CTA Will Hold Physical CES 2022 With Virtual Component

CES 2022 will have a digital component and “we also plan to be physical in Las Vegas because of that five-sense experience of being with people,” CTA Gary Shapiro told a CES 2021 virtual briefing Tuesday. “We love technology and what it’s doing” to enable society to communicate during the pandemic, he said. “But it’s really not the same as being there face to face.” CTA prerecorded the briefing remarks “for practical reasons,” said Jean Foster, senior vice president-marketing and communications, without explaining why. She, Shapiro and Executive Vice President-CES Karen Chupka appeared for a live Q&A. Bob Bejan, Microsoft corporate vice president-global events, production studios and marketing community, appeared only on video to describe the Microsoft cloud technology platform on which CES 2021 will run. Its cost in dollars runs in the seven figures, Shapiro said. Show organizers will deploy “the safest methods possible” to return to a physical CES in January 2022, said Shapiro. He hopes the COVID-19 vaccine will “be used by a great portion of the population,” he said. “We’ll be looking at all our sanitary methods and doing the best practices, but already, a whole bunch -- hundreds of exhibitors -- have signed up for CES 2022 in Las Vegas. The city of Las Vegas is waiting and ready for us.”