Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
IT Technology

CeBIT, World's Largest IT Conference, Canned (dw.com) 74

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."

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

CeBIT, World's Largest IT Conference, Canned

Comments Filter:
  • by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @12:53PM (#57715590)

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

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Same thing happened to COMDEX. Used to be a huge show in Vegas every year, but vendors, why wait for a show when you can announce the product on your website, and customers, why go to a show when you can see it on the web?

    Also, frosty piss.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I remember going there in the 2000s, and it was considered THE IT fair.
    I never left, without at least one job offer.

    If they had not changed from back then, I don't see why any of that would have changed.
    So: Anyone who went there more than once: What exactly caused this downturn?
    Was it that "fun fair" thing? Cause I don't remember that. (Apart from maybe the graphics card and game input device vendors.)

    • by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @01:07PM (#57715670)

      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.

      • Yep, tech progress was amazing in the 80s and 90s. Now it's small increments and so the changes from year to year are pretty small.
        My PC is from 2014, I wonder how long I'll be able to use it as a system that can do 90% of the things the best can do. At the rate things are going the hardware will probably fail sooner than it'll be obsolete
      • In the 90's we saw PCs go from 50 MHz to 550+ MHz. Today Intel offers incremental upgrades.

        Who needs upgrades when an Intel CPU from 2004 is enough to run the latest applications:

        $ grep 'name\|bugs' /proc/cpuinfo
        model name : Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.40GHz
        bugs : cpu_meltdown spectre_v1 spectre_v2 spec_store_bypass l1tf

    • Some of those products had been bombing for quite a while. I wonder what will happen to them.
  • by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @12:58PM (#57715624)

    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.
     

    • I dunno... nowadays with the internet and the web, we generally know pretty much every detail of every product, even prior to production (and often prior to the company announcing it). So what purpose does attending these trade shows accomplish any more?

      • There was the tactile aspect to it. They can say they have the thinnest laptop, but you may not realize it until you really see it. measurements don't always help, screen only views rarely put things in the correct context. Also half the fun is having these vendors go off script to see what really is happening. I remember back in 2001/2 I was at an expo and Microsoft was showing off web services in .NET all was fine and good until I asked them to transfer over a Dictionary Data type. where the code promp

    • That is why Apple is a phone company now.

    • Screw you pal, MY glass rectangle is way superior to yours!
  • by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @01:33PM (#57715840) Journal

    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.

  • by satsuke ( 263225 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @01:38PM (#57715886)

    You mean COMDEX isn't being held anymore?

    Oh wait, it's not 2002.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @01:45PM (#57715942)

    ...when you ban booth babes.

  • travel is redundant (Score:1, Interesting)

    by swell ( 195815 )

    There are exceptions: for kids, Disneyland will be a thrill; for adults going to a restaurant is nice. But going to another city, another country is not rewarding.

    You already know what that city is like. You've seen pictures and videos, you know something about the geography, the history, the current reputation of that city. When you get there you will probably confirm what you already know. You will go to tourist traps, places where nobody who lives there will go. You will spend money, lots of money. You w

    • by Kjella ( 173770 )

      You will go to tourist traps, places where nobody who lives there will go.

      Well, IMHO you have to go one way or the other - either you need to visit the unique tourist attractions or you have to find the real local culture. The middle ground is full of dull global chains and streets that looks just like any other city. I mean if I think about most "tourist traps" locally it's not like I've never been to them, but once is often enough. Same when you go places, been at the Eiffel Tower: check. Been to Brandenburger Tor: check. Been to the Parthenon: check. It's not something I need

      • by swell ( 195815 )

        I've been to many cities and, offhand, I can't think of any that surprised me. I was slightly surprised at the lingering racism in Houston, and the cold summer in San Francisco. I fully expected rain in Seattle, depressed people in Detroit, laid back citizens at the Ensenada fish market, and dark undercurrents during Mardi Gras. So what did I gain by actually going there?

        If you want adventure, look elsewhere. Take a city bus to a part of your city that you have avoided and explore every corner on foot. Try

    • 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?
      • We rarely agree on much it seems, but in this we do. Looking at videos is nothing like visiting in person.

        • by skam240 ( 789197 )

          I've just come off disagreeing with DNS about a bunch of shit but I have to say you have no clue. Your description of foreign travel portrays your antisocial bias. If you make it as boring as you describe it then yes, foreign travel will be boring and lame. But so will anything else with such a boring attitude.

          If you make it less about physically seeing lame tourist sites you can see photos of and more about actually experiencing the fucking country you're in then you can be in for incredible experiences.

          Sa

          • I've just come off disagreeing with DNS about a bunch of shit but I have to say you have no clue.

            Strong words!

            Your description of foreign travel portrays your antisocial bias.

            That's a lot to get out of me saying "Looking at videos is nothing like visiting in person.".

            If you make it as boring as you describe it then yes, foreign travel will be boring and lame. But so will anything else with such a boring attitude.

            To each his own. Personally I like to experience the place. If you think anything that's not s

      • Fuckin' seriously? "Not rewarding"? What a crock of shit. Who made you judge? Seeing videos is the same as going there?

        Gotta agree here. Even the popular tourist spots can sometimes have something unique to offer. Mont St. Michel offers a totally different experience when you actually stay overnight and can roam around at night when the vast majority of tourist traffic is gone for the day.

    • You will go to tourist traps

      Hell no! I'll couchsurf with the locals and find the real culture, just like every other hipster does these days. Later I'll post something sad about having had to fly there, and promising to plant some trees to compensate for the CO2 emissions.

    • You're kidding right?

      Last weekend we visited Houston and went to NASA. I got to see a real Saturn 5 rocket. Perspective from photos is nothing compared to personal perspective. Holy Shit! That thing is huge! The mock space shuttle (attached to one of the 747s they did use to move actual shuttles) could fit inside the first stage.

      How about hiking up mountains (not mountain climbing)? We've done that in Arizona and Colorado, the climb is the experience, the vista is just a touch of icing (and then a th

  • Why not just move it to Cannes?

  • by Kokuyo ( 549451 ) on Wednesday November 28, 2018 @04:48PM (#57717160) Journal

    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.

  • Back in the day it was the IT conference to be. But with an abundance in hardware and google and Apple events streamed around the globe instantly the need for these IT fairs has vanished.
    I was there back in the 90did and it was the most hyped global event. These days republica, sxsw and other meta events are sort of hype, and only hacker events such as ccc are still where they used to be.

Swap read error. You lose your mind.

Working...