There's one word for techology in the 21st century, and this week that word is, 'Mobile'. Everybody, from telecom powerhouses like Nokia and Ericsson to erstwhile big-beige-box companies like Carly Fiorina's Hewlett-Packard, are touting the newly mobile, effortlessly networked world as the one we will be living in in the very near future. Bluetooth, a new technology which allows electronic devices to talk to each other wirelessly, will be using CeBIT to show off its transformation from concept to reality. (Of a sort; someday, apparently, everone will control their refrigerator like this.)

But the real mobile question on everybody's mind is, 'how on earth am I going to get around this place?' CeBIT (the name is the German acronym for 'World Centre for Office, Information and Communication Technology') supports over 8,000 exhibitors from 60 countries, and expects crowds numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Traffic, as you can expect, is a nightmare. "Ach, CeBIT," were the only intelligible (or printable) words out of my taxi driver coming in from the airport, as he narrowly saved us from death by lorry for the third or fourth time. "Total Rocky Horror Picture Show." Deutsche Messe, the fairground where CeBITheads gather, is a collection of 28 halls sprawling over nearly a million square meters, which makes the logistics of getting these thousands of exhibitors, visitors and journalists from place to place overwhelming. In fact, the most coveted piece of hardware in evidence are last season's cool toy, the Razor scooter, or rather a souped-up, heavy-duty equivalent, with an extra-wide running board and beefy front tires. The racks of these mobile devices set up outside the press center last night were gone by first light, and laptop-toting execs are zipping around the conference while stragglers like me have to hoof it all the way.

Hannover itself is little better. For a city that not only withstands CeBIT's annual deluge of propellerheads, but also hosted last year'sExpo 2000 and a number of other exhibitions (including Domotex Hannover, the world's premier exhibition on carpets and carpetry -- I guess all that floor space comes in handy), you'd think they'd have more hotel rooms. What accomodations are available are snapped up months in advance, and many delegates are billeted with local families or in rented flats, whose occupants wisely clear out for a few days during the conference. Last week, the nearest empty hotel room was nearly 60km away -- which would've made arriving early enough to grab one of those scooters totally out of the question.