Cloud specialist Salesforce is increasingly focusing on dialog on its way into the digital future - and is becoming a new premium partner of this year's IT trade fair Cebit. Dialogue should also be used to find solutions for training people whose jobs are changing or disappearing as a result of digitalization, Joachim Schreiner, CEO of the US company in Germany, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. "The digital transformation is a challenge for all of us - for companies as well as for each individual." Companies therefore have a responsibility to provide solutions for employee training.

Trade unionists such as Verdi boss Frank Bsirske have long warned of the risk of mass unemployment if the increasing use of robots potentially replaces entire professions. Employer representatives, on the other hand, emphasize the opportunities of digitalization. Salesforce is the global number one on the market for sales software (CRM).

Schreiner explained: "If we take the right path, we will be able to improve the world with technology." At Cebit, topics should be addressed "that we believe are interesting and not just products". He announced: "We don't want to show keyboards and mice, but rather focus on dialogue with people about how digitalization can be successfully implemented."

The Cebit digitalization trade fair (11 to 15 June) will be radically changed in 2018 with new topics, new formats and a new date in early summer. The entire trade fair will move to new halls on the site, with a kind of campus under the Expo roof at the center of the new concept. Trade fair boss Oliver Frese from organizer Deutsche Messe explained that new target groups such as creatives or 'digital natives' should be reached and that the digital agenda should become a movement. The trade fair is expected to be fully booked, said Frese.

Salesforce will be the largest exhibitor at this year's Cebit - with its own hall and outdoor area. Schreiner announced that Salesforce will have over 100 customers and partners show how they are taking their digital transformation into their own hands. On a stage in Salesforce Hall 9, a playful format based on the TV model will be used to seek dialog with CEOs on the subject of corporate transformation. "It's not about square meters, but about the right contacts."