Cebit Hannover 2008 - Exhibitors have their say , part 3

CeBIT 2008, Hannover 4 to 9 March 

'We enjoyed a very successful CeBIT 2008, after starting off with high expectations. Despite the shorter duration of the fair, we welcomed just as many visitors to our Telekom stand as last year.

The weekend was a resounding success, with exceptionally high visitor numbers. Thousands of innovation-hungry visitors flocked to our stand. We will look back fondly on this year's CeBIT - it far exceeded our expectations. From our point of view, the new trade fair concept has been a triumph, increasing the overall appeal of the show, which in turn benefited Deutsche Telekom.

75 percent of the visitors to the show came to our innovative, customer-oriented stand to take advantage of our consulting and information services and experience our product presentation. CeBIT is quite simply an outstanding platform for Deutsche Telekom.'

'The new CeBIT concept introduced this year was a big hit - the clear structure ensured that visitors could find their way around quickly and make the most of their visit. We found a new home in Hall 6 and were delighted with our participation in the fair.

Our goal was to highlight the need for secure identities in both the real and digital worlds and to show examples of applications with electronic documents from everyday life, which attracted lots of interest from visitors.'

'The unique show we put together on the open-air site this year was a real magnet for visitors. debitel found a new way of showcasing its products and services on the days with the highest visitor turnout, Friday and Saturday, thereby grabbing the attention of customers and competitors alike.'

'Our stand in the Public Sector Parc was the perfect launching pad for us as a newcomer to CeBIT. Besides making lots of highly interesting and indeed interested contacts among municipal authorities and car park operators, we also established excellent ties for our international projects. Our registration-free cellphone parking system, sms&park, drew an enthusiastic response from all the visitors to our stand.

We are convinced that this trade fair participation will represent a milestone on the continuing path of successful marketing for our product, which has enjoyed excellent usage rates in Fürth, the first city in which it's been introduced.'

'InterComponentware AG is absolutely thrilled with both the number and the caliber of the trade visitors it encountered during TeleHealth. We're fully in favor of the combination of congress and exhibition and will continue to give the new concept our full backing.'

Sandro Isteri, Regional Director GSA (Germany, Switzerland, Austria), Logitech GmbH:

'The word that best sums up our participation in CeBIT 2008 is 'orders'! Our sales team held meetings at half hourly intervals in the six rooms at our stand. We barely had enough space to accommodate the mass of potential customers and had to move some meetings to the Planet Reseller Café.

For the first time, we took part in the Planet Reseller show, as it provides us with the best platform for developing B2B contacts. We noticed an increase in the quality of the contacts this year. We met fewer resellers, but those we did meet were of a very high caliber.'

'CeBIT 2008 was a real highlight of the trade fair. It's here that the industry comes together. We visit around 15 fairs a year worldwide, but CeBIT remains the most important IT show for us. This is where we lift the curtain on our new products and services.

Our exhibition highlight this year was our security solutions for notebooks. We were particularly impressed with the restructuring of the show this year. Bringing together all the security manufacturers in one hall increased our visitor numbers.'

'Our aim at this year's CeBIT was to establish closer ties with resellers. We were able to do this very successfully because the visitors to the Planet Reseller event were the very audience we had targeted.

There was an increase not only in the number of visitors but also in their caliber. We succeeded in acquiring many new customers and expect a high volume of follow-up orders. The keynote theme at our stand this year was Design.'

'The stronger focus on topics and solutions is a new feature of this year's CeBIT and meets visitors' requirements perfectly. The wider-ranging and more effectively integrated congress program is also new.

What's more, one in four visitors to the show now come from outside Germany, which means that, as well as being unparalleled in Germany and the leading showcase for the IT sector, CeBIT is also a central meeting place for managers in our industry to exchange information.'

'With trade visitors accounting for almost 80 percent of the turnout, CeBIT is the leading IT get-together in the B2B sector. This makes the show the ideal platform for us to make new contacts and press home our innovation concept to customers.

The integrated collaboration between the different IBM areas at the stand is a clear indication of IBM's solution-oriented complete portfolio. IBM is backing up this year's CeBIT focal theme of 'green IT' with its social components for 'Green Responsibility', thus underpinning the commitment it has shown to environmental protection since 1971. CeBIT continues to play a pivotal role, especially in light of its restructuring, which we fully endorse.'

'CeBIT was a great success for us. Hall 4 in particular lived up to all the expectations of business clients.

There's fierce competition for highly-skilled graduates in the IT sector at the moment - and there's no better place anywhere in Europe for students to meet IT companies face-to-face and leave with concrete job offers in their pockets. Itelligence AG will definitely be back to exhibit again next year.'

'We are delighted with this year's CeBIT, which went well beyond our expectations. We held excellent discussions with trade visitors throughout the fair. These were well prepared, and in many cases involved concrete projects.

We are also very encouraged to hear that our partners share our delight at the outcome of the event and also achieved excellent results. There was no let up in the media interest in our company, extending from our activities in the business and private sectors all the way to our social commitment, for example, as part of the IT Fitness initiative.' 

- Deutsche Messe Hannover