Crestron Exits CEDIA Expo, Cites 'Difficult Decision' Due to Delta Variant

CEDIA Expo lost its largest exhibitor Tuesday when Creston joined the growing list of companies pulling out of the Sept. 1-3 show in Indianapolis, due to the pandemic. “In light of the re-escalating COVID health crisis and the spread of the Delta variant, we have made the difficult decision to fully cancel our presence at this year’s CEDIA Expo, including our booth, dealer trainings, press engagements, and social events,” said a memo scheduled to go out to dealers Wednesday. Noting it has been six years since the company attended the custom integration industry’s top trade show, the company said it had been “eagerly anticipating the opportunity to connect with dealers and show off" its latest Crestron Home developments. "Despite our enthusiasm and our investment in the show, however, recent news has forced us to reassess the risks.” Noting it’s unclear how the spread of the delta variant will progress in the coming weeks, “our primary concern is and always will be the well-being of our employees, their families, and our industry partners and friends,” said the company. “We had hoped the 2021 CEDIA Expo would represent a much-needed reinvigoration of our industry. It may still -- but with so much uncertainty, we felt a responsibility to decide our plans sooner rather than later so that partners and peers had actionable information.” John Clancy, executive vice president-residential, told us last week (see 2108130068) the company had all intentions to exhibit because “a lot changed” since 2015, and the company was unable to attend last year’s show that was canceled due to COVID-19. Crestron had taken the largest booth at the 2021 show, partly due to accommodations for COVID-19. The company was requiring employees attending the show to be vaccinated and had mapped out a booth flow that would encourage social distancing. Other high-profile vendors withdrew from the show over the past week, including Samsung Savant, Snap One, Sonos, Sony, Sound United and Legrand AV (see 2108160047).