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We sure were proud the day we had our first booth at the CeBIT. In Hall 19 we had a 20 sqm black booth. It must have been either 1991 or 1992. It was amazing to present a CCD Scanner with keyboard wedge, amongst the incessant beeping barcode readers. At some point we had worked our way up to 250 sqm on two levels in Hall 1. After the exhibition was finished the booths were not dismantled - this exhibition hall was exclusively for the CeBIT (and except for the 10 days out of the year when the exhibition was held, only mice and rats lived there). The booths belonged to the exhibiting companies; in addition we had meeting pavillons on the roof of Hall 1, including entry into the land register. What a strange feeling it was at the time: the CeBIT. Lufthansa flew fully booked 747s from Frankfurt to Hannover, train reservations had to be made a half a year in advance. . .do you remember? In 2000 we sold our booth, and at a good time too. The CeBIT had a record-breaking year in 2001, but since then, the exhibition has basically been reduced by half. You never would have dreamed it possible amidst the ecstasy and alcohol poisoning.

A hotel room was unthinkable, unless of course, you wanted to spend the night in Braunschweig or Kassel. So our only option were privately rented rooms in and around Laatzen, where we dragged ourselves back to abandoned kids‘ rooms for 10 days. Sometimes we were robbed: the private rooms were all paid for in cash, which the thieves knew, and some renters did not think much of banks.

I also looked into the HRS: now I can book a hotel room near the exhibition at a fair price. And Lufthansa is flying again to Hannover, this time with smaller planes (and they have lots of seats available).

In our segment, EuroShop is purposefully going after the CeBIT, by having the exhibition dates overlap. Düsseldorf is completely sold out, and there are no hotels near the exhibition available for less than 550 euro per night. All that remains is the memory of a nice CeBIT decade, where everything increased and expanded, and the parties were more expensive and lasted longer.

One day I will go the CeBIT, that will do for 2011.