Shapiro Suggests Decision to Cancel CES Came Month Before Announcement

CTA decided in June to cancel CES 2021 as a physical show, a month before its July 28 announcement (see 2007280034), suggested President Gary Shapiro in a LinkedIn post Wednesday. The association by the spring “still had not given up” on holding a physical event “with added safety and hygiene precautions,” he said. But by May, “I was increasingly pessimistic a vaccine could be proven to work, manufactured and widely available in time for CES 2021,” he said. Though most industry CEOs he canvassed “were eager for us to proceed, their staffs were concerned about business travel,” said Shapiro. CTA’s executive board ratified the decision in July, knowing the association would take “a huge financial hit, but we had moral clarity,” he said. “This early decision in June to skip a year of the in-person, physical CES -- seven months from the event -- was unprecedented in the exhibition world. It was tragic for our friends in Las Vegas, who were looking to CES 2021 and the New Year as allowing them to come back. We knew it affected thousands of jobs and lives in Las Vegas.” The calls Shapiro placed to Las Vegas authorities before the July 28 announcement were the “toughest” he ever made, he said. He didn’t respond to emails Thursday.