According to the CEO of the organization that organizes the show, CES will return in full force come January with a new focus on sustainability and how technology can enhance people’s lives all over the world, barring another catastrophic COVID epidemic.
The World Academy of Art and Science is collaborating with the largest in-person tech event, which takes over the Las Vegas Strip every January, to promote UN efforts to advance what it calls “human security” for all people.
According to Gary Shapiro, chief executive officer of the Consumer Technology Association, which owns and runs CES, this term includes everything that most Americans consider to be a human right, including the right to access food, healthcare, clean water, and air, as well as political and security rights.
Shapiro told CNET this week, “It’s quite exciting because a lot of the companies, obviously, are focused on sustainability, which is the overarching theme.
But human security, as they put it, and human rights, as we put it, are crucial for defining the future and determining how technology may change things for the better.
The forthcoming event will represent CES’s real comeback after a severe COVID surge derailed preparations for the 2022 conference. Before the epidemic, CES had become into one of the biggest trade events in the world, reaching beyond the conventional big tech and startup venues. According to Shapiro, the automobile business has grown to be so significant that CES might possibly be regarded as the biggest auto show in North America.
As a first for an agricultural corporation, the CEO of John Deere is planned to deliver one of the event’s keynote presentations, which will place a focus on food and its growth and production. In previous years, the conference’s main attraction was fake meat from companies like Impossible Foods. Companies from the health care, sports and fitness, metaverse, and artificial intelligence sectors are all anticipated to play significant roles at the event in January.
On top of the typical roster of new TVs, computers, and robotics, all of stuff is available.
Though it’s uncertain how many people will attend, that may make for an interesting performance. Organisers had huge plans for January 2022 after the epidemic forced them to go virtual in 2021. But as COVID grew once more, the big businesses and much of the tech media withdrew.
According to Shapiro, CTA officials debated whether or not to cancel the 2022 event.
In reference to the 1 million people who were falling ill every day in the US at the time, Shapiro stated, “It gave me a nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach.”
In the end, just 44,000 people attended CES 2022, which was also shortened by one day. Comparatively, 171,000 persons were affected by COVID in January 2020, before it ravaged the US in March. At the 2022 exhibition, some people did catch COVID, but Shapiro maintained there was no tragedy as some had feared.
Even though organizing the exhibition was difficult, those that participated, especially the smaller ones who depend on CES to generate business for the year, were appreciative that it did, according to Shapiro. The CTA is optimistic that attendance at the event in January will once again rival those of the past as COVID is now declining or flattening in many parts of the world.
Although CES won’t demand masks or immunizations, it highly advises both. Other measures, such as keeping doors open to maximize fresh air and making the venues more touchless, will be put in place to lessen the danger of COVID and other infections.
This year, most of the show will be available online, just like it was the previous two years, for those who are unable or choose not to attend. That might appeal to many guests who previously attended in person given that many internet and media organizations are in the throes of budget cuts, along with ongoing high expenses and inflation.
Additionally, it raises the question of whether major, pricey events like CES still have a place in society. People were asking that question, according to Shapiro, even before the epidemic, but he claimed that trade exhibitions have a special efficiency, pointing out that the typical CES attendee participates in 29 meetings while at the event.
Other, more difficult-to-define advantages also exist.
Shapiro stated, “It’s serendipity, discovery. “That’s just not available online as easily as it is at a trade show,”