CES 2025 is coming to Las Vegas throughout the week of January 5, and it is going to be one of many largest tech expos on the planet once more.
This yr’s present ought to be large once more. Final yr’s attendance reached 138,789, in keeping with an audited report by the Client Know-how Affiliation (CTA), the group that places on the present.
Final yr at CES 2024, I recorded round 80 press occasions, interviews, and classes. I walked 46.78 miles, or 105,407 steps, over six days. My toes damage and my again had been sore. There have been greater than 4,300 exhibitors and a pair of.4 million sq. toes of exhibit house to crawl. And the Goodyear blimp was there.
I’ve been attending the Client Electronics Present for the reason that Nineteen Nineties when then-Microsoft CEO Invoice Gates gave the opening keynote speeches yearly. This time, the most important speech will come from Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the graphics chip maker that has turn out to be the king of AI {hardware} with a market worth of $3.42 trillion — essentially the most precious firm on the planet.
He’ll give a chat at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time on the Michelob Enviornment on the Mandalay Bay on January 6. Most attendees arrive on the present on January 7 and keep by January 10, when the expos are open. However the press — just a few thousand of us — begin arriving on January 5 for the afternoon previews and CES Unveiled (press solely, in Mandalay Bay), the place award-winning exhibitors present their wares at tables.
“The CES is an amazing, powerful tech event. I was looking back at what you had written last year about it, before and after,” stated Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Client Know-how Affiliation, in an interview with GamesBeat. “A lot of people go with a very full agenda, but we always say you have to have time for serendipity and discovery. We have a new look, a new feel. We focused the campaign on “Dive in.” We’re inviting attendees to do three issues: join, resolve, and uncover.”
He stated the typical attendee has about 29 conferences throughout the present, as face-to-face enterprise remains to be essential. About 75% of attendees say their enterprise is primarily B2B, or each B2B and B2C.
Gary Shapiro is CEO of the CTA, creator of CES.
My No. 1 tip is to all the time put on comfy footwear. I discovered that lesson after some blisters throughout a CES years in the past. As for a masks, I put on it on planes and infrequently throughout large, crowded indoor occasions. However issues have modified for the reason that COVID days when the present was canceled outright in January 2021 and severely restricted in January 2022, with solely 45,000 displaying up.
A lot of my recommendation shouldn’t be rocket science. However I renew this story yearly since there are new folks attending the present and plenty of going again for the primary time. I take no accountability for dangerous recommendation. You possibly can try the CES app right here.
Attendance shouldn’t be fairly the place it as soon as was. Again in 2019, the present drew 175,212 in 2019 and 171,268 in 2020. CES 2020 had about 4,500 exhibitors throughout 2.9 million sq. toes of house. This yr, the present is a minimum of just a few days after New 12 months’s and that provides some respiratory room for these planning on going.
Must you go?
The road to get into the primary press occasion at CES 2024.
It’s an enormous present, and, in contrast to the gaming business’s canceled E3 present, it’s nonetheless related. Final yr, there have been 5,355 media final yr, up from 4,800 media attending CES 2023, up from 3,100 media at CES 2022. Eureka Park on the Venetian’s Sands Expo had greater than 1,400 startups.
There have been 46,000 worldwide guests, or 40.6% of the full, final yr. Some 5,975 had been from the Americas exterior the U.S., 12,424 had been from Europe, 36,017 had been from the Center East and Asia, 229 had been from Africa and 552 had been from Oceania. About 15,723 had been presidents or founders, or 11.7% of total attendance, and one other 12,768, or 9.5%, had been C-suite executives.
Final yr’s prime areas of curiosity had been AI, car tech, IoT sensors, smarthomes and home equipment, AR/XR/VR, robotics, advertising and promoting, startups, video applied sciences, 5G, power/energy, cloud computing/information and health/wearables.
The yr earlier than, the highest areas of curiosity had been AI, IoT/sensors, car know-how, AR/VR/XR, smarthomes and home equipment, 5G, robotics, startups, power/energy, health and wearables and advertising and promoting.
