Smaller Chinese Firms Lead Falloff in CES Exhibitors, Says Shapiro
The CES 2023 exhibitor count, standing at over 2,000, is fewer than half the 4,400 that showed in Las Vegas in 2020, the last CES before the COVID-19 pandemic turned trade shows upside down globally, CTA said at CES Unveiled in New York Wednesday. About a third are international companies, said CTA CEO Gary Shapiro.
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Shapiro said the way the Chinese government is handling the COVID-19 pandemic, plus political trade issues, are contributors to the lower exhibitor count for the upcoming January show. “There’s definitely a little bit of softness in those areas.” The biggest falloff in exhibitors is “smaller Chinese companies,” he said.
CES isn’t alone in lower exhibitor count, Shapiro said, saying “the standard in the trade show world is about 60% of where you were in 2020.” The 2,200-plus number is fluid, Shapiro said, saying, “We also get a lot in December … so we really don’t know where we’ll end up.” Eureka Park will have at least 1,000 exhibitors, he said, “but it could go a tremendous amount higher than that. ... We really haven’t lost any big ones, and we’ve gotten new big ones.”
Eureka Park was singled out, along with the Samsung booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center, as two of the most crowded venues at CES 2022 by a journalist who arrived home with a “light” case of COVID-19. On what CTA is doing to ensure a safer environment for 2023, Shapiro said, “We’re always trying to get better than we were the prior year,” and CTA learned a lot from this year’s physical show. Every facility in Las Vegas changed health protocols, including ventilation, he noted, and CES required masks and proof of vaccine.
“We’re going further than any other event” by going “as touchless as possible,” Shapiro said (see 2211140049). Since the COVID-19 outbreak, “we’ve all become more sensitive to disease,” he said, and in response to that, CES will have wider aisles and spacing in conference areas. Human interaction is important but carries risks, Shapiro said: “We continue to iterate. We don’t make any promises because we can’t. We are following among the best practices, we think, in the world, even pushing them further.”
On virtual aspects available to people not going to Las Vegas, CTA Vice President-acting CES Director John Kelley said over 100 conference sessions will be recorded and available on demand for two months after CES, up from about 30 days after CES 2022. About 50 sessions will be livestreamed from CES, along with keynotes, Kelley said. Exhibitors will be able to upload PDFs and video content to a “virtual booth,” he said, and attendees will be able to search for exhibitors and connect with them. That feature is scheduled to go live mid-December, he said.
Responding to a question on reports of slowing demand at retail as the holiday season progresses, Research Director Lesley Rohrbaugh said despite softening in laptop demand, they’re still an important gift for kids. “We’re seeing a lot of deals on them; the price points are amazing,” she said. TVs, too, are being widely discounted, she noted: “If you need a TV this holiday season, this is the year to get it.”