The financially hard times are caused by a mass exodus of tier one exhibitors from the show in Hannover, Germany. Last year Sony pulled out, and this year Nokia, Motorola, Benq, Konica/Minolta and Lenovo are following. The show will rent out 15 per cent less floor space, and visitor counts are expected to display a similar drop.

The likely culprit is the classical 7 fat years syndrome: the show for years kept growing and growing, but failed to attract the right audience. As the T-Shirt hunters and star-gazers moved in, the corporate buyers moved on to more focused events like 3GSM in Barcelona and IFA in Berlin.

Add that to the fact that Hannover isn't exactly Las Vegas. The town has an embarrassing lack of hotel bed, forcing delegates to stay with local residents or commute in from far away places. Reality is catching up with Cebit.

At Cebit, any time is beer time (photo from Cebit 2005)

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