The CES, the largest technology show in the world, is something to see. Or it would be if you could contemplate it in person.
Almost inconceivably spread in its pre-pandemic incarnations, the extravagant industry encompassed the entire Las Vegas convention center, the upcoming Sands Expo, and chunks of a dozen or more hotels on the strip. It was like a Disneyland for technology: ever since I started covering the January 2001 annual event, I fired a computer-assisted sniper rifle, I attended a Tesla-coil music concert, I took a walk in autonomous vehicles and I met countless robots. I once took control of an intermediate flight from Fujifilm.
This year, in fact, you can see it all, but only from the small screen through which you see virtually everything else today. Vegas and CES will stay with each other for the first time in decades. There are no more airship trips.
The technology industry saw many conferences virtualized during 2020 amid Covid-related blockages, 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 attendees interacted with more than 4,500 exhibitors. It has been a media show, but also much more: a forum for innovators, manufacturers and retailers to come together, by plan or by chance, and find out what will come next.
For CES 2021, which starts on Monday, its organizers had to pivot hard towards the digital space which, perhaps ironically, is unknown and a bit of a gamble.