It used to be known as the Consumer Electronics Show. A few years ago, it shortened its name to CES.
This year, CES shortened the show itself.
The largest tradeshow for electronic products in the world was scheduled to open this past Wednesday and close Saturday. It closed Friday after a three-day run as “an additional safety measure” amid mounting cases of the omicron strain of COVID-19.
Omicron cases weren’t the only thing mounting. So was criticism of having a live gathering in a confined place when a highly contagious virus was afoot. Accompanying the criticism was a rising number of companies that were changing their participation to “digital only.”
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More than 150 companies were listed as having digital only participation in the CES Exhibitor Directory. Among them: AMD, Amazon, Facebook (now Meta), Google, Intel, Microsoft and Twitter.
Just before Christmas, Microsoft joined the building avalanche of companies dropping out: “The health and well-being of our employees is our ultimate priority. After reviewing the latest data on the rapidly evolving COVID environment, Microsoft has decided not to participate in-person at CES 2022,” a company spokesperson told reporters.
Speaking of reporters, several magazines and websites dedicated to electronics have announced they will be covering CES remotely this year. Wired magazine won’t be going, and recently posted “a list of companies that plan to attend (and NOT attend)” this year.
CES had hoped to go live this year after holding a digital-only conference last year. In 2020, the last live show, about 170,00 people attended. (Admission is closed to the general public; only those who work in the industry or cover it can attend.)
This year, about half that number seems likely.
“What we’ve been seeing with trade shows in general is that they have about 30 to 50% attendance from prior years,” Jean Foster, senior vice president of marketing for the Consumer Technology Association, the show’s parent company, told Wired. “If we end up in that 50% range, we’ll be doing pretty well.”
Gary Shapiro, chief executive officer of CTA, posted on LinkedIn: “CES will continue and will continue. It will have many smaller companies than larger companies. There could be a big gap in this on the show floor. Surely it will be different from previous years. It can be messy. But innovation is messy. It’s risky and inconvenient.”
CES has marched over the horizon Friday, ending another year. Omicon looks to be a step ahead.
Lonnie Brown can be reached at LedgerDatabase@aol.com.
