CTA President Gary Shapiro doesn’t lose sleep over "innovation taking over the world or robotics replacing human masses,” he told C-SPAN’s The Communicators, to be televised this weekend. “I worry every day that our government is going to choke off new avenues of innovation” through antitrust crackdowns on Big Tech, he said. “Look what we did during COVID. Look how the tech industry basically saved, in a sense, the white-collar environment for those lucky enough to work at home and fundamentally changed the world.” Shapiro can live with some of the six antitrust bills that cleared the House Judiciary Committee last month (see 2106230063), he said. “It’s reasonable to look at merger filing fees, as long as they’re not discouraging mergers,” he said. “The government should have a shot” to review transactions “on an objective basis, but it should be time-constrained so it’s not sitting around there for two or three years.” Other measures, including shifting the burden of proof on purchases or giving states more leeway in antitrust reviews, “I just don’t understand,” he said. “I think you’re going to see consumers so upset when they figure out that their politicians are trying to screw up the things they love. I mean, consumers love these services.” There’s “no question” that some things Huawei has done to become “a force around the world” involved intellectual property theft from American companies, which “I find pretty difficult to swallow,” he said. “We lost some revenue” due to Commerce Department export restrictions on Huawei, “but that’s life,” said Shapiro. “We follow the law.” Huawei didn't comment Thursday. CES will return to Las Vegas as a physical show in early January with “wider aisles” and “very strong participation,” said Shapiro. The show has signed on 1,000 exhibitors so far, he said. CES 2020, CTA’s last in-person Las Vegas show, drew 4,400 exhibitors. As “great” as CES 2021 was as a virtual show, Shapiro said, “we have all learned that it’s not the same as being there.”

About a week before the July 28 one-year anniversary of canceling the in-person CES 2021 due to COVID-19 (see 2007280034), CTA says it’s committed to returning CES 2022 as a physical show to the Las Vegas Convention Center in early January, but is releasing few details about pre-show preparations. CTA will launch CES 2022 registration in September “as in years past,” said a spokesperson. Las Vegas hotel reservations and rates “will be available in the late summer for individual and small group bookings,” she said. CTA encourages show attendees to “book directly” now with the hotels of their choice “to secure the best rates,” she said, without explanation. That’s a policy reversal from past years when CTA trumpeted its official hotel blocks with guarantees of the best CES rates. CTA remains vague about the COVID-19 health and safety protocols that will be in place. It promised in a May exhibitor infographic that more specifics would come as “the situation will continue to evolve over the coming months.” It said CES 2022 visitors “should expect some type of health screening, such as temperature checks or proof of vaccination, COVID-19 antibodies or negative COVID-19 test,” and it expects “to announce additional guidance in September and again in December.”

Transportation and vehicle technology companies showing automotive, drones and self-driving technology will be among the exhibitors in the Las Vegas Convention Center’s newly opened West Hall at CES 2022, a CTA spokesperson emailed Wednesday. The Central and West halls “are filling up fast,” she said, after the announcement CES added space tech and food tech categories for the January show (see 2106300063). Space tech will have its own section in the North Hall, and food tech is slated to be part of the lifestyle section, she said. Some 1,000 companies have committed to exhibiting in Las Vegas, covering 1.56 million net square feet, she said. A June 8 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the West Hall was followed by the opening of World of Concrete, the first major show to return to Las Vegas post-pandemic. The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop, an underground tunnel developed by Elon Musk's The Boring Co. and designed to shuttle convention attendees throughout the 200-acre campus in electric Tesla vehicles, also became fully operational, said the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. An open-air atrium, with a 10,000-square-foot digital screen developed by Samsung, is said to be the largest digital experience in a U.S. convention center in the U.S.

CES is adding two categories for the January show: space tech and food tech, said CTA Wednesday. Technology is “advancing opportunities for space exploration and space living conditions,” creating new communications services and opportunities in biology and human health, said Karen Chupka, CTA executive vice president-CES. Exhibitor Sierra Space, a subsidiary of Sierra Nevada, will showcase its Dream Chaser spaceplane at CES, said Chupka. The food technology category covers agriculture, ingredient innovation, meal kits and deliveries, nutrition, plant-based proteins, traceability, sustainability and vertical farming and more. Grov Technologies, Impossible Foods and John Deere will return as CES exhibitors, she said.

