Tech Show Frankfurt: The most important technology event for business in Germany

This month’s Tech Show Frankfurt was a reminder that even technology must still resort to the age-old practice of gathering its community in a physical space for real conversation, chance encounters and the exchange of views and expertise alongside the latest products on offer to the public. 

In a world where technology is making it ever easier for us to connect online via myriad platforms in ways that are efficiently streamlined and tailored to our interests, what is it that still prompts millions of people to travel around the world to attend in person the shows that stubbornly refuse to give way to digital migration? For many, it’s a tussle of conscience between knowledge – the need for us all to reduce our personal carbon footprint – and wisdom: the inimitable strength of the bonds provided by eye contact and a human handshake. 

Highly effective proof of the value offered by physical presence was the third edition of the Tech Show Frankfurt, which took place on 6 – 7 May this year in Hall 8 at the Frankfurt Messe. Co-locating four distinct yet interrelated shows under one roof – Cloud & AI Infrastructure, Cloud & Cyber Security Expo, Big Data & AI World|BARC and Data Centre World – all accessed with a single pass, Tech Show Frankfurt brought together some 330+ exhibitors, over 220 speakers and attracted more than 8 000 visitors from around the world. According to Anna Campagnoli, Group Event Director of the Tech Show Frankfurt, attendance was up 36% on the previous year, as were speaker, session and VIP numbers – all indications that this show is consolidating its place as a leader on the European Tech event calendar. 

From rack cabinets to cybersecurity 

With the tech net thrown wide, this made for an interesting mix of software developers and hardware suppliers both on the exhibition floor and on the conference stages. Many attendees and exhibitors alike were somewhat surprised to find themselves rubbing shoulders with people who, despite being in adjacent industries, they would otherwise likely not have encountered at their own regular events. So far, so unusual.

Much less surprising was the traditionally disproportionate male-female ratio, with men outnumbering the women – on stage and off – by at least ten to one. This is par for the course at tech-centric events, particularly those displaying robotics, construction and other engineering hardware, and Tech Show Frankfurt was no exception. But Women in Tech had a solid presence here, too, due in no small measure to the Empowered at Tech Show initiative that the organisers have been running for the past four years. This has given a boost to highlighting the importance of women and diversity in tech, and the Tech Show Frankfurt was further proof that women are rapidly gaining traction in this field, especially where it comes to frameworks involving ESG, net-zero, and the fine line that tech development must tread between technological advancement and negative environmental impact. 

Sustainable in word and deed

Across eight stages, including a practical workshop area labelled the Collaboration Hub, top-level speakers addressed issues ranging from the impact of AI on recruitment to innovative solutions for cooling the huge new data centres being constructed to provide the compute needed to create the AI architecture that is increasingly indispensable for businesses of all kinds in the future. 

With the current emphasis on sustainability in almost every field, the Green Innovation stage proved extremely popular on both days, showcasing a wide range of topics, including the highly controversial and thorny question of whether it is possible to scale data without scaling energy use, addressed among others by the Dutch Data Center Association. In fact, energy, its sourcing, generation and use was a central issue for many of the on-stage sessions, with a marked overlap across all shows.

A Green Innovation stage talk on data centre cooling put forward the view that the architecture of data centres had to change, whilst not far away, on the Data Centre World stage, a talk entitled “The Net-Zero Data Centre: Blueprint or Buzzword?” by Ed Ansett from Ramboll addressed similar issues from a different viewpoint, underlining the critical importance of integrated data centre design in achieving both operational effectiveness and sustainability objectives. 

The Tech Show Frankfurt Keynote stage was located prominently on the exhibition floor and among other excellent sessions, hosted the Empowered at Tech Show all-female panel discussion “She Builds, She Leads, She Inspires: Empowered by Tech”. Here, some of the top voices at the forefront of technology presented the case for what a female approach to the design and deployment of AI brings to the table. Moderated by Ashley Bryant (Director, IT Innovation – Teaching and Learning, Frankfurt International School), this lively panel included Marie Kilg, well-known presenter of the ARD show “Der KI Podcast” (The AI Podcast), Christine Fahlberg (Swisscard AECS GmbH), Amesteris Amin (Lead Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Germany, Munich Re), Miriam Kugel (Director AI Transformation Advisory, EMEA & Principal People Scientist, Microsoft), and Andreia Otto (Senior Director Software Engineering – SRE and Operations, Adidas) all of whom gave a packed audience valuable insights into how women are shifting the goalposts in AI and technology.

