Private accomodation @ CeBIT

People living in Hanover see CeBIT - and other big shows such as the annual Hannover-Messe - as a welcome opportunity to earn extra money, by renting out their private homes to the poor greenhorns who didn't reserve their hotel room a year or two in advance. If you're unlucky enough not to work for a company that has booked the whole of, say, the Sheraton, or else have an aunt whose best friend has a cousin who lives in Hannover, then you might end up having a very weird sleepover experience indeed.

I have stayed in private accomodation twice, and both times I convinced myself that the person renting out the room was a psychopath and I was not going to survive the night. Number one was an elderly gentleman living alone in a 5-bed flat stuffed full of antique furniture and porcelaine figurines. I was his only guest. As he showed me around the place, he kept glancing at my breasts (or so I thought), then led me to a room where the bedlinen was covered in
hundreds of little hearts. There was no key to lock the door. I think there wasn't even a key for the bathroom door, but I didn't stay long enough to find out. All perfectly innocent I am sure but I was very young and, well, very scared.

Number two was described to me by my client who had already spent several nights there as a "cross-eyed weirdo" who had rented out his 1-bed flat for the whole two weeks and gone to stay with friends, however had a habit of suddenly appearing in the doorway at 6am just
as you were making your way to the bathroom half-naked. There were hundreds of photos on the walls of his flat - all of this guy himself. I have never been so quick to get ready and leave the house in the morning!

Personally, I would rather stay in Hamburg and take the train every day than risk private accomodation again. Or, there is always sleeping on a boat on an obscure canal near Hanover ... but this is another story ...

Silja

Nächste Woche

beginnt die CeBIT 2008!!!Das deutsche Team arbeitet konzentriert daran, das Beste für unsere Kunden auf der CeBIT zu erreichen: Pressegespräche werden vereinbart und Texte geschrieben, Pressemappen gepackt und Kunden gebrieft. Auf der diesjährigen CeBIT betreuen wir von GBC Germany wieder New Zealand Trade & Enterprise: www.nzte.govt.nz .Außerdem freuen wir uns über die Zusammenarbeit mit Rimage: www.rimage.de .Und dann ist auch noch unser Kunde, die Orbis AG, auf der Messe präsent: www.orbis.de .Ich bin mir sicher, dass auch diese CeBIT eine tolle Erfahrung sein wird!Christine Vogl-Kordick

New Zealand pleased with IT media buzz

We're really pleased to have done another great CeBit PR project for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, which really invests considerable energy, thought and resources in helping its ICT companies get the best platform for developing their European business. The project again leveraged our strengths in both Germany and the UK, and there's been some great public feedback about how the whole event went for New Zealand. We're pleased with the comment about the positive media interest at the show.

CeBit 2007 Lives Up to Promises?

Having recovered from days of trekking the Hannover halls, it looks like CeBit 2007 confounded many prejudices about whether CeBit should continue.

Some quick thoughts are that the show was still relevant despite many big names not being there. There was alot going on and much of very interesting. Certainly it's really a huge German show but given Germany is Europe's biggest economy and enjoying an economic renaissance that's no bad thing. It also looks like numbers held up.

The show still attracts media as we found out for NZTE and our other clients. And the media seems to have a soft spot fot one of the last truly big ICT shows. We also detected UK media returning to CeBit compared to previous years - though the majority of the media is German.

So the show looks like running again next year. There's been some debate about whether it'll still roll over the weekend. The current planned dates - 4-9 March 2008 - suggest it will. Organisers are also chewing over whether to do separate business and consumer days.

Roll on 2008!

Nach der CeBIT ist vor der CeBIT

Zum Jammern ist immer Zeit. Und jetzt, direkt nach der CeBIT ist eigentlich der beste Augenblick dafür. Was war sie wieder anstrengend die weltgrößte Computer-Messe, wie wenig hat sie eigentlich gebracht und nächstes Jahr gehen wir aber nicht mehr hin. Andererseits, die Partys waren ganz gut, vielleicht ergeben sich aus diesen oder jenen losen Kontakten doch noch weitere Gespräche und es waren doch wieder genau diejenigen da, die man schon lange auf der Kontaktliste hatte und unbedingt treffen wollte. Und die kamen unverhofft an den Stand oder man traf sie beim Kaffeetrinken oder in der Schlange vor der Garderobenausgabe. „So ein Zufall! Sie hier? Ich dachte, dass Sie dieses Jahr…“ Dialoge wie diese müssen öfter durch die Messehallen gehallt haben, denn die Zählmaschinen an den Eingängen kamen dieses Jahr auf erheblich mehr Besucher als im Vorjahr. Nächstes Jahr – also dann, wenn keiner mehr hingeht – werden die Messe-Tage verringert und verrückt, d.h. von Dienstag bis Sonntag darf das ausgestellt werden, auf das die Welt gewartet hat. Das neue Messekonzept wird viele Neugierige anlocken, denn was Neues probiert man dann doch gerne aus, um hinterher wenigstens sagen zu können: Iss auch nicht besser. Es werden also doch wieder alle kommen. Iss doch schließlich CeBIT.

Nach der CeBIT sind auch die Neuseeländer wieder in Neuseeland und berichten daheim von Hanover, some little town in the middle of Germany, so far away, but centre of the world for one week.

See you next year!

Bettina Jödicke

CEBIT proves great platform for NZ client

For third year GBC worked with NZTE on promoting New Zealand ICT companies on a special New Zealand technology pavilion. The media buzz on the stand was fantastic this year and we're seeing some great results already. For example, Zephyr met up with the BBC and got some strong coverage.

Oh What a Loverly Show!

There has been a lot of talk about whether the more vertical telco market trade shows like 3GSM and CTIA are luring away some of the major players. Whilst this may be true in some respects, when you are on site, you still cannot fault the scale of the operation. Hall 11 is full of navigation and telematics players and Hall 4 is dedicated to hot areas like SOA and CRM.

All the major consumer electronics companies were located in the vast Hall 1, with the Sharp stand boasting the world’s largest LCD TV at 108”, whilst TechnoVision showed the world’s largest TV at 205” – they both pulled in the crowds despite never being destined for the average living room.

When you couple this show with last year’s football World Cup, you simply cannot fault the Germans for their organisational capabilities and their attention to detail. The facilities are much better than at 3GSM and you don’t have to queue for ages to get something to eat or drink either.

Bizarrely, smoking in exhibition halls is still very much allowed in Germany and you can see clusters of exhibitors and visitors around the large bins/ashtrays everywhere – all very amusing for a smug reformed smoker like myself!

Whilst the official visitor figure stands at 480,000, there was also the rumour that the organisers, Deutsche Messe, gave out more free tickets than ever before, to exhibitors to pass on to their clients and guests to increase footfall. I’m not sure how much this would impact on the total figure though.

They are shortening the exhibition by a further day again next year and avoiding the weekend altogether - running Monday through Friday only. Not sure yet whether this will affect the number of students lured in by the prospect of trying out gadgets and the latest consumer products?