UK Prime Minister, David Cameron said be brought “a mission ad a message” to the Opening Ceremony at CeBIT in Hanover. Actually he brought lots more
RoboThespian – the British stand up robot who used interesting terms like Datability
Nicola Benedetti, the Scottish classical violist, who did a much better stand up act
While Nicola was working her magic, the screen behind here showed off 50+ slides from their Business is GREAT campaign. It is a celebration of British innovation, sports, artists …even Bond.
He brought several bagpipers and other reminders of British pageantry.
He brought 150 entrepreneurs, including those from Neul (Gaelic for cloud) and Raspberry Pi, to showcase at the massive Fairgrounds here.
As he said it is a “World on Fast-forward”. So he announced plans for 5G broadband in collaboration with Germany. He talked about the G-cloud which has eased government procurement with smaller suppliers. He announced his chief Science Adviser is focused on IoT applications in healthcare, energy and public services. He updated the audience on growing number of startups in Shoreditch, Cambridge and elsewhere while comparing them to the startup magnet that is Berlin.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel who followed Cameron, in a role reversal, showed her own version of British dry sense of humor. In a comment about driverless cars, she said she would still encourage teenagers to earn their driver’s license.
Merkel said Germany and the UK now contribute 10% of the world’s ICT industry. I have a feeling it is going to be much larger by 2020. As Cameron offered “(British leadership) in chip design, in software and services that is matched by the German expertise in producing industrial components.”
You can watch the whole opening ceremony webcast here
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