Virtual CES Gets Good Reaction From Sony's Fasulo -- Other Than Tech

“CTA pulled off something brilliantly” for CES 2021 that was “so complicated and so compressed in time,” said Sony Electronics North America President Mike Fasulo in an exit interview (see personals section, Feb. 4; see also 2102160026). The CES 2021 content creation “was really well done,” as were “the parameters that CTA set for quality,” said Fasulo. “There was really good promotion around it. We had really, really nice traffic.” On the negative side, Fasulo frowned upon “some issues with user interfaces and user experiences, but this is technology. You’ve got to work out some of those bugs.” Fasulo and other members of the CTA executive board “gave that feedback very clearly” to the CES team, he said. “I’m 150% convinced they’ll rectify that in plenty of time for next year.” CTA didn’t comment Tuesday. He doubts virtual events will render physical shows “obsolete” post-pandemic, nor will the physical CES “go back 100% to the way it was,” he said. “I see the hybrid going forward, which is very exciting.”