It's Midsummer - - And Half-Time Between Two CeBITs !
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Dear Reader:
The above headline is a copy from last year, and for the same purpose. But while last year's midsummer e-paper was just a routine announcement, this year it takes in a greater significance. Catchword: The new concept of CeBIT! Because in 2008, CeBIT will be back again in name, but no longer the show it was before. Period.
Dramatic changes in markets, in cost and profit structures, in ways of information gathering and in buyer's as well as exhibitors' attitudes towards the time-honored marketing instrument “trade fair” were all asking for a shake-up. So, the CeBIT organizers, their exhibitor committees and supporting organizations did their homework and now announce a " New CeBIT concept ready for takeoff in 2008", or, to quote the C.E.O. in charge, Ernst Raue saying CeBIT is gearing up to " underscore its outstanding role as the digital community's No. 1 marketplace ". First news about the new concept already hit the headlines of the world's economic newspapers and trade journals, and you may also click the CeBIT homepage for preliminary information.
Whatever we aspire to do, there will be always room for improvement, so a concept change may actually take some fine tuning over more than just a single year to completion, pending customers' acceptance. But nevertheless, starting next March CeBIT will already shine up like a new penny, completely revamped, streamlined, more user-oriented, with maximum efficiency in terms of thematic layout, with reduced duration and added-value services - - shaped around the following primary fields of visitor interest:
- Business Solutions
- Public Sector Solutions
- Home @ Mobile Solutions
- Technology & Infrastructure
Our publication TAIWAN TECHNOLOGY and our Hannover Pacific Corp., the marketing service company behind it, care for Taiwan's ICT industry and nothing else. Which means we have to present their broad lines of computer & telecom hardware at worldwide CeBIT events most professionally and attract the usual bunches of die-hard, seasoned buyers for them. Consequently, the hardware section of the multi-faceted CeBIT 2008 will be the field we have to concentrate on.
Starting next March, CeBIT will also be more compact, running for only six days instead of seven.
A totally new visitor marketing concept which also involves the exhibitors will hopefully have many more buyers float to the CeBIT gates; business visitor registration will be mandatory for the benefit of exhibitors and - finally ! - adjusted ticket prices will keep those “ !#@!***+&!!! ” end users away for the first four business days of the week and concentrate them on the two weekend days. ( It is schizophrenic - - those always cursed "end users" and their purchasing power is finally the target of all merchandise, but at trade fairs the professionals want us to treat them like cheeses: love 'em, yes, but keep 'em under cover, except for consumption ! )
So, mighty are the preparations in Hannover for an outstanding CeBIT 2008 and everbody goeth forth, with his heart full of hope for the new concept, and we will keep you informed as far as Taiwan is concerned.
And now for something completely different :
Very soon, our Headline News section will also start to feature detailed CeBIT previews from Hannover, so you can either retrieve them from the organizer's homepage or from this publication.
In the first case, you get them directly from the source, in the second case, they will be edited for clarity and for saving time: Unlike Western languages with their flexibility and rhetoric that can make banalities and platitudes sound bombastic, a transcription from Western languages into Chinese characters calls for simplicity and accuracy, based on solid facts - - which in turn requests us China-based writers to use the English language in a more disciplined way than European advertising prima donnas and public relation jokers will ever understand. So, the choice is yours....
Today's "Headline News" carry a story which I highly recommend as a careful weekend reading :
"A Survey of the Taiwan ICT sector: Still Going Strong, But the Game is Changing !"It is made available to you courtesy of the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei. With 6.474 words it seems hopelessly over-long, but if you are a seasoned buyer, you will need every word of it if your job is to assess Asian markets.
Taiwan companies in the ICT sector are continuing to hold onto an impressive global economy. Counting the production already shifted to China, they still manufacture and control the market with a whopping 99% of the world's motherboards, 87% of the notebook computers, and 93% of the cable modems. Last year, the production value for Taiwan's ICT industry (again counting output on both sides of the Taiwan Strait ) came to US89.7 billion, and in four years is forecast to be worth some US$144.8 billion.
And as it looks already now, CeBIT Hannover will continue to be Taiwan's indispensable window to the world. Among the 480.000 visitors this year there were 385.400 professionals, out of them no less than 27.600 from Asia - - that's more than any Asian computer show can boast foreign buyers, provided, of course, their organizers would allow an independent auditing authority to testify their visitor statistics, as it is mandatory in Germany........
So let us part with our old slogan:
CeBIT Hannover - - everything else is a compromise !
Yours truly,
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