
CEBIT Hanover to be cancelled - FabianBeiner
https://www.cebit.de/en/press/press-releases/deutsche-messe-restructures-event-portfo
======
kevingrahl
I’m a resident of Hanover and have been to every Cebit in the last ten years.

The fall was inevitable. You could feel that Cebit was struggling to attract
visitors and wasn’t sure what it’s identity was. I feel like they should have
focused more on the Global Conference Series where they always had very
interesting talks lined up but the entry fee for that (You had to buy a
separate ticket for that) was far to high imo.

It was customary to get some friends and stroll along the massive fair grounds
when it was still focused more towards consumers and we always had a great
time. I could split off to check out actual booths that interested me and most
even had competent people who actually knew their product and could talk about
it. I feel like that changed right around the time Cebit decided to only cater
towards businesses. Instead of knowledgeable people you now had to deal with
pretty ladies who knew nothing and PR folks who wouldn’t tell you anything
else than how great their product/service is. Before you could get answers to
technical questions that could not get answered by visiting their website and
have a discussion with people who actually worked on the product.

Last year was especially dull; nearly every booth I visited was just handing
out flyers with links to their websites. I tried to have some discussion to
get to know whatever they were promoting but it was near impossible. I had the
all-day event ticket but after the first day of scouting booths quickly
decided that it wasn’t worth my time and only attended three talks from the
Global Conferences after that. I was planning on only visiting the latter this
year and don’t waste my time on the actual fair. I’m not to sad to see it come
to an end but have kind memories of what it once was.

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detaro
End of an era, but not all that surprising in the end. For years they
experimented with different audiences, but didn't really find a profile that
was relevant anymore.

Finding out about new products or companies doesn't require a trade show
anymore. They went to focus on the business side anyways so no private
visitors anymore (until the turn-around attempt this year) and other places
took up that market. But the business market also has its own events now, both
smaller, more specialized ones and ones run by the large companies. Way fewer
small (or even large) companies where you can talk to people actually involved
with the product developments, which was something you could do in the
beginning. Again, no need to travel to CEBIT to talk to marketing.

It's fulfilled its purpose when it was needed, now it has been replaced.

~~~
ghaff
It's a pretty common pattern for a lot of big tradeshows that aren't
controlled by a single vendor to become about everything to the point that
they're about nothing at some point, especially as the motivations for
creating the show in the first place become less relevant.

Comdex, Linux World, and lots more I can't list off the top of my head. I'm a
bit surprised that CES has been able to hang in there but I guess the market
for electronic gadgets is so huge that there's still a place for it.

There are still huge vendor shows out there which seem to still make sense--
though tradeshows can be a bit of a racket for everyone involved--but I mostly
prefer smaller and less commercial venues.

I've been to a lot of the big shows though never CEBIT. Almost went at the
last minute to appear on a panel a few years ago but it was too logistically
challenging.

~~~
detaro
I think Cebit in a way started as "being about everything IT", but back then
that was fine, since the field was way smaller and everything overlapped more,
and the sub-sections wouldn't sustain their own events. (It started as a side-
event to Hannover Messe that at some point got large enough to stand on its
own)

Now "everything IT" is way to broad, and the discovery aspect has moved
online.

~~~
ghaff
I think that's right. At the time, Cebit was a pretty logical outgrowth of the
Hannover Fair at a time when IT was just the latest round of industrial
technology. Need a combine, need a mainframe, they're all there.

Comdex came more out of the PC revolution and was originally more oriented to
PC-related distribution and vendor networks but it suffered similar problems
over time.

------
WeAreGoingIn
For us oldschoolers, Cebit 1990 demoscene afterparty democompetetion winner,
Red Sector Inc. with the demo named “Cebit 90” [1]. Waz not there, but those
were the days...

[1]
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdldXaWdo](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdldXaWdo)

