Until the end, Eric Morand, Tech and Services Director of the Business France agency, will bite the bullet, he who for at least six months has been preparing the departure of the delegation of French start-ups to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the world’s largest trade fair for technology companies, which opens Wednesday, January 5. After a 2021 edition which was held entirely in virtual, the organizers made the bet to give again a chance to the event in physics (doubled of an entire online device).
But the resumption of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the appearance of the Omicron variant, has raised new doubts. For several days, the organizers have registered significant withdrawals. Several big names have given up on making the trip to Nevada, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta (formerly Facebook), Twitter, General Motors, BMW, Mercedes, Waymo, Lenovo, Intel, AT&T, T-Mobile… To further complicate the situation, the multiplication of positive cases among airline staff has caused a worrying succession of flight cancellations since Christmas.
Las Vegas airport, for example, registered 65 just for the day of Thursday, December 30, 2021. Saturday 1er January, finally, we learned that the show was going to be shortened and would end this year on January 7, and not on the 8 as initially planned.
“It will be a somewhat exceptional CES, with fewer visitors”, admits Morand. It is already certain that the show will not attract 175,000 visitors as in 2020. Although struggling to make forecasts, the organizers only say that “Tens of thousands of visitors” will attend, along with some 2,200 exhibitors.
“Quite unique laboratory”
Within the French delegation, in addition to the presence of a few large groups (Thales, Dassault Systèmes, Valeo, Stellantis, etc.), there will still be many start-ups. Business France had planned to support 140 this year, but ten had to give up at the last minute, including nine due to the pandemic. However, this is proof that we have finished with a form of excess that had seen 375 young French shoots participate in the 2019 edition.
“There have undoubtedly been excesses, now we avoid making them come too early [dans leur cycle de développement] at CES “, recognizes Mr. Morand. But if the presence is numerically less, the meeting of Vegas remains nonetheless important in the eyes of Business France. “It’s a fairly unique laboratory, from which we can come back with a lot of lessons by meeting buyers, major accounts and distributors. And then the living room gives the “the” on major trends ”, he emphasizes.
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