CEBIT 2018, could be the last one?

Late yesterday evening I did come back from my one day visit to the CEBIT 2018 in Hannover (https://www.cebit.de/en/). As the old concept did not really work anymore for some years already and the organizer wanted to kick off a new approach - younger, more digital, at a different time of the year, other focus areas and main topics, etc. - the look and feel was surprising and you had to get used to it .

What are the key changes that I realized?

• A lot of the key players from the past had been missing
• Other big players did fill the free space and got even bigger
• Like at the CES Las Vegas, a lot of Automotive companies are pushing out the "old" IT companies --> a car is becoming more intelligent, more software, more electric, more A.I. in a simple metal housing or plastic case. Everything gets more integrated and platform based 
• Hundreds of startup companies did get much more focus and space
• To get younger - CEBIT 2018 got more an event character than the "old" exhibition/fair style - a really large ferris wheel for business meetings, a large stage for DJs, well known music bands and other show acts
• Much more stages inside (small and big ones) for presentations, conferences and panel discussions
• Some companies used the opportunity to attract the younger audience, other had no clue yet, how to handle this
• Will be interesting to see in some weeks from now, if this new approach was successful and will be the start of the "NEW" CEBIT, or I have been to the last one yesterday?

The panel discussion that I was asked to join was a lot of fun and very well received by the audience. Besides the moderator from the Computerwoche online newspaper, we had a VW HR person, a BWI (the German armed forces IT provider) recruiter and me as the right placement advisor, with a little bit a different view to the IT market. I did already answer all questions in my post from 10-Jun-18, and used this as reference during the discussion. Some more highlights below:

• According to a Gallup's World Poll from 2017, only 15% of the world's one billion full-time workers are engaged at work  http://news.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/212045/world-broken-workplace.aspx?g_source=position1&g_medium=related&g_campaign=tiles 
• We had roughly 3.5 million companies in Germany in September 2017. So a lot of choices for the candidates on the market and much more pressure on the company side, to work out their unique selling point for candidates and to be attractive enough, to find the required talent  https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1929/umfrage/unternehmen-nach-beschaeftigtengroessenklassen/ 
• The Bitkom (https://www.bitkom.org/EN/index-EN.html) did bring out a new study for the CEBIT about blocking points for new technology deployment. 63% is data security and protection, 41% is skills and experts/talent shortage
• Companies should stop chasing for skills only and start to concentrate more on solving their business problem and to have the right team or company culture fit with new hires
• And again the advice to the candidates: Be open, honest and authentic and don't waste your time with companies that do not fit to you (there are 3.5 million choices out there )                              https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/activity:6412600462352146432/ 

And finally two examples for the event character yesterday:

• Compressorhead did play on the large stage outside as one of the main acts. Great guys and great playlist, enjoy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0YxDJBJTMGQE8e2uzg7Ctw 
• And another Intel drone light show, like at the 2018 Winter Olympics opening  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1zZ2Um_lP0