~~~
jgh
holy cow i thought the scrolling text would end at some point.....

~~~
stronglikedan
Technically, it does...after ~14.5 minutes.

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MandieD
Completely unsurprised, but still a bit sad. My husband insisted I go up to
CeBIT in 2011, when I was struggling to get interviews for IT jobs in Germany.
Apparently, the people at the DIS AG booth were impressed enough to recommend
me to their Nuremberg office, who put me out on a placement that was with the
company I’ve now been with for 7 years.

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gumby
Wow, really the end of an era. Sometimes shows fail due to the end of a
technology (steam engines?) and some due to its success (e.g. NCC, West Coast
Computer Faire, and now CeBIT).

I only attended once. It was by _far_ the largest show I'd attended, bigger
even than (by far) shows like CES or the Frankfurt Auto Messe. It was so big
that the daily fliers of stuff vendors needed to know were distributed by
_postmen /postwomen_. Yes every booth had its own postal address!

~~~
MekaiGS
Don't forget about Comdex! I have never been to any of these trade shows but
it was always cool to read about the new stuff that's coming out during
Comdex/CeBIT on Anandtech.

End of an era indeed!

~~~
rasz
You can always experience them in video form. Computer Chronicles covered few
Comdex shows
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evMilwVBHAQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evMilwVBHAQ)
Comdex Fall 1992

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5OmtYRRMOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5OmtYRRMOw)
Best of Comdex 1999

There is also 1983 one recorded by Dan Bricklin
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VNS8TE4XhU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VNS8TE4XhU)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrgwliaIYTQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrgwliaIYTQ)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnDRw8-caxU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnDRw8-caxU)

------
blattimwind
The Hannover Messe was typically more interesting, to me anyway, than the
Cebit ("was" as in "I wasn't there in a few years" not "It doesn't exist"). In
the Hannover Messe there was always all kinds of absolutely fascinating
industrial machinery and robotics, and many of those booths had at least one
actual engineer you could talk to.

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rock_hard
I have so many great memories of Cebit. My dad used to get tickets for me and
friends from work and we would go every year as teenagers to see cool tech
across the board (yes, of course we also checked out all the games related
stuff).

I am glad that a decade later I had my own booth there with my startup at the
time...it felt a major milestone!

Going to cebit was very formative and has lead to an amazing career in tech
that I will be forever grateful for!

I worry that younger generations in the region will lack that sort of
inspiration in the future.

I get it though, the world has changed. You can get better information on most
type of products online and talk to experts too...no need to travel to
Hannover once a year and be ripped off on booth fee’s and local businesses
(hotels, restaurants, bars, etc)

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aap_
I was there in 2009 and 2014 or so and I found it extremely boring. It was
meant only for business people, not the general public.

~~~
Tomte
Yes, they focussed on business later on. In the years before it was also very
much a consumer show.

But since consumers started to buy their PC stuff online, at even better
prices, the consumer part died little by little.

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gulikoza
ATi had some Star Trek:TNG LCARS panels installed in 2000 and Klingons in Worf
uniforms walk around IIRC. And there was Lara Croft throwing 3dfx t-shirts one
of which my dad caught. Those were the days...

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nik736
I was there several times and it was just not interesting, like at all. Even
from a business perspective there was nothing to do. When they changed some
things to make it more attractive in 2018 they simply made it even worse.

Not surprised that they are shutting it down.

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chvid
I was there as kid with my dads electronics firm. It was the coolest thing
ever.

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dasKrokodil
I went there some time in the 90's, I think 1994. My friend and classmate was
the son of our local Apple dealer, who got some free tickets. My friend and I
skipped school and went there with his dad. While the dad was busy with grown-
up stuff, we played Mac games like Spaceship Warlock and F/A-18 Hornet.
Afterwards, we got into real trouble with our chemistry teacher for this. Good
times.

However, by and large the show did seem kind of boring even then, so I never
went again.

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Insanity
I was there prob around 2009 - 2010.

