Australia’s leading communications companies Optus and Telstra will join multinational technology giants Fujitsu, Motorola, Oracle, Panasonic, Red Hat, Siemens, Sony and Yahoo! at the CeBIT Australia 2008 business event.

The attendance of these major brands demonstrates that with eight weeks before the region’s largest business technology trade event opens its doors from May 20-22, CeBIT Australia 2008 has already attracted record interest.

"This year Optus’ Small and Medium Business division has entered into a multi-year agreement with CeBIT Australia," said Phil McDermott, Head of Product Marketing, Optus Small and Medium Business. "CeBIT Australia offers an ideal platform for us to showcase products including mobile, broadband and wireless solutions while building and maintaining strong customer relationships."

First time exhibitor Telstra has booked two separate CeBIT Australia stands, one for its Sensis directories division within the eMarketing section of the exhibition showfloor, and the other for its new T[Life] brand/concept store.

Following the strength of the eMarketing & SEO conference at CeBIT Australia last year, Web services giant MelbourneIT and global internet pioneer Yahoo! have signed as highlevel sponsors for the event, and both have taken significant exhibition space.

“CEBIT is the largest IT&T event in Australia, and we are very excited to be involved with this prestigious event in 2008. Yahoo! Search Marketing helps businesses of all sizes to activate the power of search engine marketing to increase sales,” said Janet Shi, Head of Marketing, Yahoo! Search Marketing.

“This year, CEBIT will allow us to connect with thousands of potential customers and partners, as well as a chance to enhance our relations with existing partners and government bodies.”

“CEBIT brings the best of breed ideas and technologies from around the world, combined with a world class marketing engine which drives a large number of delegates, therefore I see CEBIT as a great platform for us to educate the market about the growing trend of search marketing,” Ms Shi said.

For the VoIP & IP Comms and Open CeBIT conference events at CeBIT Australia firsttime exhibitors Siemens and Oracle have signed high-level sponsorship commitments. More than 750 exhibitors will showcase business technology innovations at CeBIT Australia 2008 at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour attracting more than 35,000 pre-qualified business visitors. Organisers also expect a record 14 official international trade delegations, as well as record numbers of overseas business visitors to attend CeBIT Australia 2008.

Jackie Taranto, Managing Director of Hannover Fairs Australia, the CeBIT Australia 2008 organisers, said the large presence of overseas companies, visitors and delegates meant CeBIT Australia had grown in stature as an international event.

“Technology trade promotion is basis for our business, so we’re always glad when global brands choose to use CeBIT Australia as a platform,” Ms Taranto said.

“But we are also passionate about the promotion of Australian innovators, and we know from experience that the presence of such a large overseas contingent means these smaller local companies can get genuine international exposure and cement international contacts.”