CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative

computer expo A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...

. The trade fair was held each year on the

Hanover fairground The Hanover Fairground (in German: ''Messegelände Hannover'') is an exhibition area in the ''Mittelfeld'' district of Hanover, Germany. Featuring 392,453 m² (4.2 million sq.ft.) of covered indoor space, 58,000 m² (624,306 sq ft) of open-air s ...

, the world's largest fairground, in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of current trends and a measure of the state of the art in

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...

. It was organized by

Deutsche Messe AG Deutsche Messe AG (german: German Trade Fair Limited, links=no) is the operating company for the Hanover Fairground, based in the city of Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German s ...

. With an exhibition area of roughly and a peak attendance of 850,000 visitors during the

dot-com boom The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...

, it was larger both in area and attendance than its Asian counterpart

COMPUTEX COMPUTEX Taipei, or Taipei International Information Technology Show (), is a computer expo held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. Since the early 2000s, it is one of the largest computer and technology trade shows in the world. The last COMPUTEX wa ...

and its no-longer held American equivalent

COMDEX COMDEX (an abbreviation of COMputer Dealers' EXhibition) was a computer expo trade show held in the Las Vegas Valley of Nevada, United States, each November from 1979 to 2003. It was one of the largest computer trade shows in the world, usually ...

. CeBIT is a German language

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

for ''Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation'', which translates as "Center for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunication". The final CeBIT took place from 11 to 15 June 2018.

History

CeBIT was traditionally the computing part of the Hanover Fair, a big industry

trade show A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and cu ...

held every year. It was established in 1970, with the opening of the

'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 raid A police raid is an unexpected visit by police or other law-enforcement officers with the aim of using the element of surprise in order to seize evidence or arrest suspects believed to be likely to hide evidence, resist arrest, be politicall ...

s of 51 exhibitors for

patent infringement Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may v ...

. 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. From 2007 till 2013, the fair acted as the World Championship (Grand Final) of

Intel Extreme Masters The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) is a series of international esports tournaments held in countries around the world. These Electronic Sports League (ESL) sanctioned events, sponsored by Intel, currently host events in '' Counter-Strike: Global ...

. The championship was reallocated to Katowice since 2014. On 28 November 2018, Deutsche Messe AG announced 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 (in 1996 and 1998), the 2000 CeBIT Home (had originally been scheduled to be held in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

due to the

Expo 2000 Expo 2000 was a World Expo held in Hanover, Germany from 1 June to 31 October 2000. It was located on the Hanover Fairground (Messegelände Hannover), which is the largest exhibition ground in the world. Initially some 40 million people were expe ...

being held in Hanover) was cancelled and the project was abandoned. Since 1999 the CeBIT sponsor

("German Trade Show, Inc.") has organized trade shows outside of Germany bearing the CeBIT name:
Internet +, powered by CeBIT
(formerly CeBIT Asia), in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, China
CeBIT Australia
in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

*CeBIT Eurasia Bilişim, in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey *CeBIT America/USA in New York City, United States. It was held in 2003 and 2004, but subsequently cancelled in 2005. *CeBIT India, in

Bangalore Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

*BITS Mexico, powered by CeBIT, in

México City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

.
CeBIT ASEAN Thailand
in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

CeBIT Global Conferences

Running over a five-day period in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, the CeBIT Global Conferences (CGC) 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 A keynote in public speaking is a talk that establishes a main underlying theme. In corporate or commercial settings, greater importance is attached to the delivery of a keynote speech or keynote address. The keynote establishes the framework fo ...

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 Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

, 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".

Speaker list 2014

Steve Wozniak Stephen Gary Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950), also known by his nickname "Woz", is an American electronics engineer, computer programmer, philanthropist, inventor, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976, with business partner Steve Jobs, he c ...

, co-founder

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...

Jimmy Wales Jimmy Donal Wales (born August 7, 1966), also known on Wikipedia by the pseudonym Jimbo, is an American-British Internet entrepreneur, webmaster, and former financial trader. He is a co-founder of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedi ...

, founder

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...

Eugene Kaspersky Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky (Russian: Евгений Валентинович Касперский; born 4 October 1965) is a Russian cybersecurity expert and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab, an IT security company with 4,000 employees. He co-found ...

, CEO and Chairman,

Kaspersky Lab Kaspersky Lab (; Russian: Лаборатория Касперского, tr. ''Laboratoriya Kasperskogo'') is a Russian multinational cybersecurity and anti-virus provider headquartered in Moscow, Russia, and operated by a holding company in th ...

Mark Shuttleworth Mark Richard Shuttleworth (born 18 September 1973) is a South African and British entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of Canonical, the company behind the development of the Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. In 2002, Shuttleworth became ...

, founder,

Canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...

Neelie Kroes Neelie Kroes (; born 19 July 1941) is a retired Dutch politician of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and businessperson who served as European Commissioner from 22 November 2004 to 1 November 2014. Kroes studied Economics at t ...

, Vice President,

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

*Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Chairman and co-founder,

Open Data Institute The Open Data Institute (ODI) is a non-profit private company limited by guarantee, based in the United Kingdom. Founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt in 2012, the ODI’s mission is to connect, equip and inspire people around th ...

(ODI) *Dean Douglas, CEO Unify *Cristina Riesen, General Manager Europe,

Evernote Evernote is a note-taking and task management application. It is developed by the Evernote Corporation, headquartered in Redwood City, California. It is intended for archiving and creating notes in which photos, audio and saved web content can ...

Mikko Hyppönen Mikko Hermanni Hyppönen (; born 13 October 1969) is a Finnish computer security expert, speaker and author. He is known for the Hyppönen Law about IoT security, which states that whenever an appliance is described as being "smart", it is vulner ...

, Chief Research Officer,

F-Secure F-Secure Corporation is a global cyber security and privacy company, which has its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The company has offices in Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, ...

Over the past years, speakers at the CeBIT Global Conferences have included Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian and American actor, film producer, businessman, retired professional bodybuilder and politician who served as the 38th governor of California between 2003 and 2011. ''Time'' ...

, Governor of California; Kevin Turner, COO, Microsoft, Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board, Intel, Jon Iwata SVP Marketing & Communications, IBM,

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

, Chairman and CEO, LinkedIn; Mukund Krishna, CEO Suyati Inc; Scott Durchslag, COO, Skype; Dr.

Werner Vogels Werner Hans Peter Vogels (born 3 October 1958) is the chief technology officer and vice president of Amazon in charge of driving technology innovation within the company. Vogels has broad internal and external responsibilities. Early life and ...

, Vice President & CTO, Amazon,

Stewart Butterfield Daniel Stewart Butterfield (born Dharma Jeremy Butterfield; March 21, 1973) is a Canadian billionaire businessman, best known for co-founding the photo-sharing website Flickr and the team-messaging application Slack. Early life and education In ...

, Co-founder of Flickr.com, Michael T. Jones, Chief Technology Advocate, Google & Founder of Google Earth; Mark Kingdon, CEO, LindenLab.

CeBIT Awards

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 Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American global computer security software company head ...

and

eWAY Eway, E-Way, or any other variant, may refer to: * eWay, global electronic payment system * eway, an electronic street map application for Australia by ''Ausway'' * ''E-way'', abbreviation of expressway * ''e-way'', electronic toll-type toll roa ...

References

External links

*
The history of CeBIT

CeBIT Australia official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cebit Computer-related awards Computer-related trade shows Trade fairs in Germany Companies based in Hanover Recurring events established in 1970 1970 establishments in Germany Annual events in Germany Recurring events disestablished in 2018