A lot of halls, but the only thing that I found interesting was a hall
dedicated to gaming. With gaming machines, and some tournament-style thing
going on.

Occasionally walking around there there was some cool tech, but it's not
something I ever went since that day. Not worth the travel.

[I went as student at the time. But I can't imagine I'd find it more
interesting now]

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wink
Wonder if anyone of you who visited can compare it to Systems in Munich,
preferably ~2000 - 2010?

I've never been to Cebit because I had the Systems right at my doorstep and it
was awesome in the beginning and a bit meh in the end, so I stopped going.

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dazhbog
Was there in 2016 as an exhibitor (for free). It was a pretty average event
and the target audience was pretty limited.

Even though the jobs/startups that I worked in heavily utilise trade shows, I
can't wait for all this BS to go extinct. Go online, choose your SaaS/HW
solution, done.

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Nokinside
CEBIT is too generic and consumer oriented.

Electronica Munich 2018 (electronic components, systems and applications,
SEMICON) just ended and it was bigger than ever. There was attached events
like eMEC (medical electronics conference) that made it worthwhile for many.

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PurpleRamen
Ends after 32 Years, good number.

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buboard
hotels and airbnbs in hanover are going to be sad

~~~
FraKtus
Yes, that's my memory of it in the 199x, you had to sleep with peoples renting
a part of their apartments. That was weird to me at that time because it was
the only show where that was needed. My only memory of CEBIT, bad hotels :-)

~~~
kevingrahl
Renting out private homes is, or shall I say was still a big part of Cebit in
Hanover in 2018. As a resident living in the core of the city you’d always get
flyers in the months leading up to it asking you if you’d be interested in
renting your home to Cebit visitors. There are some other fairs but none of
them needed so much accommodations like Cebit. All Hotels (and we have a lot
of them) were booked out months in advance. It was good money to be made even
renting out some small <50m2 single room apartment could pay over 100€ per
night. You’d just had to stay with some friends a few days and hope that your
visitors wouldnt trash your home.

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nunobrito
Never been there, now never will.

It is that kind of event that was over-hyped.

On my city it was called the "startup-killer" because the costs to have a
stand there were high (transport, rent, preparation, living costs) and bring
zero return for the most.

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the-dude
The internet is slowly killing all trade shows ( cars even ).

~~~
ghaff
Is that actually true? I wouldn't know it from my travel schedule :-) I do
think there tends to be more focus and certainly more small/casual events
these days. There are still huge tech conferences, but they're mostly put on
by a single vendor. It's the big relatively generic events that seem to have
suffered the most.

~~~
sigi45
I don't have numbers but i thought about it a few days ago as well.

E3 and stuff means: "Watching the trailer 'live'" and "waiting for hours for
playing one game for 10 minutes. Not even sure why companies like Nintendo,
Sony and co spend so much money on it.

That shit is expensive, the journalists don't use the public both and the
'normal people' which are able to consume it, are not that much in comparison
to advertising.

~~~
ghaff
A lot of the value of big shows is that they're an opportunity for lots of
meetings with partners, analysts, press, customers, etc. They keynotes and
breakouts can be good, but I'd rather watch them on video. There are times
I've gone to big shows and watched the keynotes from a hang space, overflow
room, or my hotel room. I'm usually ion too many meetings to have much time to
go to sessions anyway.

Increasingly, though, I try to avoid the big events and spend my time at
smaller ones where I find it easier to have informal conversations.

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tonyedgecombe
I never went to Cebit but companies I worked for did attend trade shows in the
UK. It was exhausting work, setting the stands up, manning them, evenings out
and tearing it all down. It was always lucrative though, we would come away
with piles of leads for sales people to follow up.

I do miss it, selling stuff over the internet has less friction but it's so
impersonal and even dehumanising in many ways.

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mlamat
My father went there sometime around 1990 on a business trip and brougt back a
handheld grayscale scanner. The software ran in DOS.

My school nootebooks were packed with pictures printed on a dot-matrix
printer.