Arguably one of the most important factors is the tendency for women to be better able to integrate analytical and intuitive thinking, taking a holistic, non-linear view of the challenges posed by, for example, the need for ethics in AI programming in order to ensure trust in outcomes. The consensus is that there is still a long way to go, but the speed at which AI is being developed and deployed is such that it has dramatically shortened the time frame that ideally should be available for such precautionary measures.  

Numerous sessions across all the stages highlighted various aspects of AI, from its development to its application across the board. One interesting aspect was its impact on the education of future generations in their preparation for careers alongside various applications of AI itself. As is reflected in public debate across the media, people’s attitudes towards AI often reside on a spectrum between fear and anticipation: fear that one’s own job could be made obsolete, and anticipation as to the career advantages and earnings potential of job-related activities that could be opened up by AI for those still able to count themselves among the early adopters. As Dr Bertie Müller from Swansea University pointed out in one of his talks, “AI won’t replace people. But people who use AI will replace people who don’t.” 

The elements in the room

In the physical space, one of the exhibitors was a subsidiary company of the Vinci Group, the large multinational French conglomerate better known for its concessions, construction and major infrastructure operations. Vinci Energies Deutschland Building Solutions GmbH positioned itself as a 360 degree partner for data centre solutions, using its presence at the Tech Show Frankfurt to raise awareness in the industry of the comprehensive range of services they provide across the data centre construction and operating spectrum, with specific emphasis on sustainability.

As their marketing specialist, Valentin Schnellbacher, explained, data centre technology is developing incredibly fast, outstripping by some way the regulatory approval for data centre construction. But despite this, the group’s ability to respond to demand by drawing on internal services across a full spectrum of business units gives them a tremendous competitive advantage.

One challenging aspect of data centre operation, particularly when it comes to the balancing act of deploying environmentally low-impact solutions whilst meeting the need for rapidly expanding compute capacity, is that of cooling. AI and GPU clusters can consume 100+ MW of energy per rack, generating an incredible amount of heat in the centre overall.

Engineer Michael Böhm, head of another German Vinci subsidiary, gave an example of how developments in data centre cooling are aimed at reducing energy consumption, citing the concept of liquid immersion. Here, microchips are submerged in demineralised liquid rather than being mounted in server racks cooled by energy-hungry DTC air-cooling systems.

They are still faced with the regulatory hurdle of obtaining approval for construction of these facilities but are hopeful that the relevant authorities in Germany will accelerate the process in response to increasing demand. It will be interesting to see whether this gap can be narrowed as it will clearly have an impact on the expansion of this sector in the future.  

Workshop-style roundtable discussions 

In the screened-off area labelled the Collaboration Hub, peer-to-peer roundtable workshop-style sessions gave attendees immediate access to speakers freely sharing their expertise on a range of topics. You could almost feel the energy crackling in the room. Here, a Frankfurt-based startup, Celestical GmbH, presented its fully independent serverless cloud “crafted by space engineers”, whose success may well hinge on a rising mistrust of US-based cloud service providers. CEO and former ESOC engineer, Dr Red Boumghar, fired up the attendees with his enthusiasm, energy and sense of humour, proving that tech and fun are by no means mutually exclusive. 

Somewhat more behind the scenes, Tech Show Frankfurt also offers its major exhibitors a bespoke roundtable service where, according to a profile brief by the exhibiting host company, they select around 15 – 20 suitable individuals from among attendees and other sources to meet with employees from the exhibitor’s company in a private room. This provides a great opportunity for industry professionals to come together for focused business exchanges that might otherwise not have been possible on the bustling exhibition floor.  

It’s a wrap 

The Tech Show Frankfurt is an excellent example of how vital it is to provide a physical space – especially in a central, easy-to-reach location such as Frankfurt – that functions as a showcase for leading suppliers alongside curated conference sessions in which top experts are invited to share their knowledge and expertise. There is no question that this format is a significant factor in the advancement of any industry. To flourish and thrive, human beings need connection, collaboration and contact at all levels, and concepts that promote a sense of cohesive community, especially in a business environment, are to be enthusiastically celebrated and supported.