I’m a resident of Hanover and have been to every Cebit in the last ten years. The fall was inevitable. You could feel that Cebit was struggling to attract visi

I’m a resident of Hanover and have been to every Cebit in the last ten years. The fall was inevitable. You could feel that Cebit was struggling to attract visitors and wasn’t sure what it’s identity was. I feel like they should have focused more on the Global Conference Series where they always had very interesting talks lined up but the entry fee for that (You had to buy a separate ticket for that) was far to high imo. It was customary to get some friends and stroll along the massive fair grounds when it was still focused more towards consumers and we always had a great time. I could split off to check out actual booths that interested me and most even had competent people who actually knew their product and could talk about it. I feel like that changed right around the time Cebit decided to only cater towards businesses. Instead of knowledgeable people you now had to deal with pretty ladies who knew nothing and PR folks who wouldn’t tell you anything else than how great their product/service is. Before you could get answers to technical questions that could not get answered by visiting their website and have a discussion with people who actually worked on the product. Last year was especially dull; nearly every booth I visited was just handing out flyers with links to their websites. I tried to have some discussion to get to know whatever they were promoting but it was near impossible. I had the all-day event ticket but after the first day of scouting booths quickly decided that it wasn’t worth my time and only attended three talks from the Global Conferences after that. I was planning on only visiting the latter this year and don’t waste my time on the actual fair. I’m not to sad to see it come to an end but have kind memories of what it once was.