CES 2022 “looks fantastic,” CTA President Gary Shapiro told Media Institute President Richard Kaplar in a virtual Q&A Tuesday. Kaplar, toward the end of Shapiro’s speech on First Amendment issues (see 2106220049), had asked the CTA chief about the prospects for a successful in-person Las Vegas show in early January and what the association was doing to hold a big gathering safely. “I was going over some of the floor plans this morning,” said Shapiro. CES 2022 is attracting an “incredible number” of global exhibitors, he said, without mentioning the show’s possible health and safety protocols. “But we are realistic. There are pandemic issues we’re dealing with, especially outside the United States.” CTA definitely expects “fewer international people coming” to the physical show, though a “record number” of international visitors are “signing up,” said Shapiro.

Large-group Las Vegas bookings are “holding on and looking actually quite strong for the back half of the year,” said Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox on a Q1 earnings call Monday. “Just last week, we hosted our first large group of 600 people, and it went off without a hitch,” he said. Large gatherings are “so happy to be back,” said Maddox. “Conventions work.” Wynn’s 2022 Las Vegas convention business looks “really strong,” he said. “We've got so much to look forward to in 2022,” said Wynn Las Vegas President Marilyn Spiegel. CES 2022 is scheduled to return Jan. 5-8 as a physical show at the Las Vegas Convention Center; CES 2021 was all-virtual. Hotel occupancy rates at the Wynn and Encore exceeded 90% the first weekend in May, said Spiegel. Weekend occupancy is expected to stay that way at least through May, she said. Midweek stays are “about 20 points less than that,” and that's “obviously the lack of the group business,” she said. There are “very encouraging trends” in Las Vegas, said Maddox. “March Madness was when the volumes began to pick up” in Q1, “and that has accelerated,” he said. April retail revenue at Wynn properties was “the second best month on record,” he said.

With CES 2022 eight months away, CTA “will be sharing more details in the coming months” about the in-person show, said a spokesperson Friday. We had asked if the association will require employees who customarily attend CES to do so when the physical show returns to the Las Vegas Convention Center in January. “With every CES, some employees do not go to Las Vegas,” she said. “Our policy has always been to respect employees’ individual situations.”

MGM Resorts found it “encouraging” that CES “just announced they’ll be back in January” (see 2104280023), said CEO Bill Hornbuckle on a Q1 earnings call Wednesday. “Hopefully, they come at full scale,” he said. “With any luck, if people get more comfortable with the meeting business and the social distancing gets relaxed, I think there’s a chance, a slight chance, early 2022, we could start seeing 90% occupancies.” MGM’s Las Vegas properties reached 73% occupancies in April, he said. MGM, as Nevada’s largest private employer, continues to work with local leaders “to safely bring large-scale events” to Las Vegas, said Hornbuckle. “With the larger groups expected to return at scale in 2022, our business in 2022 and 2023 is on pace with pre-COVID levels,” he said. The company expects airlines operating into and out of McCarren airport will reach 93% of pre-COVID passenger capacity in June and 99% in July, including “very little, if any, international travel,” said Chief Operating Officer Corey Sanders. CTA said about 1,000 companies had committed to CES 2022 exhibit space, with more signing up continuously, but it didn't offer show attendance projections. About 4,400 exhibitors and 175,000 attendees participated in the last physical CES in January 2020.

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."

CTA doesn’t share “proprietary contractual information” about its CES venues in Las Vegas, said a spokesperson Friday. We had asked how long the show is contractually obligated to use the Sands Expo Convention Center and Venetian, now that the Las Vegas Convention Center’s West Hall construction is complete and Las Vegas Sands announced definitive agreements to sell its Las Vegas properties for $6.25 billion in transactions expected to close in Q4. “We are moving ahead with existing plans to host CES 2022 at the venues,” said the CTA spokesperson.