CeBIT America debuts, defying show slump

IDG News Service - With marketing budgets drying up and trade-show attendance shrinking, this summer seems a quixotic time to launch a new IT conference. But this week, Germany's CeBIT ubershow will make its U.S. debut, with an enterprise focus and a European format that organizers are counting on to set it apart from its troubled brethren.
The project has already suffered from the continuing economic slump. A year ago, show organizer Hannover Fairs USA Inc. forecast 40,000 attendees for its debut of CeBIT America. Now, the company hopes to attract 20,000. Exhibitor numbers are also lower than the 400 to 500 originally forecast, with 361 signed on.
But show executives said they're confident CeBIT America will prove its worth to visitors and vendors -- confident enough to sign a five-year reservation contract with the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.
B2B Focus
CeBIT America will be a tightly focused business-to-business show. Instead of aisles of booths lining the show floors, organizers said they're arranging exhibitors into clusters of related technologies, with numerous lounge areas available on the floor to promote business discussions.
Storage, networking and wireless products will be prevalent at the show. Hewlett-Packard Co. is planning to preview upcoming handheld devices and notebooks and will join with several partners to demonstrate new storage devices (see story below). Sony Electronics Inc. will focus on storage as well, bringing new libraries and tape drives to the show.
Microsoft Corp. plans to push its Tablet PC software, while 3Com Corp. will show firewall products and network management technology. PalmSource Inc. plans to make several announcements about new mobility, security and systems management offerings.
Vote of Confidence
Persuading vendors to spread their trade-show dollars around and take a chance on the debut of CeBIT America has gone fairly smoothly, according to organizers. "Most of the significant players have said yes to us," said Mark Dineen, managing director of CeBIT America. "That's a huge vote of confidence."
One vendor said CeBIT's brand name was an important factor in its decision to exhibit. "They have a great track record, and we hope they'll be bringing that to the U.S.," said Albert Chu, vice president of business development at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based PalmSource.
The IT show market has been a harsh one lately. Event cancellations are common, and Comdex parent Key3Media Group Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection (see story). Comdex's former general manager, Bill Sell, defected and is heading brand and customer development for CeBIT America.
According to Sell, CeBIT America isn't expected to make a profitthis year. Princeton, N.J.-based Hannover Fairs USA is prepared to give it several years to break even, he said. "It's a long-term investment," Dineen added.
"This is a completely different model, and people are responding to that," he said. "We just have to remember the focus of the event: quality, quality, quality; enterprise, enterprise, enterprise."

Computerworld news editor Don Tennant contributed to this story.