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CeBIT Home cancelled

Susanne Rieger ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 31 May 2000 15:32 BST

CeBIT Home, a spinoff of CeBIT, the mammoth technology fair, will not take place this year, organisers told ZDNet Wednesday. CeBIT Home spokesman Eberhard Roloff said, "From a quality-management point of view it wouldn't have been fair for those exhibitors who remained [in the show] to carry on with it."

Roloff denied speculation that the event's switch from Hanover to Leipzig had led to the show's cancellation: "The Leipzig fairground is a good one, the staging area is sufficiently large." Exhibitors had pulled out of the show, but for different reasons altogether, Roloff said: "One mobile phone manufacturer told us his agenda is full for two years and he had neither time nor capacity for further fairs."

The organisers made the decision to stop the show two days ago, according to Roloff, and losses will run to the millions of German marks. Whether or when further CeBIT Home fairs will take place, he didn't want to speculate yet: "We have to think about it and check our heads before we continue." Current trends have to be considered, he said; for instance, at the moment exhibitors prefer Business to Business solutions over Business to Consumer.

On Tuesday the federation of electronics games manufacturers issued a criticism of CeBIT Home, saying the show was not sufficiently taking their needs into account. CeBIT Home has been producing negative headlines for months because many large games makers would not be participating, one of the reasons for the downfall of this year's show.

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