Despite claims from Gary Shapiro, CEO, Consumer Technology Association (CTA), before the trade show proper, who said in an interview with Venturebeat [1] that more than 100,000 people were already registered for #CES2021, the CTA’s final press release made no mention of the actual number of attendees despite the claim from the organisers that the event had made history as the ‘Largest Digital Tech Industry Event’.
We went on record several weeks ago that the claim or expectation that an all-digital event would attract 100,000 – 150,000 ‘attendees’ was frankly ridiculous (the 2019 event saw 171,268 in-person attendees and 4,400 exhibitors sprawled across 2.9 million net square feet of space).
Looking at other trade show events that converted from in-person to virtual during 2020, organisers were usually lucky if they managed to get half the in-person attendance, or should I say “plucky enough to claim half” – as these figures are almost always unaudited, we doubt most of the attendance numbers officially announced last year.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) said in the press release “The first-ever, all-digital CES® 2021 made history as the largest digital tech event. Almost 2000 companies unveiled next-gen innovation for a better future”. Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA was quoted as saying “The all-digital CES 2021 engaged the global tech community to experience innovation, make connections and conduct business. CES showed how the pandemic accelerated the arc of innovation and illustrated the resilience and innovative spirit of our industry. From the latest innovations for the home and entertainment, and advances in 5G, vehicle technology, AI and digital health, the technologies at CES 2021 will pave the way for a brighter tomorrow”.
The CES conference program showcased more than 100 hours of programming and 2000 companies that launched products included almost 700 startups from 37 countries. With attendees joining from over 150 countries and over 1300 exhibitors coming from outside the United States it was claimed that CES 2021 was truly a global event although it failed to mention that China was notably absent this year.
Last year the largest number of exhibitors by country was USA, China and South Korea; this year saw USA (560) in first place and South Korea (390) in second place and very, very little from China. Rumour was that China was no longer subsiding the smaller Chinese exhibitors to attend – something that folks like AVIXA, Infocomm and Integrated Systems Events need to be wary of as they plan for their future events.
Country Group Organisers did however ‘bring’ delegations of exhibitors from Canada, France, Israel, Italy and Japan and South Korea as well as startups from Nigeria and Russia for the first time.
Perhaps their envisioned and over-hyped attendee numbers did not meet their expectations and so were not released but surely it is impossible to claim that #CES2021 was the ‘Largest Digital Tech Industry Event’ without providing them – The Web Summit [2] for example, usually attracts 70,000+ participants from 160+ countries.