Here we are, a week after Europe’s business festival for innovation and digitalization, and it is time for us to reflect on Frenus’ experience as an exhibitor. As publicized, CEBIT 2018 had a renewed concept of blending with the well-known exhibition format, packed with conferences, speakers and product displays, with the new festival addition of the d!campus area, featuring celebrity performers, attractions and interactive activities. CEBIT 2018 also had a special focus on startups as a part of the scale11 platform, helping them reach and interact with investors, prospects and likeminded people.
Frenus’ stand location was in Hall 17 as a part of the digital business and administration exhibitors. Since most of the fair activities were carried out until 11 PM, the timetable of events gave us a bigger opportunity for networking with other digital enthusiasts. Over a glass of gin tonic and an uplifting music, our team enjoyed the company of experts from various fields and shared our experience and insights in the evening.
We were eager to explore the exhibition grounds as well, making our first stop at scale11, where we got a glimpse of the entrepreneurs of today – a range of market researchers and startups from variety of sectors and countries, each presenting their innovative ideas with the potential to shape the business and technology of the future.
Other highlights of the exhibition were the drone area and virtual reality experiences. The drone park – a collaboration between Deutsche Messe and Intel, was to showcase the capabilities of drones and their practical applications for businesses.
The event was not short on expert speakers either. Some examples are: Stephanie Peterson, VP Digital Planning and Activation at adidas, who spoke about the creation of the video ad for the 2018 World Cup (the ad where scenes adapt to the audience based on their interest); Martin Hoffman, CIO of Volkswagen Group, shared insights regarding the application of artificial intelligence in the automotive industry; Kai Herzberger, Head of Ecommerce and Transformational Retail team at Facebook, who spoke about the importance of transformation in the digital world, and many others.
CEBIT 2018 was a space to showcase a lot of innovative technologies and projects that change the world for the better. One such project was CIMON by Airbus and IBM – an AI based assistant that can help DLR Space Administration astronauts on their missions in outer space. Another project by Intel was the first autonomous electric vtol (a vertical take-off and landing aircraft) called “the velocopter”, which serves the role of an air taxi in the vision of smart cities. Volkswagen also contributed to the smart cityscene with their platform Volkswagen We – using mobile connectivity to link drivers with their cars, as well as incorporating service packages to meet customer needs and integrate them into a wider network.
Setting business side, the festivities in the d!campus helped us relax and blow off steam in the midst of our busy schedule. Attractions like SAP’s Ferris wheel and IBM’s cloud presented us and thousand exhibitors with an opportunity to take a break for a couple of minutes whilst enjoying a birds-eye view of the exhibition grounds, the extensive list of performers and DJ-s kept our spirits uplifted during the afternoon and evening.
As expected, being part of CEBIT was exciting and intensive at the same time and served as a great opportunity to connect with similar minds and prospective business partners.
