The new West Hall at CES, dedicated to the automobile, mirrors the redesign of the rest of the Las Vegas Convention Center. Image: CTA.
The Consumer Electronics Show is fast approaching (January 5-8). And once again, it will be a hybrid event, taking place simultaneously in Las Vegas and in a virtual meeting room embedded in your internet browser.
Back in Las Vegas
According to the Consumer Technology Association, which sponsors the decades-old show, the expansion of the physical Las Vegas site for the 2023 show is a testament to the enthusiasm for in-person interactions, despite the persistence of distancing in this industry. event.
According to the association, the objective for the CES is to exceed 100,000 participants. They come from 173 countries, territories and regions, and more than 4,700 journalists have been accredited.
“I think people are excited about CES, they’re excited about reconnecting, they’re excited about getting together for real,” said John T. Kelley, vice -president of CES, during an interview with ZDNet in New York.
“We are keeping the remote component, but the in-person component is more important this year,” added Kinsey Fabrizio, senior vice president of CES sales, at the same meeting. For example, the total exhibition area is 70% larger than the previous one this time.
Exhibitors who were unable to participate in the last show are back for 2023, with more than 3,100 exhibitors, details Kinsey Fabrizio, who specifies that around 1,000 of them are exhibiting for the first time. “They’re taking meeting rooms, in addition to their exhibition space, which indicates that they want to do business.”
“We also saw a record number of entries for our innovation awards program. »
Key topics and technologies to follow
Electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles
Among the key themes of CES 2023 are automobiles and mobility technologies, argues Kinsey Fabrizio.
Image: Volvo.
These categories were moved to the brand new West Hall (located across Paradise Road from the current Las Vegas Convention Center).
CES also uses the central and north halls, while the south hall was razed as part of a renovation.
Central Hall is connected to West Hall by the underground tunnel created by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company, which carries passengers in Teslas. The tunnel stations extend past the West Hall to the Resorts World hotel across from the Wynn on South Las Vegas Boulevard next to Circus Circus.
“You’ll find a lot of self-driving technology” in West Hall, as well as electric vehicles, says Kinsey Fabrizio, including Light Year, maker of a solar-powered electric vehicle. John Deere and Caterpillar will also be present, and the latter will probably present an autonomous tractor.
In addition to automobiles, nautical technologies will be very present, especially electric yachts, points out Kinsey Fabrizio, with brands such as Volvo and all kinds of marine technologies.
Connected health
Another major theme is that of connected health technologies, located in the North Hall like last time. Areas of digital health include sleep technology, digital therapeutics, mental health and new diagnostic technologies.
Due to new regulations in the United States, visitors to the show will be able to see and test many hearing aids. It is now possible in the United States to buy them without a prescription.
The digital health category also presents innovations in terms of the “emergency service of the future” for the hospital world.
According to Kinsey Fabrizio, the emergency department of the future will feature devices and services incorporating “telehealth as well as a great deal of remote patient monitoring” to reduce emergency room crowding in emergency rooms. hospitals and “so that people can be sorted differently”.
Artificial intelligence, robotics and metaverse
Technologies for professionals, including artificial intelligence, robotics and the Internet of Things, will share the North Hall with digital health.
The Venetian Hotel is once again home to many exhibitors, in the former Sands Convention Center. Including – for the second consecutive year – the exhibition on technologies for the food sector, smart homes, as well as the very broad category of accessories for digital products.
Eureka Park, the tech start-up hub, will also be present at the Sands. This year, more than a thousand start-ups from more than 20 countries will showcase their products at Eureka Park. Note that Ukraine Tech will also have a pavilion.
The metaverse became central at the last CES, notes John T. Kelley, and this year it will be “ubiquitous throughout CES.” “You’ll see companies there that are primarily hardware-focused, like Magic Leap,” the augmented reality company that’s now focusing on enterprise uses of the technology.
Microsoft will also have a presence in the Web3 space and a dedicated studio in the lobby will allow “Web3 specialists to take the stage and discuss digital assets, blockchain technology and metaverses”, argues John T. Kelley .
“I think Web3 will be the subject of significant discussion throughout the program” of CES, he predicts, “mainly focused on metaverses and NFTs”.
According to him, the Web3 appears in more and more innovative applications. For example, start-up Olfactory Virtual Reality, or OVR, “adds smell to headsets, so you can now smell in the metaverse,” says John T. Kelley. According to him, a concrete application of this technology would be the training in emergency interventions, for example to smell the fire.
A recent partnership was concluded between BMW and the chip giant Nvidia, in order to present the factory of the future, recalls John T. Kelley. Partnerships like this are “building blocks of what the future will look like” in the crossover of the metaverse and Web3, he adds. year, beyond simple gamification. »
“I think you’ll see companies at the show showcasing their physical products and also launching a metaverse extension,” adds Kinsey Fabrizio.
NFT
A “small” area of the Aria Hotel is set aside for NFTs, says John T. Kelley, to give businesses “an opportunity to get exposure.”
NFTs, best known for disasters like the Bored Ape Club, are finding new uses in industry, says John T. Kelley. For example, in the field of events, it becomes an access key for participants in an event such as an after-party.
“As a holder of this NFT, you can access the event, it’s starting to get popular,” he says. The same NFT can become a “single passport” allowing brands to have a kind of connection with their consumers different from email. And, of course, NFT can be bought and sold on a marketplace.
Picture: CNET.
CES 2023 keynote headliners
Headliners at this year’s show include AMD CEO Lisa Su, BMW Chairman Oliver Zipse, John May, CEO of John Deere and Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines.
With regard to the remote aspect of the show, the keynotes will, as in the past, be broadcast live and exhibitors will have virtual stands.
“There are two things that we used in the wake of Covid that people really liked,” says John T. Kelley. “The first is the ability to watch content after the event, so we will have over 100 sessions for you to watch after the event. »
“And then it’s also the possibility of making better connections with some of the exhibitors, for example by finding a salesperson before the show and sending them a message to arrange a meeting”. But also the possibility of having a video meeting on the CES digital platform.
Search functions – such as searching for exhibitors by category (for example, “metaverse”) – have been improved, says John T. Kelley.
“We have refined our tools knowing that our audience has changed a bit, because we have a more distant audience than the one that, before Covid, was entirely live. »
Life sciences giant Abbott is among the big digital health exhibitors returning to CES. Image: CTA.
The magic of a trade show
However, distance learning will never fully replicate the physical experience of a trade show. Consider the usefulness of face-to-face meetings. The companies present at the show have an average of 29 meetings.
And “things get lost in the Zoom world,” notes John T. Kelley. Including fortuitous encounters that cannot occur there.
“There are those chance encounters,” adds Kinsey Fabrizio, “where you’re in line for a coffee, you bump into someone, and you strike up a business relationship.”
“It’s the magic of a trade show, those serendipitous moments,” adds John T. Kelley.
All of the remote features are “a nice addition,” says Kinsey Fabrizio, “but I think seeing a product, and having the ability to touch it and experience it, is nothing like it.”
Source: ZDNet.com