Even after the cancellation of several large exhibitors, the makers of the technology fair CES are sticking to the major event in Las Vegas, which is scheduled for the beginning of January. Cancellation of the show would harm thousands of smaller companies that have already invested in their CES presence, said the head of the organizer CTA, Gary Shapiro. “We will all take risks. But without risk there is no innovation,” wrote Shapiro in a guest article in the newspaper Las Vegas Review Journal.
In the past few days, heavyweights such as Microsoft, Intel, Amazon, Google and General Motors had announced that they would stay away from the CES in view of the corona risks. The trigger was the rapid spread of the omicron variant. So far, Samsung, Sony and LG are among the big names that want to continue to be present in Las Vegas.
The US industry organization CTA, as the organizer, had already announced in the summer that only those who have been vaccinated can come to CES 2022. In January 2021, CES was a purely online event. Now it should start with two press days on January 3rd and run until January 8th. The CES, whose full name was formerly the Consumer Electronics Show, is a specialist event to which only industry insiders and journalists are allowed.
“The CES will definitely be smaller and have fewer visitors,” said Shapiro of the German press agency. The halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center are usually packed with people. This time the organizers have already adapted the concept to the corona dangers. The aisles were made wider and some of the traffic was only in one direction. Masks must be worn in all indoor areas.
The exhibitors have more opportunities to broadcast their events online and make them available on demand. Shapiro also admitted that the organizers can only control the precautions on the CES site. In the restaurants and bars in Las Vegas you currently neither need a vaccination certificate nor a corona test.
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