On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

IFA Berlin is already sold out. More companies have submitted applications for space than space exists, says Dr. Christian Goeke, COO, Messe Berlin (photo top left).

Until the new Hall 15 goes up in 2015, IFA will be a show filled to its limit...and then some as the organizer looks for temporary solutions to accommodate. That’s 140,000 sqm of exhibits plus whatever extra space can be shoe-horned into IFA by using outdoor tents and other temporary buildings.

Part of the pressure comes from the growing number of Asian exhibitors. The more robust appliance business also clamours for space. And in consumer electronics, the growth is in mobile devices and accessories as well as the Apple ecosystem.

That's one of the main messages we took from the IFA Global Press Conference in Dubrovnik this year.

But that's not the only message.

If you are constantly looking for ways to pass on heavy video files or client documents, the race is on for Cloud Storage. Dropbox may be the leader in offering free storage but others want to jump in.

BitCasa recently won venture capital funding for its concept: “Infinite Storage on Your Desktop.” It’s only in Beta, but you can try it for free using our link below.

Go DropBox (free)

Go BitCasa (free)

By launching the first apps from independent developers for the "Hangouts" video chat feature of Google+, Googleplex hopes to increase the time people spend on its social network and create a popular platform that will ultimately grow to hundreds of video apps, or more.

Hangouts allows up to 10 people to connect on a video chat. The service allows people to connect through a video chat, and a drawing pad embedded in the service allows participants to collaboratively draw colorful lines using their computer mouse.

A touch-screen version for iPad and other tablets is planned.

Jennifer J. Deal’s Five Millennial Myths is subtitled: Forget what you think you know about your Gen Y employees.

That part was easy: I didn’t know much.

The conventional wisdom, apparently, is that “…everyone under the age of 30 is needy and narcissistic. They want the corner office and a company car, but they aren’t truly committed to their organization. They don’t take kindly to criticism, but can be easily won over with the next hot gadget.”

Deal asks: “Can companies afford to put their trust in these types of characterizations?”

For the past 12 years, she studied the so-called generation gap through empirical research, and found the stereotypes of millennials in the workplace asinconsistent at best and destructive at worst. With data collected from more than 13,000 participants in for-profit, nonprofit, and government organizations, Deal dentifies five key myths that companies believe about their younger employees.

Myth #1: Millennials don’t want to be told what to do.

The reality: Wrong! Their research shows (unexpectedly, she admits) that millennials currently in the workforce are more willing to defer to authority than either baby boomers or Gen Xers.

Millennials are more likely to thrive if they know the ingredients for success in the workplace, starting with the basics. For example, although it may seem obvious to an older manager, millennials may appreciate being told what time they are expected to arrive at the office, and precisely how quickly they should turn around a project (beyond just “ASAP”).