The biggest annual trade show called CeBIT, a German fair meant to bring out all the new IT related stuff on the market, has just closed its gates for this year.
The 20th edition of CeBIT ended yesterday after a week of presentations and events. It was indeed meant to be a success but still figures and statistics point out that CeBIT is losing more and more visitors each year.
Organizers blame it on the bad weather. Could this be the real reason or competition is causing it? There is another trade show taking place in Berlin, Germany called IFA, the world’s biggest consumer electronics fair. If in the beginning this event was organized once every two or three years starting last year it became an annual show. The number of visitors keeps rising as the entrance fee is a lot cheaper than at CeBIT. Even if IFA is still considered a baby trade show and CeBIT organizers do not think of it as competition, the event keeps growing as number of visitors and contractors and seems to be gaining more and more media attention.
The number of exhibitors at CeBIT was the same this year as it was at the previous edition but the question regarding its success keeps popping out. Personally I would go even further asking whether these kind of exhibitions are still as popular as they used to be in the beginning.
Taking into consideration the fact that companies kind of stop waiting for big events like this to make their latest products known, the future does not look as bright now as it used to.
On the other hand, this year, Microsoft did manage to create a buzz regarding the Origami project getting all the media focused on CeBIT. The interest the organizers showed on RFID technology also got a lot of positive feedback.
In the end, one show reached to the end this year, others are about to open up their gates and technology keeps bringing new stuff on the market, with or without the existence of a fair.