CES, the biggest technology show in the world, is something to see. Or it would be if you could actually see it in person.
Almost inconceivably sprawling in its pre-pandemic incarnations, the sector’s extravagance spanned the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, the nearby Sands Expo and groups of a dozen or more hotels along the Strip. It was like Disneyland for technology: ever since I started covering the annual event in January 2001, I fired a computer-aided sniper rifle, attended a Tesla coil music concert, hitched a ride in autonomous vehicles, and met countless robots . I once took control of a Fujifilm airship in the middle of the flight.
This year, you can really see everything – but only on the small screen through which you see almost everything else today. Vegas and CES will be without each other for the first time in decades. There are no more airship rides.
The technology industry saw many conferences go virtual during 2020 amid Covid-related roadblocks, travel restrictions and a general desire to reduce viral spread. But CES is not an event based on the agenda of a single company or organization: it is a global crossroads where, just last year, more than 170,000 participants interacted with more than 4,500 exhibitors. It’s been a media show, but it’s also much more: a forum for innovators, manufacturers and retailers to meet, by plan or by chance, and find out what’s next.
For CES 2021, which starts Monday, its organizers had to turn strongly towards digital space, which, perhaps ironically, is unknown – and a bit of a gamble.