CES 2022's Defenders Unfazed That Event Drew 23% of 2020's Crowds

By CTA’s count, history’s first CES held in-person during a global pandemic drew an audience of “well over” 40,000 when the abbreviated show closed Friday after a three-day run.

“Innovation came to life” at CES 2022, said CTA President Gary Shapiro in the association’s “wrap” announcement -- devoid of the testimonials from senior exhibitor executives customarily found in CTA’s post-CES summaries. “The CES show floor buzzed with the joy of human interaction and a five-sense innovation experience with products that will redefine our future and change our world for the better,” said Shapiro.

CES 2022 "will be audited and we will release additional information at that time," emailed a CTA spokesperson Monday. The 40,000 drawn to CES 2022 would be about 23% of the “total verified attendance” at CES 2020, according to that show’s audit report.

International visitors were about 30% of CES 2022's audience, said CTA, down from the 35.4% overseas two years ago, amid some very trying circumstances for international travelers this year. Karen Chupka, CTA executive vice president-CES, gave a “special shout-out” Wednesday on the show’s opening morning to CES 2022's “international guests” for traveling “so far to be here today.” CTA recognizes “all you did to join us today, and that getting home also at the end of this week may even be complicated,” she said. Passengers on U.S.-bound flights needed to show a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of departure, then a negative result within 72 hours before departing Las Vegas.

One statistic that will bear watching when the CES 2022 audit report comes out will be how many “senior-level” executives -- defined by CTA two years ago as including all attendees from general managers up -- participated in person at this year’s show. For CES 2020, the proportion was 42.7% of total verified attendance.

We got no immediate answers from CTA about the volume of CES 2022 badges that were approved but never picked up in Las Vegas, as a measure of how many participants had planned to attend but canceled their travels for whatever reasons. We also wanted to know how the metrics on unclaimed badges may have differed from past shows.

Among those who took to social media to describe their in-person CES 2022 experiences, nonexistent in the posts that we observed were any who expressed regret for going. CES veterans who ventured a guess on the show’s attendance generally said it was at least two-thirds lower than what they were used to, but that it almost didn't matter. "For me, this CES was less about the overall success and size of the event and more about just showing up, and I offer a sincere THANK YOU to those companies that DID show up," said Custom Theater and Audio partner John Sciacca on LinkedIn. "So, thank you Gary Shapiro and the #CEA for putting on the best show under the circumstances," said Sciacca, also a journalist in the residential electronics space. "It felt safe, and it felt important, and I look forward to covering and being a part of #ces2023." CEA was CTA before the November 2015 name change (see 1511100012).

Virtually all the CES 2020 visitors who commented about low show attendance said they used the low turnout to personal advantage, enjoying short taxi, monorail or concession lines and the ability to engage in deeper conversations with clients, customers and friends they hadn’t seen face to face in two years. “Glad I went for a couple of very important meetings but I sure hope we don't have one like this next year,” emailed one exhibitor executive.

That executive described observing “some small pockets of fairly busy/normal CES activity but also mixed with some very eerie moments.” He cited the examples of walking under “the famous arch” with the CES logo in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s main concourse and finding it “nearly deserted at 1PM on opening day." He said he also saw "lots of squares of bare concrete where booths were never built.”