CeBIT – Enjoying IT’s renaissance years
Last week was quite a landmark week for the organisers of CeBIT (@CeBIT) as the week kicked off with a ceremony at the Institute of Directors in London to mark the official signing of the UK country partner agreement which will mean that the UK government and trade associations like TechUK (a trade association formerly known as Intellect) will work closely together to showcase the best of British technology on the world stage for five days during the largest IT show on earth.
As the week drew to a close, CeBIT was voted Best Technology Event for the third year running by readers of V3.co.uk. As V3’s editor, Madeline Bennett said, “CeBIT has quite a following amongst our readers.”
Of course, for a show which is well into its twenties, it has experienced quite an ebb and flow and as 2013 comes to a close it will see the focus shift from an all-round technology showcase to a focus on business-to-business technology. 2014 will also bid farewell to the event stretching into the weekend, two welcome shifts for all those who have diligently manned their companies’ stands on a Saturday and/or Sunday, enduring the human waves of students in search of freebies and sweets. No branded pen or stress ball was left behind in their wake. But now CeBIT returns to business.
For GFT, CeBIT is a key focus for our team throughout the year. Our CEO Ulrich Dietz initiated the start-up contest and international innovation platform CODE_n (@CODE_n) which dominates the CeBIT landscape as it takes over the whole of Hall 16 at the heart of the Hannover exhibition complex. This year will provide a space inspired by big data for startup discussions and networking. Along 240 metres of the exhibition hall, internationally renowned designers Clemens Weisshaar and Reed Kram will create six 12 meter high installations depicting actual anonymised big data. The actual size of these visualizations is a first at CeBIT or any other technology event. More news on the 50 CODE_n finalists will be announced soon.
Weisshaar Kram is a particularly inspired choice of design team bearing in mind Kram’s background as an MIT student and the teams impactful projects such as the Audi Chair and Outrace in Trafalgar Square commissioned for the London Design Festival in 2010.
CODE_n will be an eye-catching and edgy environment where our 50 finalists (who will be announced next week) will vie for the attention of the visiting media, for global recognition as well as for the €30,000 prize.
CODE_n firmly continues to be part of the CeBIT renaissance. Innovation is key to the work GFT does with clients in leading capital market firms in the City and CODE_n this year, perhaps more than any so far in its short life, is most relevant. Having covered mobility and sustainability in previous years, the 2014 theme of big data is and will continue to be a driving force for leader advantage in financial services. So this year, more than ever, watch this space for the 50 emerging big-data players who will be shaping not financial services but all aspects of our lives from medical advances to smart cities. The future is bright, the future’s data. Big time.
By Helen Thomas – (@HelenLTh) Sales Director Enterprise and Services, GFT UK (@GFT_EN)
