Cebit 2010 will run from March 2 to 6, which is one day shorter than this year's fair. The event will end on Saturday so that exhibitors have a chance to get back home before the new work week begins -- a request made to organizers by many at the show, they said.

With the drop Deutsche Messe now needs to convince exhibitors and visitors that it isn't a sign the event is no longer worth attending -- a problem it faced at the midway point when it typically discloses visitor numbers for the first few days of the event.

This year the company broke with tradition and declined to provide any visitor numbers. The organizers feared headlines about weak attendance would cause some to cancel their trips to the fair and thus push numbers down further, they said.

What organizers have seized on to is that companies might be sending fewer staff to Cebit but those that attend are a higher quality. The event is seeing more senior-level staff than in previous years, said Deutsche Messe. But the organizer didn't provide any data to quantify that claim.