The growth of the internet has had no negative impact on rising visitor numbers. Mr Schomburg says that, far from being a threat to the future of the trade show, the growth of online information through the internet, is proving to be a benefit. But browsing through online information is, he says, no substitute for actually visiting the show. People told me back in 1979 that we did not need trade fairs any more. But the human being is not a machine - we are creatures designed to communicate.
People can get information easily through the internet.
But going to a show is not only about gathering information, it is about interaction. One of the most popular events at CeBIT is the evening session in the Beer Hall where we can have as many as 4,500 people networking and doing business together. You cannot believe how much business gets done there. Spontaneous connections It is, of course, the spontaneity and chance meetings that continue to draw people to trade shows. Morten Lundall, chief executive of European information services provider Nextra, compares the experience with reading a newspaper.