The new, revamped CEBIT enjoyed a successful premiere

With the new triad consisting of tradeshow, conference, and networking event in a festival atmosphere, the new CEBIT offered fascinating insights into the digitization of the economy and society. The new format was successful in illuminating the various angles of digital transformation for every visitor.

The new, revamped CEBIT enjoyed a successful premiere, as more than 2,800 participating companies, over 600 speakers on ten stages, and 370 startups from Europe, Africa and Asia turned Hannover into the world’s digitization hotspot over a five-day period. Achim Berg, President of the German Association for Information Technology (Bitkom) set the tone for the event on “Welcome Night” on 11 June: “We are living in exciting times, with our boldest fantasies being overtaken by actual developments at breakneck speed!”. A high-visibility emblem of this phenomenon was the 60-meter tall Ferris wheel erected by SAP, with 40 passenger cabins which, apart from providing a unique aerial view of the digitization festival, showcased concrete examples of AI, IoT and other phenomena.