NEWS .../ Cont’d. from
NEWS .../ Cont’d. from page 1 Welcome to IFA 2007 More International Than Ever! now organised: “We are delighted that the whole of the Messe is being used this year and that everyone is back on board. We are also very happy with the way that the space has been separated and organised to provide the maximum amount of clarity in the overall structure. It makes life easier for buyers and exhibitors and also encourages genuine competition within each sector.” Despite the scale of the event and the complications that this brings, IFA's VIDEO management is determined to provide visitors with a simple and transparent reflection of the current state of the market: “In the case of content, we asked ourselves what type it was, to be looked at or listened to and in the case of devices, whether they were personal or public.” We are also very happy with the way that the space has been separated and organised to provide the maximum amount of clarity in the overall structure. Göke also gave the latest projected attendance figures for IFA 2007 which confirm that this year's event is the biggest ever with a rented area of arround 104,000 square metres and record participation by 1,212 exhibitors from 32 countries. “With 80 more German exhibitors than last year, it is clear that the German CE market is robustly healthy,” Göke said. “Equally the number of nationalities attending has grown, with the most impressive rise in attendance coming from Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. And our pre-registrations indicate that this year will be another banner year for international growth with pre-registrations currently standing at 99% of the total international attendance of last year.” Between 1999 and 2006 the amount of orders placed grew by 147% with the 2006 total of euros 2.5 billion expected to be surpassed this year: “We're confident that 2007 will see more orders placed and I believe that the reason for IFA's success is that we offer a better working place and are constantly trying to improve the ways in which we cooperate with exhibitors. Consequently we encounter a very high degree of satisfaction amongst those exhibitors.” Alongside an excellent selection of keynote speakers which kicks off with Philips' Rudy Provoost and Norio Niwa of Seiko Epson on Friday, Guerrino De Luca of Logitech and IBM's George Bailey on Saturday and Navigon AG's Andreas Westhoff on Sunday, the event will have several innovatory products including the first multi-media notebook with an HD DVD drive, the first camcorder with a Blu-ray Disc drive and demonstrations of Alcatel's DVB-H / DVB-SH mobile broadcast system. “We have a major focus on sound this year with a record number of artists performing in the Sommergarten, there are the qualifications for the World Cyber Games, the world's most expensive home entertainment system, next-generation media and 3D monitors that don't require glasses”, Göke said. “We are also placing IPTV under the spotlight because we believe that it has a major role to play in the future as an alternative carrier that also offers VOD, interactive programme guides and much more.” 17 20 21 28 29 40 2017 21 28 29 651* 210 58 733* 279 68 122 IFA International • Friday, 31 th August 2007 3
