With a stronger than ever focus on global future trends, CeBIT, the world's leading event for digital business, continues along its growth path.

At the same time CeBIT is systematically expanding its range of services, creating additional value for the international ICT industry's providers and users. "There is a tremendous dynamic at play in the international information technology, telecommunications and online services industry. Technological advances and ICT-supported business models are noticeably changing global markets.

We bring this dynamic to CeBIT in Hannover with continuous development, relevant topics and new services," said Frank Pörschmann, Senior Vice President of CeBIT, this Monday in Munich. CeBIT 2012 begins on 6 March 2012. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will officially open the event the evening before. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is expected to join her as representative of the CeBIT 2012 Partner Country.

  Pörschmann said,
"CeBIT's sharpened profile and clear four-platform structure - CeBIT pro, CeBIT lab, CeBIT gov and CeBIT life - has been praised by participating companies and visitors. We feel this positive response very clearly in the market. When we consider our success indicators, we are by all measures ahead of those from the previous year. We are particularly pleased with the increased participation from abroad."

The top theme of CeBIT 2012 is "Managing Trust", which brings to center stage the topic of trust and security in the digital world. "Trust in modern technologies and services is the key component of growth in the digital economy. Going forward it presents significant challenges to providers in the information, telecommunications and online industries. More and more companies are recognizing trust and security as management functions," said Pörschmann.

Right now in the crucial area of cloud computing, with globally-deployed ICT offerings and increasing mobility, it is no longer enough to address only the technical security questions. Equally important is the consideration of international laws and organizational security. Furthermore, given the dynamic growth of social networks, a discussion about media competence is urgently needed. "Only CeBIT, with its unique internationality and interdisciplinary focus, can bring together such high-level discussions," said Pörschmann.

  More and more ICT-using enterprises also participate at CeBIT, illuminating the great extent of its influence.
"Next year we will see even more energy and logistics companies, automotive manufacturers, and content providers at CeBIT. We expect to host 700 IT managers from leading enterprises around the world at our 'House of CIOs'. No other event approaches the high C-level density of CeBIT," emphasized Pörschmann.
Increasing digitalization and rapid advances in mobility set the trends at "CeBIT pro", which include the latest eCommerce solutions and business apps as well as innovative analysis and prognosis tools which can be used to simulate future corporate developments in real time and analyze and manage huge quantities of data.

"Logistics IT" is a new focal point at CeBIT. Efficient logistics are an increasingly dominant competitive factor. Managing integrated logistics processes across the entire supply chain is not possible without IT. This new platform in Hall 5 offers manufacturers of logistics software an ideal showcase.

This year CeBIT is also introducing a dedicated special display for smartphone accessories and portable gadgets. Located in Hall 16, the "CeBIT i-land" features products and solutions for a mobile world.

  "CeBIT life" represents a showcase for solutions involving digital living at home and on the go.

Following its successful launch in 2011, this exhibition platform is being further refined and developed in 2012, including the addition of the new "Digital Drive" display category for the automotive industry. CeBIT life emphasizes business as well as entertainment topics. The business segment includes new digital business models and markets like hybrid media formats, the smart home and the networked car. And the event's entertainment segment will demonstrate ICT solutions in application areas like gaming, sports and music.

A new feature consists of the "CeBIT C3 Conference" - a cross-industry-focused forum based on "Content, Creativity and Convergence." This conference is geared to an audience of publishers, games developers, music and film producers who are interested in discovering potential new synergies with the ICT industry as well as promising business models for the future.

  The new "Urban Solutions" display segment puts the spotlight on the challenges associated with increasing urbanization.
This showcase is part of the "CeBIT gov" platform, which is devoted to the topics of eGovernment and health care. Visitors to this attraction in Hall 8 will get a comprehensive overview of intelligent ICT infrastructures for conurbations. "The number of so-called 'mega-cities' is growing rapidly. An ever-growing number of people are leaving the countryside for the city. More than half of the world's population currently lives in cities, and by 2050 we will have reached a ratio of 70 percent.

This trend presents urban planners with a whole set of challenges which can only be solved with the aid of intelligent, technology-supported concepts. For the ICT industry this represents a significant opportunity, since we are talking about a developing global market here, one that is worth billions of dollars. CeBIT is going to promote this exciting and important topic under the title of 'Urban Solutions' over the coming years," explained Pörschmann.

Established ICT enterprises are more interested in the topic of innovations than ever. This is why CODE_n12 - a new competition open to startups and dedicated to creative solutions in the area of "Shaping Mobile Life" - has been created. The 50 most innovative companies can present their ideas here free of charge in Hall 16 at CeBIT 2012. And the very best ICT solution among them will be honored with the CODE_n12 award, worth 25,000 euros.

  For the first time ever, a section of Hall 9 will be given over completely to the topic of recruiting.

Another first involves the new cooperation between CeBIT and the monster.de careers portal. In the face of a dearth of qualified specialists and managers on the labor market, CeBIT is responding by greatly expanding its recruiting activities, thus underscoring its status as the digital world's leading job market.

A key component of CeBIT consists of the CeBIT Global Conferences, which, since premiering in 2008, have developed into the ICT industry's leading global conference. The list of speakers for 2012 includes Dr. Werner Vogels, CTO (Chief Technical Officer) of Amazon, B. Kevin Turner, COO (Chief Operating Officer) of Microsoft, Hamid Akhavan, CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Siemens Enterprise Communications and Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio.