But the heart and soul of CES are not fluent speech forecasts or the journalists who follow them. It is the technology makers who make the program special and a fully virtual CES has not necessarily been good for them. “Smaller brands were probably the ones that suffered the most this year,” says Carolina Milanesi, analyst and founder of research firm The Heart of Tech. “Because unless you were given a designated site or experience on the website, it was just a long list of names.”
Milanesi shared an observation that one of my WIRED colleagues also made: the serendipity of the discovery was gone. One of the most exciting parts of CES has been finding a weird product in some back corner of the giant showroom and learning new things through pure chance. In a virtual CES, this is a virtual impossibility.
Several tech companies I spoke to via email or spoke to in the days leading up to the event told me they would simply not participate this year. The 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 (between $ 2,500 and $ 10,000, according to documents reviewed by WIRED). For that amount, many smaller companies would be better off emailing journalists or potential business partners and setting up their own Zoom briefings.
In short, this year’s CES felt out of place today. A session on racial and gender prejudice in AI did not include any mention of Timnit Gebru. Another group with Twitter and Google executives focused more on the GDPR than on the larger, immediate news: the spread of misinformation on social media and the role of Twitter in the violent storm of the U.S. Capitol last week prior to the program.
There were exceptions that made the show feel firmer of the moment. During AMD’s keynote conference, Lisa Su, executive president, joined scientists in explaining how additional power teraflops AMD helps them investigate infectious diseases like Covid-19. Tuesday’s conference sessions began with a 30-minute conversation with Abbott’s executive vice president of rapid diagnosis and Microsoft’s chief medical officer about molecular testing and supply chain logistics for vaccine distribution. In another lecture that morning, Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, addressed the problems of the day, talking about the recent SolarWinds hack and the far-reaching implications of this type of cyberespionage.
This is what happens with technology, of course: it can be both our source of danger and a solution to our problems. Traditionally, CES has dealt more with solutions, and this is an important part of its appeal. “We’ve seen the pressure on health systems, our schools, our businesses big and small,” said Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumer Technology Association, which produces CES every year. “But in this time of uncertainty, technology has been a stabilizer. A unifying force. “
I asked the CTA if I had considered the possibility of completely canceling this year’s event or doing a seriously reduced program. A spokesman said he still believed CES 2021 was “an opportunity for the technology community to come together, come together and focus on a better future.” The CTA has not yet shared how many people have logged in to CES online. The organization stressed that by being virtual, it would be much more accessible to people around the world this year.
That may be true. And, as with any CES, there were some technologies, novelties and curiosities that I’m sure we’ll still talk about in the coming months.
But I would love to be together again next year.
More information on WIRED at CES 2021