than its Asian counterpart COMPUTEX and its no-longer held American equivalent COMDEX. CeBIT is a German languageacronym for Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation, which translates as "Center for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunication". The final CeBIT took place from June 11 to 15, 2018.
History
CeBIT was traditionally the computing part of the Hanover Fair, a big industry trade show held every year. It was established in 1970, with the opening of the Hanover fairground's new Hall 1, then the largest exhibition hall in the world. However, in the 1980s the information technology and telecommunications part was straining the resources of the trade fair so much that it was given a separate trade show starting in 1986, which was held four weeks earlier than the main Hanover Fair. The number of visitors for the new exhibition increased to 830,000 in 2001, but by 2007 the CeBIT expo attendance had shrunk to around 200,000, then attendance rebounded to 334,000 by 2010. The 2008 expo was marred by police raids of 51 exhibitors for patent infringement. In 2009, the U.S. state of California became official Partner State of Germany's IT and telecommunications industry association, BITKOM, and of CeBIT 2009. focusing on environmentally-friendly technologies. On November 28, 2018, Deutsche Messe AG that due to declining visitor and exhibitioner attendance, CeBIT would be canceled for the foreseeable future. This makes CeBIT 2018 the final event.
Other CeBIT-branded shows
As CeBIT continued to grow quickly and was becoming too big on its own, it was decided to concentrate on the professional market, while the home and entertainment market was given a separate show, CeBIT Home, during summer, planned to be biennial. However, after being held twice, the 2000 CeBIT Home was cancelled and the project was abandoned. Since 1999 the CeBIT sponsor Deutsche Messe AG has organized trade shows outside of Germany bearing the CeBIT name:
Running over a five-day period in Hanover, Germany, the CeBIT Global Conferences are staged congruently with the CeBIT exhibition. The conferences are dedicated to providing a 360° overview of the digital industry's four core markets: IT, Telecommunications, Digital Media and Consumer Electronics. Noted industry figures and researchers from across the globe are invited to speak on the latest relevant trends and innovations as well as their impact on society and the working world. The conference is divided up into keynote speeches, talks and panel discussions. The CGC conferences are produced by Deutsche Messe AG, with the German BITKOM association acting as the CGC patron since 2009. In 2014, the CGC were staged with 140 speakers on three stages with a program of 70 conference hours and 3000 participants. Target groups of the conference are CXOs, managers, experts, visionaries and out-of-the-box thinkers, Conference languages are English and German. Recent conferences have featured the following keynote themes:
2008: "Improving Life in the Global Village". This installment of CGC attracted 1900 visitors and 43 speakers attending the keynotes and discussion sessions.
2009: "How Will We Be Working, Living and Communicating in the Coming Years?" This CGC drew 3,133 visitors from 88 nations, with some 2,200 guests following the conference via live streaming.
2010: "The Challenges of a Changing World - ICT for Better Lives and Better Business", attracting some 4,000 guests from more than 100 nations. Just under 4,000 guests also visited the conference via live streaming.
The motto of the CeBIT Global Conferences for 2011 was "The Power of Creativity and Innovation".
CeBIT was a platform for recognising achievement by ICT businesses, particularly in Australia. The awards include the Excellence in Communications Award, the Advanced Retail Technology Award, the Innovative IT Security Award, and the Early Innovators Award. Notable past winners include Motorola, McAfee and eWAY.
