"Managing Trust" as a keynote theme of CeBIT 2012
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CeBIT is the world's leading ICT event, with a target audience that extends across the business and scientific communities to government and public administration. At the next show, which runs from 6 to 10 March 2012, there will be a special focus on the
“Trust and security in the digital world are matters of common interest to the state, the business community and consumers. ‘Managing Trust’ describes the process of building trust as a basis for progress and growth”, says Ernst Raue, the member of the Board at Deutsche Messe with overall responsibility for CeBIT. “The greater the degree of trust and confidence in the solutions and applications marketed by the international ICT industry, the faster the world economy will grow. Trust is not a so-called ‘soft factor’, but a vital cornerstone of economic activity, which needs to be developed and strengthened.”
With its unique combination of trade show, conferences, keynote addresses, corporate events and business lounges, CeBIT is the world’s most important event for the digital industry, and the one with the greatest degree of international participation. CeBIT is also widely regarded as a key, global driver of sales. In March of 2011, for example, CeBIT generated over seven million business contacts in just five days.
Among the visitors to the show were more than 500 CIOs from international concerns with a combined buying volume in excess of 50 billion euros. This is why CeBIT is the most efficient marketing tool and contact platform for the digital industry – and the best place to cultivate new business with customers from around the world.
Another outstanding feature of CeBIT is the scope of its international appeal. The last show (March, 2011) featured over 4,200 exhibiting firms from 70 countries and attracted 339,000 visitors from 110 nations, as well as some 5,000 journalists from every corner of the globe.
CeBIT is also an important date in the calendar for politicians. For many years the show has traditionally been opened by Germany’s Federal Chancellor, as is now the case with Dr. Angela Merkel. At the same time, many European Union Commissioners and high-ranking political figures from Germany and other countries use CeBIT as a platform for conducting a dialogue with representatives of the global ICT industry. Each year’s designated Partner Country always sends its highest-ranking government officials. In recent years CeBIT has played host in Hannover to such distinguished guests as the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the former Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Spain’s President José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The official Partner Country for CeBIT 2012 is Brazil. The President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, is expected to attend. Recent CeBIT Partner Countries have been Turkey (2011), Spain (2010), California (2009, as a partner state), France (2008) and Russia (2007).
Since 2011 CeBIT has been organized around four separate platforms aimed at different user groups. CeBIT pro showcases professional ICT applications for use in small and medium-sized businesses as well as major international concerns. CeBIT gov is aimed at ICT decision-makers in the public sector and presents solutions for government administration at the local, regional national and EU level. Applications for the healthcare sector are also featured here. CeBIT lab is the platform that explores the future of the ICT industry, with one section devoted to presentations by universities and research institutes. At CeBIT life the focus is on solutions for the consumer market. Here both ICT professionals and consumers with a passion for the latest digital technology can get an insight into tomorrow’s high-tech lifestyle.
Another important element of CeBIT is the program known collectively as the CeBIT Global Conferences. In 2011 more than 50 distinguished guest speakers from all over the world used the congress to outline their strategies and visions, including EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes, the CEO of Ford, Alan Mulally, Mozilla boss Gary Kovacs, prominent US blogger Chris Pirillo and Shmuel (Mooly) Eden from Intel.
CeBIT has taken place in Hannover every spring since 1986, when the “Center for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunications”, formerly part of Hannover Messe, was launched as a standalone event. (The reason why the show’s acronym became “CeBIT” is because the German word for “office” is “Büro”). In the course of just a few years, CeBIT became the pivotal international trade event for the entire digital economy.
