CeBIT: Organized Chaos Serves Attendees

Exhibits organized by type help show-goers navigate the gigantic event.

James Niccolai and Joris Evers, IDG News Service

HANOVER, GERMANY-- From MP3 players to mainframe computers, this year's CeBIT has it all. But the world's biggest computer trade fair has avoided becoming the unfocused sprawl that led Comdex to its downfall, visitors here said this week.

Perhaps credit goes to the German zeal for organization. The giant show has been sliced into about two dozen technology areas, many with a cavernous hall to themselves. A new pavilion is devoted just to security, the public sector has its own zone, and communications gear is carved off from business software. That helps ensure that stern-faced buyers looking for enterprise resource planning products won't bump into scruffy teens hunting for gadgets.

Something for Everyone

For sure, the range of products is staggering. Want frivolous? Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is showing a Webcam that trundles about on wheels and is controlled remotely from a Bluetooth cell phone. Ezmax has an MP3 player that doubles as a voice over IP (VOIP) telephone.

For the serious, Novell pitched an early release of its new operating software, Open Enterprise Server, and storage giant EMC announced hardware and software packages for small businesses. SAP AG, IBM, and Sun Microsystems are also here.

Visitors need to arrive with a good idea of what they are looking for, but with a bit of planning the show is easy to navigate, said Roland Kliemt, a human resources consultant from Hilden, Germany.

"All the time- and attendance-keeping products I want to see are here in Hall 6. The show is well organized," he said.

Jorg Heimsoth, a logistics manager, agreed. He came to Cebit looking for barcode-scanning software and other products, and looked content as he browsed the business software hall Friday afternoon.

"I think all the big players are here. Their booths are near each other, you don't have to walk far," Heimsoth said.

Competitors Regroup

At the Comdex in Las Vegas, by contrast, visitors grumbled about the unfocused mess the show had become, mingling consumer products like massage chairs and telescopes alongside "serious" gear like computer components and business software.

MediaLive, owners of Comdex, tried to refocus the show in 2003, but cancelled in 2004 and, recently, in 2005, thanks to lukewarm interest from vendors. Instead they headed to specialty events like the RSA Conference on security, or to the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, a gadgetfest that overshadowed Comdex, with giant TVs, mini DVD players and overall abundance of gear.

Many of those things are at Cebit too, but the surgical division of products means the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected here are finding what they want despite the show's gargantuan size: It covers 300,000 square meters this year and has 6,300 exhibitors, according to organizers Deutsche Messe AG.

The showground is not the only area that has been meticulously planned, either. Such is the organization here that, even by Friday night, the bar in the press center hadn't run out of beer yet, despite the best efforts of a few thousand journalists.

Scarlet Pruitt of the IDG News Service contributed to this report.

To see PC World's complete CeBIT coverage, check out our CeBIT 2005 news page.