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.

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.

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

Halle 6 - F50

Important Phone Numbers

Jane UK Cell: +44 7748 636 265 / German Cell: +49 160 854 0909

Tomcat Cell: +49 172 460 4113

Getting there

CeBIT provides a guide - which is the simplest thing to follow: http://www.cebit.de/48811

We should plan to take the train from Wolfsburg to Hanover Messe station - it is advised to book tickets in advance at the Deutsche Bahn website:

http://www.bahn.de/international/view/en/index.shtml

Train Travel Times

Wolfsburg - Hannover morning train times:

• 06:55 - 07:28 (ICE)
• 08:05 - 08:37 (IC)
• 08:55 - 09:28 (ICE)

More details for the 6:55am train:

• Wolfsburg Hbf to Hannover Hbf
  • Depart: 06:55am
  • Platform:1
  • Train number: ICE 946, ICE 956 (Intercity-Express)

• Hannover Hbf
  • Arrive: 07:28
  • Platform: 11

• Hannover Hbf to Hannover Messe Ground
  • Dept: 07:41am
  • Platform: 4
  • Train number: ICE 71 (Intercity-Express)

Accommodation

I found a hotel for us in Wolfburg and have already booked a rooms.

Address:

TRYP Hotel Wolfsburg, Willy-Brandt-Platz 2, D - 38 440 Wolfsburg

Tel: + 49 (0) 5361 899-000

URL: http://www.solmelia.com/solNew/hoteles/jsp/C_Hotel_Description.jsp?codigoHotel=6511

Who's staying when:

Tomcat:

Arrive - Mon Mar 2nd Dept - Sun Mar 8th

Tim:

Arrive - Wed Mar 4th Dept - Sun Mar 8th

Chris:

Arrive - Mon Mar 2nd Dept - Sun Mar 8th

Jane:

Arrive - Mon Mar 2nd Dept - Thurs Mar 5th

NB: Kaie is going to stay in Kassel on Saturday night and has booked his own hotel.

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.

CeBIT on Wikipedia

About CeBIT

CeBIT Open Source Area

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

Session 1 -
Timing: Wednesday March 4th at 2:30pm

Title: Understanding Open Source & Mozilla. How You Can Leverage Firefox in Your Enterprise or Institution.

Speakers: Chris Hofmann (Dir. of Special Projects)

Chris will explain what is behind Firefox's amazing growth in browser market share over the last 5 years, and offers insight into what is driving adoption in Enterprise and Institutional settings. He will share ideas on how to evaluate if Open Source is the right solution for your organization, and how institutions are gaining leverage in their businesses by using Open Source Software solutions. Chris will describe how to set up pilot projects to identify and remove obstacles for successfully deploying Firefox.

Session 2 -
Timing: Saturday March 7th at 2:30pm

Title: Getting involved with the Mozilla Project

Speakers: Tim Riley (Dir. of Quality Assurance) and Chris Hofmann (Dir. of Special Projects)

Mozilla will describe how you can have impact on improving the web, and contributing to a better browser experience for 230 Million browser users around the world. Sharing the core values of the Mozilla project and why people participate, Mozilla will explain how you can get involved in a wide variety of ways; including non-programming areas. Find out about projects which are looking for help.

Timeline

Monday Mar 2nd
12pm - 5pm: Booth prep (Jane, and Tomcat)

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 (Tomcat, and Kaie)

NB: Barbara will most likely attend on Tuesday to meet with press contacts and network.

Monday March 2nd

Set up the demo station

Tuesday March 3rd

Full Day at the event.

Wednesday March 4th

Full Day at the event.

Thursday March 5th

Full Day at the event.

Friday March 6th

Full Day at the event.

Saturday March 7th

Full Day at the event.

Sunday March 8th

Last day at the event. Need help taking stuff away and clearing up if necessary.