01 May
Visiting CeBit Australia
When I had to register anew for the IT event , which started today, I realised it's been a while since I visited - my address had presumably been scrubbed after I missed for a couple of years. Anyway, I've signed up now and will be off to Sydney for the day tomorrow.
Having just spent the past couple of hours going through the list of exhibitors and checking their websites, I believe I'll have plenty to keep me engaged, checking out the various stands, asking questions.
I must admit that in the past, although I'm not a real gadget guy, my interest in this sort of trade show tended to be about trying to understand something about the latest gadgets - "technology as gizmos". From a scan of this morning's press about the CeBIT show, I was evidently not alone. Just as I am obviously not alone in being more interested now in how the technology can facilitate business rather than in the gadget wow factor. And more focused on what online services there are available.
Evidently the exhibition this year has been aligned to a heightened visitor interest in practical applications of technology.
As is explained in veteran IT watcher Roland Tellzen's story in today's The Australian newspaper - :
I'm keen to get the maximum value from the exhibition tomorrow, as well as catching up with a few colleagues during the day. As I no longer live fifteen minutes from the exhibition centre, so won't be able to pop back a second day for another look, what I don't see tomorrow I don't see. Not my ambling round approach of yore.
I'll be looking particularly for ideas about how the technology can simplify and streamline the businesses of those of us working from home.
I've just spent a couple of hours and clicking through to nearly all of the linked websites of exhibitors. It looks like I will have no shortage of things to see or questions to ask.
It's been a bit frustrating, this pre-visit research exercise. For instance, I found it frustrating that some links did not work. And it seemed odd to me that at least two of the links were to sites in German, without an English version,or even just a page in English saying "come and visit our stand and we'll explain all". Perhaps some underlings were charged with filling out the form and did not stop to wonder how people with, if I remember the phrase correctly, überhaupt kein Deutsch (no German whatsoever), might be encouraged to visit the respective stands. Or maybe they thought the show was in Austria.
And while I found it interesting to have the various exhibitors arrayed in sectors - as e-Health, Web Services, Business Software, etc, it was a challenge to work through the logos to the links, one by one, and not see them displayed in a list anywhere that I could see. Also, as some of the exhibitors obviously put their products into several categories, there was quite a bit of repetition involved- "I thought I'd looked at that: oh my, so I have (grrr)". Eventually I ran out of time to go one by one through the twenty four categories. I have enough to go on, but I will have to check the program thoroughly tomorrow so that I don't miss stands I would particularly like to visit.
It would have been beneficial especially for those of us on a one-hit time schedule, to have on the website a map of the space with exhibitors listed. I assume I'll get such a map tomorrow when I arrive, but then I will have to spend twenty minutes or so studying and planning my circuit, which would otherwise have been viewing and question-asking time.
I've earmarked several stands to check out as a matter of priority and I'm particularly keen to talk with the people at:
As I wasn't planning to lug a laptop around all day, I had thought I would not be able to do any live blogging from the show, but I've just re-visited the CeBIT site and found - the ! Nice one. Maybe someone there will be able to show me how to make work for me and not the other way around.
Having just spent the past couple of hours going through the list of exhibitors and checking their websites, I believe I'll have plenty to keep me engaged, checking out the various stands, asking questions.
I must admit that in the past, although I'm not a real gadget guy, my interest in this sort of trade show tended to be about trying to understand something about the latest gadgets - "technology as gizmos". From a scan of this morning's press about the CeBIT show, I was evidently not alone. Just as I am obviously not alone in being more interested now in how the technology can facilitate business rather than in the gadget wow factor. And more focused on what online services there are available.
Evidently the exhibition this year has been aligned to a heightened visitor interest in practical applications of technology.
As is explained in veteran IT watcher Roland Tellzen's story in today's The Australian newspaper - :
"It's about how business today can use the new wave of technology," said Jackie Taranto, managing director of Hannover Fairs Australia, CeBIT's organiser.
"To now, CeBIT has brought in the right environment to see what is happening with innovation on a global scale.
"Now we're providing the environment to show how that innovation can be used to improve business competitiveness on a global scale."
and"Everything is moving to a more software and services platform, rather than individual devices."
I'm keen to get the maximum value from the exhibition tomorrow, as well as catching up with a few colleagues during the day. As I no longer live fifteen minutes from the exhibition centre, so won't be able to pop back a second day for another look, what I don't see tomorrow I don't see. Not my ambling round approach of yore.
I'll be looking particularly for ideas about how the technology can simplify and streamline the businesses of those of us working from home.
I've just spent a couple of hours and clicking through to nearly all of the linked websites of exhibitors. It looks like I will have no shortage of things to see or questions to ask.
It's been a bit frustrating, this pre-visit research exercise. For instance, I found it frustrating that some links did not work. And it seemed odd to me that at least two of the links were to sites in German, without an English version,or even just a page in English saying "come and visit our stand and we'll explain all". Perhaps some underlings were charged with filling out the form and did not stop to wonder how people with, if I remember the phrase correctly, überhaupt kein Deutsch (no German whatsoever), might be encouraged to visit the respective stands. Or maybe they thought the show was in Austria.
And while I found it interesting to have the various exhibitors arrayed in sectors - as e-Health, Web Services, Business Software, etc, it was a challenge to work through the logos to the links, one by one, and not see them displayed in a list anywhere that I could see. Also, as some of the exhibitors obviously put their products into several categories, there was quite a bit of repetition involved- "I thought I'd looked at that: oh my, so I have (grrr)". Eventually I ran out of time to go one by one through the twenty four categories. I have enough to go on, but I will have to check the program thoroughly tomorrow so that I don't miss stands I would particularly like to visit.
It would have been beneficial especially for those of us on a one-hit time schedule, to have on the website a map of the space with exhibitors listed. I assume I'll get such a map tomorrow when I arrive, but then I will have to spend twenty minutes or so studying and planning my circuit, which would otherwise have been viewing and question-asking time.
I've earmarked several stands to check out as a matter of priority and I'm particularly keen to talk with the people at:
(alpha) which "takes your photos, videos and Flash animations and turns them all into one easy format".
, which looks like a for the Australian media.
- an online accounting service with a monthly subscription of AU$15 a month
, which looks like a for the Australian media.
- an online accounting service with a monthly subscription of AU$15 a month
- which describes its purpose, intriguingly for me, as being "to revolutionise human-to-human digital communication by creating
intelligent technologies to fuse language and image into one seamless
world of Total Communication" (I have to see that!)
- a discussion network and an engine for the next-generation of web forums.
- a discussion network and an engine for the next-generation of web forums.
As I wasn't planning to lug a laptop around all day, I had thought I would not be able to do any live blogging from the show, but I've just re-visited the CeBIT site and found - the ! Nice one. Maybe someone there will be able to show me how to make work for me and not the other way around.
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Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 at 6:44 am under