The CeBIT success story

CeBIT rapidly developed into the largest and most important IT event of the year. The number of exhibitors and visitors increased continuously despite freak weather conditions on two occasions. Two days before CeBIT '87 opened its gates, a sudden blizzard swept over the city of Hannover, leaving one meter of snow in its wake. The show nonetheless got off to a punctual start thanks to the tireless efforts of countless helpers. "SnowBIT", as the fair came to be called, attracted 406,474 visitors.

By the beginning of the 1990s CeBIT had achieved the ultimate international breakthrough. Although the IT industry was weathering a heavy recession and several established universal suppliers were forced to carry out far-reaching internal restructuring measures, this did not have a negative impact on CeBIT attendance figures. Data processing strategies such as client-server computing, outsourcing and data warehousing came to the fore. Thousands of visitors flocked to Hannover to find out about the latest developments in these areas, as well as in the field of network computing, multimedia and the Internet.

Now completely devoted to CeBIT, the Hannover Exhibition Center was still becoming more and more cramped, even though Deutsche Messe had begun to replace some old exhibition halls with new buildings. The waiting list of companies wanting to take part in CeBIT continued to grow longer, and the halls were full to overflowing. As a setting conducive to in-depth discussion among IT professionals, the show was becoming less and less effective. With over 6,111 exhibitors and more than 755,000 visitors (including over 100,000 from abroad) CeBIT '95 seamed its reputation as a "mega-event". But in view of its growing appeal to the interested public, as well, CeBIT ran the risk of losing its professional character. By 1995 the number of attending non-professionals had risen to 218,000 -  29 percent of total attendance.