CES to close a day early as Omicron surge persists

The Consumer Technology Association has announced that the CES 2022 technology show will run for just three days instead of the usual four, as a safety measure.

In the release, which came out last week, the CTA claimed over 2200 exhibitors are confirmed to exhibit in person, and that in the prior two weeks 143 additional exhibitors came on board. This spin certainly runs counter to the coverage in the pre-Christmas period, in which many high profile firms pulled out.

The decision to shorten the show is described as the latest measure in its roster of covid safety precautions.

“As the world’s most influential technology event, CES is steadfast in its pledge to be the gathering place to showcase products and discuss ideas that will ultimately make our lives better,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA who runs CES. “We are shortening the show to three days and have put in place comprehensive health measures for the safety of all attendees and participants.”

The case could probably be made statistically that there is less risk of transmission the less time the show runs for, though intuitively it feels more like a ‘do it or don’t’ situation.

It could be speculated instead that while there are clearly still a large number of firms exhibiting, the bigger factor is how many attendees decide or are forced to cancel plans to turn up. If projections are that numbers pouring into Vegas are going to be severely impacted, cancelling the final day when all the major announcements and fanfare has subsided does make sense.

Regardless, after what must have been a shaky few weeks for the organisers, CES 2022 is about to kick off. We’ll bring you updates of the all the relevant news on Telecoms.com