CeBIT Dead
After 33 years of annual IT exhibition in Hannover, Germany
This is a Press Release edited by StorageNewsletter.com on December 10, 2018 at 2:31 pmDeutsche Messe AG announced in Hannover, Germany, that it is streamlining its event portfolio: it will integrate CeBIT‘s industry-related topics into Hannover Messe while also developing additional CEBIT topics into specialist events for decision-makers from vertical industries.
The realignment is due to reduced space bookings for CeBIT 2019.
Technological developments within the digital economy have reduced demand for horizontal trade shows such as CeBIT in recent years. Digitalization’s innovative impact is particularly evident in the industrial application industries. As such, many of CeBIT’s traditional core exhibitors have turned to events targeting these industries to generate new business.
“In recent years, many discussions within the German industry have involved the thematic overlap between Hannover Messe and CeBIT. It is now time to integrate the topics from CeBIT that are relevant for manufacturing, energy and logistics into Hannover Messe ,” said Dr. Jochen Köckler, CEO, Deutsche Messe. “We are currently examining the digital market to determine which remaining CeBIT topics we will develop into new events.”
Deutsche Messe will cancel CeBIT 2019 because of declining visitor numbers and a continuing reduction in space bookings. The latest CeBIT concept consisted of an exhibition, conference and festival.
On 27 November, Oliver Frese, Deutsche Messe’s member of the managing board responsible for CEBIT, requested that the executive committee of Deutsche Messe’s supervisory board release him of his duties effective 31 December 2018. The committee agreed to his request.
“We accept Mr. Frese’s decision with regret und respect. It is difficult to lose such an experienced tradeshow manager and board member. Frese has served Deutsche Messe for many years, most recently as the member of the managing board responsible for CeBIT,” said Bernd Althusmann, Economic Minister of Lower Saxony and chairman of the Supervisory Board. “Especially with the new CeBIT concept, Frese showed courage, innovation and pioneering spirit. The further decline in demand for CeBIT is all the more regrettable, but at the same time, it shows that the CeBIT idea affected the entire economy. The topics it represented, such as digitization and artificial intelligence, are now seen as overarching tasks – which is also a success for CeBIT.”
Deutsche Messe does not expect direct effects from the streamlining, having already adjusted CeBIT’s role in and economic contribution to the events portfolio in recent years.
“Thanks to many other strong events and strong growth in our international business, Deutsche Messe remains in a secure and solid position as a company,” said Köckler.
Deutsche Messe will continue to use the CeBIT brand at events abroad.
With 1,200 employees and a network of 58 sales partners, Deutsche Messe is present in 100 countries.
Comments
CeBIT, a German language acronym for Centrum für Büroautomation, Hannover, Germany, will definitively be stopped after 33 years.
Next one IT exhibition in Hannover was supposed to be in June 24-28, 2019 but will be integrated into Hannover Messe. Final one took place from June 11 to 15, 2018.
In November 1984 organizer Deutsche Messe AG announced that, with effect from 1986, the Hannover Fair CeBIT would take place as a separate event in March, followed one month later by the Hannover Fair Industry. It became the world's leading showplace for information technology, telecommunications and office automation.
At first CeBiT, 2,142 exhibitors presented their products, systems and services on a net display area of 200,000 square meters attracting 334,400 visitors.
A few months after the end of CeBIT '95 Deutsche Messe AG announced the creation of a new show, CeBIT HOME , the World of Home and Consumer Electronics, targeted at distributors, SOHO (small office, home office) customers and private users of PCs, multimedia and the Internet, but was far to be a success and finally cancelled.
CeBIT rapidly developed into the largest and most important IT event of the year, reaching a peak of 849,252 attendees and 8,093 exhibitors in 2001 but then continuously declines. Al the big IT companies were there but then it was more a place for small Asian firms to find European ditributors. Last year, the lowest figure was registered, 120,000 visitors. It was projected to be 220,000 next June, but this figure was very optimistic.
According to source, Deutsche Messe, the event's owners, was looking at a €5 million loss for the 2019 edition of CeBIT.
StorageNewsletter went to visit CeBIT for several years as there was many storage booths, especially an US pavilion with a lot of storage products. 237 storage booths was a record in 1999. But we stopped to attend when the yearly catalog weighing tradition showed a drastic decrease, 313 grams. It was 3,210 grams in 2002, ten times more.
It's a drama for the 535,000 people of the city of Hannover. There are very few hotels in the city and visitors were renting private rooms, being a bonus for the population.
There is a reduced demand for horizontal trade shows like CeBIT. Remember the death of Sicob and Comdex. NAB and CES, more vertically oriented, get good results. All the attempts to organize shows on storage finally were a failure, but one is continuing in California with a pretty good success: Flash Memory Summit.
| Year | Visitors | Y/Y growth | Exhibitors | Y/Y growth |
| 1986 | 334,400 | NA | 2,142 | NA |
| 1987 | 406,474 | 22% | NA | NA |
| 1988 | 485,000 | 19% | 2,731 | NA |
| 1989 | 500,000 | 3% | 3,214 | 18% |
| 1990 | 561,000 | 12% | 4,012 | 25% |
| 1991 | 570,000 | 2% | 4,612 | 15% |
| 1992 | 648,900 | 14% | 5,317 | 15% |
| 1993 | 661,000 | 2% | 5,752 | 8% |
| 1994 | 682,000 | 3% | 5,850 | 2% |
| 1995 | 755,000 | 11% | 6,111 | 4% |
| 1996 | 607,000 | -20% | 6,507 | 6% |
| 1997 | 606,000 | 0% | 6,909 | 6% |
| 1998 | 679,000 | 12% | 7,239 | 5% |
| 1999 | 698,000 | 3% | 7,412 | 2% |
| 2000 | 782,000 | 12% | 7,892 | 6% |
| 2001 | 849,252 | 9% | 8,093 | 3% |
| 2002 | 700,000 | -18% | 7,962 | -2% |
| 2003 | 560,000 | -20% | 6,602 | -17% |
| 2004 | 510,000 | -9% | 6,411 | -3% |
| 2005 | 480,100 | -6% | 6,115 | -5% |
| 2006 | 450,000 | -6% | 6,262 | 2% |
| 2007 | 479,700 | 7% | 6,153 | -2% |
| 2008 | 495,000 | 3% | 5,845 | -5% |
| 2009 | 400,000 | -19% | 4,300 | -26% |
| 2010 | 334,000 | -17% | 4,157 | -3% |
| 2011 | 339,000 | 1% | 5,100 | 23% |
| 2012 | 312,000 | -8% | 4,200 | -18% |
| 2013 | 285,000 | -9% | 4,000 | -5% |
| 2014 | 210,000 | -26% | 4,100 | 2% |
| 2015 | 221,000 | 5% | 3,300 | -20% |
| 2016 | 200,000 | -10% | 3,300 | 0% |
| 2017 | 200,000 | 0% | 3,007 | -9% |
| 2018 | 120,000 | -40% | 2,800 | -7% |
| 2019 | 220,000* | 83% | NA | NA |
*expected
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