CeBIT with B2B Focus Promises Concrete Business Results

Deutsche Messe, a German exhibition company, in partnership with IPR Forum, a Korean marketing company specializing in conventions, hosted a press conference on CeBIT on Sept. 9 at the Park Hyatt in Seoul. CeBIT is the world's largest and most international expo in the IT industry that has taken place in Hanover, Germany, every year since 1986. Next year, the event is scheduled to be held from March 16 to 20 (Mon to Fri), 2016. Currently, 3,500 companies from 70 countries have registered for participation in the 2016 CeBIT.

At the conference, Oliver Frese, a member of the Managing Board, discussed the 2016 CeBIT’s theme and strategy.

He noted that the theme of the next year’s expo will be “d!conomy”, which refers to digitalized economic and social activities and connotes a wide range of digitalization trends that covers Big Data, cloud computing, security, and IoT.

He also noted CeBIT’s special feature as a B2B–oriented event and the business advantages that accompanied it. Namely, he said, since 2 years ago, CeBIT shifted its focus from B2C to B2B, placing more stress on matching one business to another potential business partner. Frese elaborated by saying that when an Expo focuses on the general audience, the event can be fun, but is less likely to bring about concrete business results for participating businesses. Given that participating companies pay a considerable amount of money to participate in CeBIT – about 7 million won or US$7,000 on average – the organizers designed CeBIT in ways to better meet expectations from participating companies and correspond with substantial business results. With its focus on B2B interactions, CeBIT promises concrete benefits for both large companies like Samsung and SK and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). In particular, for the latter, CeBIT will prove very useful, as a majority of SMEs are struggling to break into foreign markets and searching for potential foreign partners.

Frese and his team are currently touring around the world to spread the news about the 2016 CeBIT, and Korea was the first country to visit on their list. In this regard, Frese said that his team had visited Korea many times in the past to discuss CeBIT’s new strategies and the event’s concept with the Korean partner and participating companies like Samsung and SK. He added that whenever he visits, he is surprised to see the interest and enthusiasm that Koreans show about technologies and innovations.

Every year, CeBIT chooses one country as a strategic partner, and this year, Switzerland was chosen. In fact, Frese said Korea was under consideration as a potential partner country for the 2016 CeBIT, but given the necessary agreement from the government side, the timing felt a little early. He added that the chances for the 2017 CeBIT are still wide open for Korea.