The world is beginning to adjust to a “new normal.” Different industries are beginning to reopen. We are hearing stirrings of things coming back. CES 2020 was one of the last large-scale events of 2020 before the many cancellations that occurred afterward. While some events eventually were rescheduled as online events, such as NVIDIA’s GTC 2020 Keynote and Sony’s upcoming PlayStation 5 event, others were not able to adjust and make a comeback. Well, CES 2021 is on the books now, and its organizers are beginning to unveil plans to make it happen. So far, it has been planned for January 6-9, 2021, as an in-person event.
While we plan to produce another in-person event in Las Vegas, we all face new considerations around attending conferences, conducting business, and traveling to meetings. Just as your companies are innovating to overcome the challenges this pandemic presents, we are adapting to the evolving situation. And we want to ensure CES continues to help you make the connections you need to grow your business and your brand.
Plans to ensure safety of attendees
- Regularly clean and sanitize spaces across the show venues and provide sanitization stations throughout;
- Better enable social distancing, including widening aisles in many exhibit areas and providing more space between seats in conference programs and other areas where attendees congregate;
- Issue best practices for attendees, such as wearing masks and avoiding shaking hands, and for exhibitors on product demonstrations;
- Limit touchpoints throughout the facilities including through cashless systems for purchases and transactions;
- Evaluate solutions for contactless thermal scans at key venue entry points;
- Provide enhanced on-site access to health service and medical aid.
The challenges of creating a safe environment for mass gatherings is something that all promoters are working on in the future. Which vendors will feel safe enough to commit to attending the event? Time will tell. In 2020, many events were canceled after numerous vendors announced their absences. Here’s hoping that we are all able to move forward in the next year.
CES 2020
If you didn’t catch it last year, we did have some pretty extensive coverage of CES 2020. We not only published announcements from vendors, but our own David Schroth attended and provided in-person content as well. We do have a tab at the top of our front page, but you can also click here to catch up on the last one.