Hannover. The car industry's leading IT convention will take place at next year's trade fair CeBIT. On 3 March technology users from the car industry and technology suppliers from the ICT industry will meet up for the IT summit "automotiveDay". The list of companies attending the event reads like a Who's Who of the industry. Those taking part in the discussions include the CIOs of BMW, Ford, Daimler, MAN and Porsche as well as Volkswagen's head of research. They will be joined by the automotive experts at IBM, HP and T-Systems.

Following its successful launch at CeBIT 2009, the "automotiveDay" event is being significantly expanded for the upcoming CeBIT. This time it will be integrated into the lecture forum "CeBIT in Motion", which in turn forms part of the broader presentation "CeBIT Destination ITS" in Hall 7. "automotiveDay" is being jointly organized by the B-to-B magazine automotiveIT and Deutsche Messe AG. T-Systems is signed up to the event as principal sponsor.

"automotiveDay" highlights the growing convergence of business IT and in-car IT, which is also reflected in the exhibits at the show. "CeBIT Destination ITS" presents the complete process chain for intelligent traffic telematics. All the relevant areas of traffic telematics will be featured here - from telematics and navigation to transport, logistics and complete automotive solutions.

Among those taking part in the platform discussion on the morning of the "automotiveDay" summit is Professor Jürgen Leohold, Director of Corporate Research at Volkswagen AG, who will be outlining his vision for the future of Car-to-X communication.

Starting at 12.30 p.m. the IT bosses of the German car industry will be sitting down with senior automotive specialists from the ICT industry to talk about the strategic issues that are shaping the future of automotive IT. The discussion will be chaired by the IT specialist and author Thomas R. Köhler.

Speakers representing the car industry will include Dr. Michael Gorriz, CIO of Daimler, Hans-Joachim Heister, Head of the IT Division at Ford Germany, Christian Ley, CIO of the Brose Group, Dr. Sven Lorenz, Director of Information Systems at Porsche, Karl E. Probst, CIO of BMW, and Peer Stauske, Head of Corporate IT at MAN SE.

The ICT industry will be represented by Oliver Bahns, Senior Director Automotive at Hewlett-Packard, Joachim Langmack, CSO of T-Systems International, and Ekkehard Ludewigs, Vice President Automotive at IBM.

Participation in the "automotiveDay" event is free of charge for all CeBIT ticket-holders. Further information about the program and advance registration facilities can be found online at www.automotiveIT.eu/automotiveday2010.