CeBIT 2009
Brief Overview
In March (3-8, 2009), CeBIT will once again be opening its gates in Hannover, Germany. CeBIT is the world's largest and most renowned trade fair for the world of IT and telecommunications.
This year we have won the opportunity to join the Open Source Projects area in conjunction with Linux New Media. This entitles us to attend for free and have 2 speaker slots. This is the first year CeBIT has held an Open Source area.
We have never had a presence at CeBIT either large or small, and we felt this year with there being no cost to attend other than travel, accommodation and swag this would be a good chance to test the waters.
Ideally we are attending to learn more about our users, and understand why they have chosen to use Firefox or Thunderbird. We expect to meet technology fans, but of different backgrounds and levels of skill. This is a great learning opportunity for us.
We also have the possibility to meet and network with other open source projects such as Open Office etc.
Logistics
Venue Name and Address
CeBIT
Deutsche Messe
Hannover, Germany
CeBIT - website: http://www.cebit.de/homepage_e
Map of exhibition grounds (hall number TBC): http://www.cebit.de/43470
Important Phone Numbers
Jane UK Cell: +44 7748 636 265 / German Cell: +49 160 854 0909
William FR Cell:+33 145 77 69 18
Getting there
CeBIT provides a guide - which is the simplest thing to follow: http://www.cebit.de/48811
For any community members attending, I (Jane) will be happy to book travel for you. Or if you book alone, your travel/accommodation expenses will be reimbursed.
We will also book a hire car for the duration of this week, and we should plan to car pool to the venue together each day.
Accommodation
Finding a hotel room in Hannover is always a fun part of attending CeBIT. I think the best thing is for us to team up and try to get in the same hotel. As soon as I have an idea who is attending and when. I will look to book a hotel. Bear in mind, this might not actually be in Hannover and we will need to drive in each day.
NB: I (JF) have tried to research hotels and they are VERY expensive nearby. I have spoken to a few people and they recommend, we stay at Wolfsburg and take the ICE train (35 min train ride) there and back each day. The cost of hotels here is currently much cheaper, and with the cost of a hire car, parking, petrol and the sure fire traffic jams we shall sit in, this seems to be a smart option.
Hotel sites for reference:
CeBIT Hotel guide: http://www.cebit.de/48826
Conference Details
What is CeBIT?
CeBIT (Centrum der Büro- und Informationstechnik; German for "Centre of Office and Information technology") is the world's largest computer expo. It is held each spring on the world's largest fairground in Hannover, Germany, and is a barometer of the state of the art in information technology. With an exhibition area of roughly 450,000 m² (5 million ft²), over 6,111 exhibitors and more than 755,000 visitors in 1995, it was larger than COMPUTEX and the no-longer held COMDEX. By 2008, the CeBIT expo attendance was at 495,000, and was held from 4 March to 9 March 2008. The CeBIT 2009 event will be organized by Deutsche Messe AG and is expected to surpass the previous year's success.
Types of Visitors
Tuesday to Thursday
The first few days of CeBIT are where all the main deals are done. CEOs and VP of all the major computer hardware and software manufacturers want to do business during these first days. Therefore, the types of folks around on these days are the business crowd. There is also likely to be more press around at this time.
Friday to Sunday
Visitors from Friday to Sunday are mainly technology interested consumers.
Mozilla Speaking Slots
Speaker Slot 1
David Ascher has been approached. He could talk on Thunderbird and open source in Enterprise.
David cannot attend.
Chris Hofmann will be attending CeBIT and will 2 talks on:
"How Mozilla and open source communities work and how its possible to engage at corporate and institutional levels. "Understanding Open Source, Mozilla, and Firefox and How You Can Leverage Open Source Solutions in Your Enterprise or Institution." (Working title)
Time of slot - TBC. However, should be a day between Tuesday and Thursday
Speaker Slot 2
Chris has kindly agreed to do this session as well, hopefully with the help of Tim Riley.
"Firefox growth and community building / how to get involved?"
Time of slot - TBC. However, should be on Saturday or Sunday
Timeline
Monday Mar 2nd
12pm - 5pm: Booth prep (Jane, and volunteers!)
Tuesday Mar 2nd to Saturday Mar 7th
9am - 6pm: Booth open
Sunday Mar 8th
9am - 4pm: Booth open
4pm - 8pm: Need to clean up booth (Jane, and 1 other volunteer please!)
We need your help!
In order to make it a successful event, we will definitely need your help! CeBIT is a great opportunity to talk with people who know about Mozilla, Thunderbird and Firefox, but who may not be aware of our amazing organization and community. We see this as a chance to learn why people choose Firefox or Thunderbird, and hope we can evangelize why we are different in the quickly changing browser landscape.
We will have a demo station during the whole week, and we would love if you could come help out during those days. The demo point is for a maximum of 2 people at anyone time, but we are looking for 3 people each day in order to rotate when needed and give someone a well earned break.
We'd love community members and Mozilla staff to help out - it would be great to have a broad representation of both.
As mentioned, we will be conducting a small survey at the demo station and collecting data on browsing, knowledge of open source, which Mozilla products do they know about / use (without any personal information). It will be a web based survey.
If interested in helping out, please put your name below -- there is no restriction to how many days one can attend! Please just bear in mind that you will need to travel to Hannover, so thinking in blocks of consecutive days would be great.
Monday March 2nd
We need help to get things ready for the opening, Jane plus 1 other.
| Time | Demo Station (Volunteer 1) | Demo Station (Volunteer 2) | Demo Station (Volunteer 3) |
| 12pm-5pm | Jane | Tomcat | - |
Tuesday March 3rd
Full Day at the event.
| Time | Demo Station (Volunteer 1) | Demo Station (Volunteer 2) | Demo Station (Volunteer 3) |
| 9am-6pm | Jane | Tomcat | - |
Wednesday March 4th
Full Day at the event.
| Time | Demo Station (Volunteer 1) | Demo Station (Volunteer 2) | Demo Station (Volunteer 3) |
| 9am-6pm | Jane | Tomcat | - |
Thursday March 5th
Full Day at the event.
| Time | Demo Station (Volunteer 1) | Demo Station (Volunteer 2) | Demo Station (Volunteer 3) |
| 9am-6pm | Jane | Tomcat | Tim (half day) |
Friday March 6th
Full Day at the event.
| Time | Demo Station (Volunteer 1) | Demo Station (Volunteer 2) | Demo Station (Volunteer 3) |
| 9am-6pm | Tomcat | Tim | - |
Saturday March 7th
Full Day at the event.
| Time | Demo Station (Volunteer 1) | Demo Station (Volunteer 2) | Demo Station (Volunteer 3) |
| 9am-6pm | Tomcat | kaie | Tim |
Sunday March 8th
Last day at the event. Need help taking stuff away and clearing up if necessary.
| Time | Demo Station (Volunteer 1) | Demo Station (Volunteer 2) | Demo Station (Volunteer 3) |
| 9am-4pm | kaie | Tomcat | - |
| 4pm-6pm | kaie | Tomcat | - |