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CeBIT, World's Largest IT Conference, Canned (dw.com)

Posted by msmash on from the end-of-an-era dept.

Despite turning the trade fair into a fun fair, organizers could not save the beloved but struggling trade fair. CeBIT once boasted 850,000 visitors a year, but that heyday has long since passed. An anonymous reader shares a report: Organizers announced on Wednesday that the world's largest IT conference will be no more. CeBIT, held every year in Hanover, Germany, has been canceled for 2019 facing declining visitor numbers and decreases in exhibition space rentals. "There will be no more CeBIT in Germany in the future," said Onuora Ogbukagu of Deutsche Messe AG, which ran the trade fair that hosted the likes of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and data privacy advocate Edward Snowden.

CeBIT was once considered the best barometer of technological trends, and during the dot-com boom in the late 90s and early 2000s, it boasted some 850,000 visitors a year. However, that number has been declining for years, despite cultivating a 'fun fair' atmosphere. The news was met with an outpouring of gratitude for the conference-meets-festival on social media, with many calling it the "end of an era."

9 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. You have to wonder about the economic impact by bobstreo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All the lost money from travel agencies, airlines, hospitality companies, hotels, restaurants, schwag makers... And the taxes lost on those sales. Oh well.

    1. Re:You have to wonder about the economic impact by alvinrod · · Score: 3

      Hanover and some of the businesses there will likely see a dip, but it just means that everyone who previously went to CeBit now has the money to go somewhere else instead or to spend that money on something entirely different instead.

      There's a new largest IT conference now, and perhaps it's seeing an increase in attendance as it absorbs some of the crowd that only went to CeBit.

  2. Its all about phones now. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think the problem is technology now is so Phone Based today, that there is really anything interesting to show.
    Look my Glass rectangle is superior to your Glass rectangle because it has more dots that you cannot see then the other guys.

    Then the rest are just Apps.

    Sure you can cover cloud stuff, but that isn't really that interesting, as you probably need to show it off on an App on your glass rectangle.
     

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  3. Re:Does anyone know why? by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Couple of reasons:

    * Tech has become bery boring and/or very little innovation (i.e. not really different from last year)
    * Bloggers / Internet let you preview the latest tech in the comfort of your own home
    * Traveling has become more tedious

    In the 90's we saw PCs go from 50 MHz to 550+ MHz. Today Intel offers incremental upgrades. Today's tech has become ho-hum, yawn.

    Happens to all stable markets eventually. I don't see it being disrupted anytime soon.

  4. Meh by DarkOx · · Score: 2

    I mean is this a surprise. COMDEX has been dead and buried for more than a decade now. If there is any surprise at all here its that CeBIT lasted this long.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  5. you mean? by satsuke · · Score: 2

    You mean COMDEX isn't being held anymore?

    Oh wait, it's not 2002.

  6. That's What Happens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...when you ban booth babes.

  7. Re:travel is redundant by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 2

    Fuckin' seriously? "Not rewarding"? What a crock of shit. Who made you judge? Seeing videos is the same as going there? Not all of us are hopeless homebodies. Who modded you up?

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
  8. Two reasons by Kokuyo · · Score: 2

    Tech has gotten pretty repetitive. You have either uninspired iterations of established things or promises that lead nowhere.

    VR, modular smartphones and many other things that get our little nerd hearts beating the imperial march... they've been promised to us and then killed or delivered in what I'll call a subpar experience with a lot of goodwill on my part.

    A new CPU (as opposed to all the rebrandings they are doing) from Intel might be exciting. A good GPU from AMD too.

    RTX had the potential to be something but fell flat on its face because some schmuck couldn't keep it in his pants until developers were read yto awe us.

    Second: Ya had to get rid of the booth babes, didn't ya. If I want an absolute sausage fest, I'll go to VMworld, thank you very much.