But the heart and soul of the CES are not the soft-spoken prognosticators or the journalists who follow them. Technology makers make the program special, and a fully virtual CES was not necessarily good for them. “The smaller brands were probably the ones that suffered the most this year,” says Carolina Milanesi, an analyst and founder of the research firm The Heart of Tech. “Because, unless you have a designated location or experience on the website, it’s just a long list of names.”
Milanesi shared an observation that one of my colleagues at WIRED also made: The chance of discovery is gone. One of the most exciting parts of CES was finding a strange product somewhere in the back of the giant exhibition hall and learning about something new by chance. In a virtual CES, this is practically impossible.
Several tech companies that I emailed or spoke to in the days leading up to the event told me that they simply would not participate this year. CTA still charged between $ 1,200 and $ 1,500 for a gadget maker to be a “digital display”. This does not include additional fees for participating in tangential events like Pepcom (somewhere between $ 2,500 and $ 10,000, according to documents reviewed by WIRED). For that amount, many smaller companies would be better off sending emails to journalists or potential business partners directly and setting up their own Zoom briefings.
Ultimately, this year’s CES seemed at odds with current events. A session on gender and race bias in AI did not include a mention of Timnit Gebru. Another panel with Twitter and Google executives focused more on GDPR than on the bigger, more immediate news: the spread of misinformation on social media and the role of Twitter in the violent invasion of the United States Capitol in the week before the show.
There were exceptions that made the show seem more firm at the moment. During AMD’s presentation, Chief Executive Lisa Su was accompanied by scientists who explained how extra AMD computer power teraflops are helping them research infectious diseases like Covid-19. Tuesday’s conference sessions began with a 30-minute conversation with Abbott’s executive vice president of rapid diagnostics and Microsoft’s medical director on molecular testing and vaccine supply chain logistics. In another talk that morning, Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, addressed the day’s problems, talking about the recent SolarWinds hack and the far-reaching implications of this type of cyber espionage.
This, of course, is the question of technology: it can be both our source of danger and a solution to our problems. CES has traditionally focused more on solutions and this is a big part of its appeal. “We saw the pressure on healthcare systems, our schools, our large and small businesses,” said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Technology Association, which produces CES every year. “But, in this age of uncertainty, technology has been a stabilizer. A unifying force. “
I asked CTA if he had considered canceling this year’s event altogether or doing a seriously reduced show. A spokesman said he still believes that CES 2021 is “an opportunity for the technology community to come together, come together and focus on a better future”. CTA has not yet released how many people have connected to CES online. The organization stressed that because it is virtual, it will be much more accessible to people from all over the world this year.
This may well be true. And, as with any CES, there were some technologies, news and oddities that I’m sure we will talk about in the coming months.
But I would really like to be together again next year.
More from WIRED at CES 2021