Tuesday, July 28th 2020
CES 2021 Cancelled, Online Virtual Expo in the Offing
The 2021 edition of the International CES has been cancelled, organizers CTA announced. The 2021 edition, like almost every other edition, was scheduled to take place between January 6-9, 2021. The CTA will now work to set up an "all digital experience" working with all its exhibitors. The show is now expected to only make a comeback in 2022, provided the COVID-19 situation improves. The pandemic still wreaks havoc across the globe, with most nations experiencing community spread. Mass vaccination before the turn of the year seems unlikely, with most vaccine developers yet to test their vaccine candidates.
"Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it's just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person," CTA president and CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement. Despite fears of the pandemic looming on exhibitors' and visitors' minds, the 2020 edition of CES drew more than 170,000 visitors and over 4,400 exhibitors (that's just for the official exhibitors, not counting the many more exhibiting in nearby locations).
Source:
CES
"Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of COVID-19, it's just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person," CTA president and CEO Gary Shapiro said in a statement. Despite fears of the pandemic looming on exhibitors' and visitors' minds, the 2020 edition of CES drew more than 170,000 visitors and over 4,400 exhibitors (that's just for the official exhibitors, not counting the many more exhibiting in nearby locations).
23 Comments on CES 2021 Cancelled, Online Virtual Expo in the Offing
Local businesses that have grown accustomed to the business and rely on it, they'll start to vanish. Loss of jobs and income.
not sure how you can turn an event like this into a "virtual event" they going to send you all the hardware to look at in person?
Covid won't be stopped. Herd immunity will eventually be the answer to it. You can't stop it anymore unless by some miracle vaccines against Coronaviruses are invented, which have been tried for many years before Covid and never worked. So I wouldn't hold my breath. It will just be herd immunity like we have with most other diseases.
and I really enjoyed the years I went to CES .. Computex is better though, so fingers crossed for 2021 Computex ^^ Like for the flu.. also, only early data, but Google: antibodies 3 months Good, rather make the final decision now, than invest $$ and it gets cancelled eventually. Actually I'm impressed that CTA aren't as greedy as everyone though they are I think a few companies tried something like this in June, as Computex replacement, total disaster
Early on the prediction was several years before we would understand it proper. I think that prediction still stands. Herd immunity will be seasonal at best, and even that seems a stretch, its summer now.
So if it's not going to totally go away, it will be around just like the flu. Does this mean we all have to stop interacting and start canceling all big events? I know it sounds harsh to say let certain people to just die out, but this is how these things always went and it's not going to change now, unless we all stay home forever and cancel everything, which is kind of the direction it's going now.
Btw. I'm not against things like masks for a period just to flatten the curve for the hospitals. I even think we should have mandatory periods like that for everybody whenever we're above a certain number of infections (above hospital capacity, basically). But anything that goes beyond that like canceling events is not going to change things in the long run. It's wishful thinking at best, fearmongering at worst.
So at this point in time, cancelling events is most certainly the better option, and will remain so going forward in the near future. It really is a lot better to avoid this virus if you have the opportunity. For me personally the limit to that prevention is when it has psychological impact in the sense of social needs. Mass events are not among those needs, to me, but that is different for everyone. Still, things to consider, its good to be realistic about it, but I would suggest not to underestimate it.
Either way even CES it has to adjust as we do all worldwide.
Consumers wallets are half empty, and even finding food these days this is is tough goal.
There's just the thing that all people don't seem to have the same ramifications from getting it. I doubt that all people get long-lasting damage if many don't even get symptoms. From what I understand, the long-lasting damage comes only when you get a bad lung infection from it. I guess getting a lung infection is never good, but yea, Covid make you more susceptible to that. And the people that die, die because of the severe lung infections when the body can't deal with it anymore. But people's bodies seem to handle it very differently. That's why herd "immunity" will eventually help us, even if canceling events for years to come won't. I don't doubt we will beat Covid eventually, I just doubt that it will cost any fewer lives in the long run, if we overreact.
Such empathy, much caring.
A correction is in order, if you ask me, and this virus is the perfect equalizer. I'll take this method over a few nukes, honestly. But this is a discussion far too few are willing to go into, even though we should. We'd rather persist in preserving a status quo we can never maintain, like Lemmings. If we keep doing this, protecting every life while damaging all others with long term restrictions on normal life, we'll be having entire lost generations all to preserve a few life years of the elderly. That'll be fun for future healthcare, I'm sure :) I do wonder who is truly thinking straight these days and what the scope of policy really is, but so far, I'm not seeing any kind of future investment in any of it, only fear and doubt, and mostly a fear to lose a very loyal group of voters. This so called empathy today is the grim reaper of tomorrow.
Personally I combat nihilism by saying hello to strangers and carefully managing my news consumption. Best of luck staying alive!