Spotlight shines on the cloud at CeBIT 2013

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and two senior IT people from the Obama for America 2012 campaign will kick off  CeBIT.

Jackie Taranto

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell and two senior IT people from the Obama for America 2012 campaign will kick off Asia Pacific's biggest technology fair, CeBIT, which opens in Sydney today, while Julia Gillard will appear by video.

CeBIT Australia organiser Jackie Taranto said more than 42,000 people from 17 countries had registered to attend the largest CeBIT event in Australia, with more than 500 exhibitors and 60 presentations.

"This event's going to be three days of disruptive technology. It's going to be the largest cloud (computing) event ever in Australia, with all the cool innovative technology that comes out of that," she said. Cloud solutions and the harnessing of social media will feature, while start-ups make their pitches to investors.

Ms Taranto, who is the managing director of Hannover Fairs Australia, said the show would feature two theatres focusing on cloud issues, a "bank of the future" and a "social command centre" for analysing social media.

Australian science agency CSIRO will showcase its telepresence robot, which offers a virtual videoconferencing experience, while research body National IT Australia will demonstrate Subspace. It's a little like Google Earth, but it works using a web browser, without plug-ins.

Also on display will be 3D printers. Yesterday 3D Printing Solutions, a CeBIT exhibitor, defended the technology in the wake of criticism about its use for making guns, saying that "like kitchen knives, they are 99 per cent useful, they do 1 per cent evil in the wrong hands".

This is the last time CeBIT Australia will take place at Darling Harbour before the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre is demolished in a $1 billion revamp.