Samsung shares with policymakers “the common goal to enhance cybersecurity” but warns that “a prescriptive, fragmented approach” to legislation on ransomware and other cyberthreats would be “problematic,” Eric Tamarkin, director and senior public policy counsel, told a CES 2022 cybersecurity workshop Friday. “We are taking great strides in industry” on cybersecurity, and “the partnership between government and industry is strong,” said Tamarkin. “We are engaging every day with a number of agencies,” including the FCC and Department of Homeland Security, he said. Through a “whole slew of different public-private partnerships, we are in the trenches every day, working on these challenges together,” he said. The U.S. and its allies need to continue to show “leadership in advanced technology as we have since the end of World War II,” said former Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, now managing director of tech investment bank Allen & Co. “One of the things that gives me hope,” said Hurd, “is that despite the political atmosphere in which we’ve been operating for the last couple of years, when it comes to the threat of China, it’s a bipartisan recognition, it’s a bicameral recognition of that issue.” Hurd endorsed CTA’s decision to move forward with CES 2022 amid the rapid spread of COVID-19's omicron variant. “CES is an example of how we have to continue to figure out how to do things in tough situations,” said Hurd. “This is our new normal. We’re going to have to figure out a way to evolve, get better and grow and work together.” He urged the conference audience in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s North Hall to “give it up for CES for continuing the show and doing this and having us all out.”

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., is “no longer participating” in CES 2022, nor are Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) or New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), confirmed a CTA spokesperson Monday. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is still keynoting CES on Thursday but will do so virtually, not in person as originally planned, she said. The full slate of senators on a Friday panel called Women Leaders of the Senate will still appear live in Las Vegas, she said, including Sens. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. The spokesperson sidestepped our questions about whether the speaker withdrawals were germane to CTA's decision to waive its $700-and-up Deluxe Conference Pass fees for in-person CES 2022 audiences (see 2201030034). Blackburn confirmed Monday that she will travel to Las Vegas for CES 2022 and looks “forward to collaborating” with tech leaders and the bipartisan group of senators on “key issues in the tech environment, including the current lack of accountability eroding the relationship between platforms and users.” A spokesperson in Clyburn's office confirmed Tuesday "that the Congressman had a scheduling change and will not be attending CES this year."

CTA was vague when we questioned it about how health and safety criteria factored into its New Year’s Eve decision to shut down CES 2022 a day earlier than previously planned (see 2112310001). “We have consulted with outside medical professionals and health experts in the State of Nevada to develop our health and safety protocols,” emailed a spokesperson Monday. It’s unknown for how long the decision was in the making to shut down CES 2022 at the close of business Friday. CTA released the announcement about 2:15 p.m. EST. Roughly four hours earlier, when CTA announced that “130+” exhibitors were signed on for the CES Unveiled Las Vegas media-only event Monday at the Mandalay Bay, CES 2022 was still on as a four-day event. CES crowds customarily are already home or headed out of town when day four rolls around. CTA’s explanation was similarly murky about its decision, disclosed Thursday without much fanfare, waiving its Deluxe Conference Pass fees for in-person CES 2022 audiences. We wanted to know if CTA’s rationale for a fee waiver was as an incentive against in-person CES audiences dropping out or because participating speakers or workshop panelists had decided in the end not to travel to Las Vegas. Instead, the CTA spokesperson said: “We are excited to offer all registered attendees that are attending the live show in Las Vegas with access to the great line up of speakers and sessions (100+) we have planned. Therefore we have made the decision to no longer require a paid conference pass to attend our conference sessions.” Those who paid for the $700 pass through Dec. 8 (and $850 after Dec. 9) will get refunds after the show, said CTA. We found noticeable gaps in the CES 2022 conference schedule Monday, compared with the content that was displayed there when we checked over the weekend. Gone from the schedule is a Friday session at 9 a.m. with House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., on making high-speed internet more affordable and accessible. There also no longer appears a previously listed session on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. with Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on how innovation is shaping their communities. On Dec. 21, CTA publicized a Jan. 7, 12:30 p.m. session in which Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., would lead a panel that included Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., with Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. The schedule Monday afternoon still listed a session on that date and time slot called Women Leaders of the Senate, but the page listing of possible participants was blank.

CTA President Gary Shapiro “will be pleased" to discuss, "sometime after CES," why the association's show policy didn’t require COVID-19 booster shots for the fully vaccinated, he emailed our affiliated Consumer Electronics Daily Tuesday. “Right now my focus is on CES 2022 where we have lots going on and over 2100 exhibitors.” Nearly 36% of the 188 million fully vaccinated U.S. adults have gotten boosters, reported the Centers for Disease Control and Protection Thursday. There has been no change in CTA policy since Aug. 17 when the association announced a full CES 2022 vaccine mandate (see 2108170038), saying no boosters would be required “at this time.”

