WHD.sailing Kiel 2016: Recap

The WHD.sailing took place on 8th and 9th September at the Kieler Yacht Club Hotel and was significantly smaller with around 70 participants compared to the well-known WHD.global in Rust. The main goal was to network in the hosting industry. A variety of participants were decision-makers from over 17 mostly European countries. CEOs and CTOs of industry giants such as ePages, Jimdo, PlusServer, and SpamExperts were among the invited guests.

hosttest also had the opportunity to engage with the crème de la crème of the international hosting industry. Besides the pleasure of networking at the end of the second day, the focus was on further consolidation in the hosting sector. It was not surprising that many participants eagerly awaited the presentation by Ewan Perry from OC and C Strategy, which delved into the valuation of hosting companies. Perry presented interesting statistics, particularly focusing on the projected growth rates of different hosting types in the upcoming years. Perry sees the Public Cloud sector as a key growth driver, along with Managed Hosting and "Value Added Services". Regarding customer satisfaction, Perry highlighted Reliability and Price/Quality as crucial factors. He concluded his half-hour presentation by speculating that many hosting companies will need to either be buyers or sellers of hosting companies in the next 5-10 years to remain competitive in the market.

The day before, Dutchwoman Laura Dekker appropriately kicked off WHD.sailing with her authentic account of her record-breaking solo circumnavigation as the youngest person in the world. On the second day, there were further brief presentations, including one by Jimdo CEO and Co-founder Matthias Henze, who spoke about Jimdo's corporate culture over the past nine years.

The series of talks was concluded by Wilfried Beeck, CEO of ePages. Beeck particularly emphasised the advantages that web hosts have when they not only offer website building tools but also focus on eCommerce. In this context, he also announced a collaboration with CM4All.

To wrap up WHD.sailing, the event's theme was naturally on the agenda. The sailing excursion on one of the two ePage ships in the Kieler Förde. Excellent weather with around 25 degrees and a light westerly wind made the conclusion of the event perfect.

More pictures on the Facebook page of the WorldHostingDays.