CTA President Gary Shapiro thinks CES 2022 “will be awesome!!!” he said in a Facebook exchange with Robin Raskin, founder of the Life in Digital Times conference that CTA now owns. CES 2022 will have “a little less glitz, a few messy gaps but cool stuff from thousands of entrepreneurs,” said Shapiro. On Raskin’s “only little quibble” about CES 2022 -- the show’s inability to link conference panelists participating remotely with live in-person speakers in Las Vegas “for a truly hybrid event” -- Shapiro said: “In a perfect world we could do that -- but not with the platform we selected. Not a pivot we could make in two weeks over a holiday season.”

Months after committing that CES 2022 would return to the Las Vegas Convention Center Jan. 5-8 as a physical show with a digital component (see 2102070001), CTA announced just that in a Wednesday news release that appeared to break little new ground about the event’s format or expected participation. Among the few new disclosures was that the show's digital "anchor desk," which debuted at CES 2021 from a Microsoft studio in Redmond, Washington, will operate live from the LVCC and "connect the digital audience with exhibitors, conference sessions, keynotes and product announcements" from the in-person event. The association said it will be reviewing “coronavirus safety measures” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Nevada and Clark County authorities in planning and conducting the event. Under the plan that Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) announced in mid-February to hand off decisions on public gathering restrictions to local authorities (see 2102120057), Clark County's Southern Nevada Health District has jurisdiction for LVCC events. Roughly 1,000 exhibitors have booked CES 2022 space, and companies "are continuing to sign up," said CTA. This new announcement made no mention of Microsoft returning in its role as technology partner for the virtual component of CES 2022. The focus of this announcement was on the physical event, said a CTA spokesperson when we asked if Microsoft would return in its CES 2021 role or if the association put out a request for proposals to find a new partner. "We will be sharing more information about the digital event in June," she said. She confirmed that June 1 is the deadline for CES 2022 exhibitors to "cancel or downsize without penalty."

Privacy and cybersecurity must be factored into connected home building as consumer adoption of connected devices grows, said a Frost & Sullivan report for the Continental Automated Building Association. Cybersecurity and privacy concerns in the smart home will likely worsen with device ownership and demand for gadgets growing, said Friday's report. “Cybersecurity and privacy remain perhaps the foremost challenges for the connected home industry right now, compounded by technology adoption by new demographic segments, such as older adults and children and large numbers of young adults,” said CABA CEO Ron Zimmer. A survey of 1,100 consumers included in the report found 29% of connected home device users experienced some form of cyber breach over the past 12 months. A “dynamic response plan” from key industry players is needed to counter growing cyberthreats, said the report. Vendors and service providers need a “nimble and scalable” response plan to cope with their growth needs and consumers’ evolving demands for new connected products and systems, the report recommended. They also have to step up compliance levels to keep pace with consumers’ increasing sophistication and vigilance and their growing expectations around privacy and security.

“CTA pulled off something brilliantly” for CES 2021 that was “so complicated and so compressed in time,” said Sony Electronics North America President Mike Fasulo in an exit interview (see personals section, Feb. 4; see also 2102160026). The CES 2021 content creation “was really well done,” as were “the parameters that CTA set for quality,” said Fasulo. “There was really good promotion around it. We had really, really nice traffic.” On the negative side, Fasulo frowned upon “some issues with user interfaces and user experiences, but this is technology. You’ve got to work out some of those bugs.” Fasulo and other members of the CTA executive board “gave that feedback very clearly” to the CES team, he said. “I’m 150% convinced they’ll rectify that in plenty of time for next year.” CTA didn’t comment Tuesday. He doubts virtual events will render physical shows “obsolete” post-pandemic, nor will the physical CES “go back 100% to the way it was,” he said. “I see the hybrid going forward, which is very exciting.”

Few details are set in stone for CES 2022, except for CTA’s commitment to return to a physical show Jan. 5-8 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, CEO Gary Shapiro told us. “Nothing’s off the table,” Shapiro said when we asked if CTA will limit show attendance to crowds smaller than the customary 170,000 or impose COVID-19 vaccine or testing conditions. It’s “possible” CTA will require proof of a vaccine as a condition for registering for CES 2022, said Shapiro. “A lot of groups are trying to figure that out. You see what others are doing and you get to best practices. A lot of lawyers and HR people are looking at the same questions.” Canceling CES 2021 “financially was a huge hit for us,” said Shapiro, refusing to disclose the damage, except to talk about the impact in headcount terms. “We did have a staff layoff,” he said. “We cut expenses dramatically.” CTA’s workforce is about 130, compared with 190 pre-pandemic, he said.

Nearly 80,750 “qualified” industry attendees from 167 countries visited the all-virtual CES 2021 during its Jan. 11-14 run, said CTA Tuesday. Fifty-four percent of attendees were U.S.-based, but 58% of media visitors were from overseas, it said. The association offered no insights about attendees' engagement, including how many conferences and workshops they viewed or exhibitors they visited. About three-quarters of the 1,900+ exhibitors were from outside the U.S. and represented 48 “countries, territories & regions,” it said. The physical CES 2020 in Las Vegas drew 170,000 attendees and 4,400 exhibitors.