I nonetheless view CES as a bellwether for the tech economic system, as no different occasion spans all the tech world prefer it does. Firms wish to create a buzz at CES, which is designed to sign merchandise coming within the subsequent yr. I discover the present a helpful strategy to keep up to the mark on the most recent know-how. When you discover the well being danger acceptable, then it will possibly nonetheless be a precious strategy to keep in contact.
Apple doesn’t attend the present, however nearly each different tech big does. It’s the place the tech business will likely be subsequent week, although it’s not a lot of a recreation occasion as of late. Sony, nevertheless, will likely be displaying up and they’re anticipated to point out off the Afeela electrical automobile (created with Honda) full with a PlayStation 5 within the car on the present.
Gary Shapiro wore his masks at CES 2022 throughout the Omicron wave.
Since 2020, CES official exhibit venues have been geared up with improved air flow methods and contemporary air stream.
The Las Vegas Conference Middle, Mandalay Bay and the Venetian Expo have been awarded World Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) Star certification by ISSA. This accreditation means the properties are observing cleansing protocols and work practices that decrease dangers related to the unfold of infectious ailments.
Once more in 2025, CES will work to reduce floor contact factors and improve contemporary airflow at high-traffic areas.
Hand sanitization stations will likely be positioned all through CES venues. Pack heat as Vegas in January is a mean of 57 levels.
Masks can be found onsite. When you select to not put on one, please respect these round you who do, the CTA says.
Getting your badge and entering into the present
Signal at CES 2019.
You need to work within the tech business to get into the present. It’s a spot for professionals, not vacationers, and registration is designed to display screen the vacationers out. With 140,000 or extra folks on the present, you don’t wish to get caught in lengthy strains.
All present attendees, together with media and particular person exhibitor personnel should choose up their very own CES 2025 official badge at a distant badge pickup location You can’t choose up badges for different attendees. I often choose mine up on the Las Vegas airport.
Safety
Who let this man in? Dean Takahashi on the CES traits session at CES 2024.
The CTA stated its safety measures imply attendees will face a bag search on the entrance to all present venues.
Date of start will once more be required in step with steering from federal regulation enforcement and business finest practices.
At CES 2025, the CTA stated you’ll discover a extremely seen regulation enforcement presence all through the present and in any respect venues. Legislation enforcement officers and K9 (canine) items will likely be at each the entrances to the venues and on the exhibit flooring. The venues will likely be performing random safety checks on present premises.
As an enhanced safety measure, the CTA is are implementing a car deterrence plan in and round key venues.
When you see one thing suspicious, please report it to CES by way of the safety cellphone numbers printed on the again of your CES badge. Venue safety numbers can also be discovered on the On-Web site Companies web page. You may also ask any CES workers member or venue or safety personnel. Chances are you’ll contact CES Safety or venue safety by the CES App within the Safety part.
Attendees might carry two small baggage, every smaller than 12”x17”x6” into present venues. Attendees are inspired to think about their bag sort and use clear baggage (mesh, plastic, vinyl, and so forth.) to expedite entry.
Rolling baggage of any measurement are prohibited together with baggage, carry-ons, laptop computer and laptop baggage, and rolling baggage carts.
Media with an official media badge are permitted to hand-carry gear onto present premises in extra of the two-bag restriction. Gear is topic to look and tagged as authorised for entry.
Exhibitors are permitted to deliver product and show materials onto CES present premises in extra of our two-bag restriction, starting January 6 and prior to eight a.m. on present days January 7-10. Exhibitors can also herald supplies on move-in days between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
You need to go away your baggage at your lodge. Nonetheless, there are bag-check amenities at LVCC exterior of Central and West Halls, Venetian Expo, Degree 1 Foyer; and the Venetian Ballroom Lobby.
Peak occasions for CES crowds
The group at CES 2013.
The press occasions begin late on January 5 and proceed all day on January 6. That’s when a lot of the tales will run from CES bulletins, with some show-only bulletins occurring on January 7.
Along with Nvidia’s Huang, different keynote audio system embody
Panasonic Holdings Group CEO Yuki Kusumi, who’s doing the morning keynote on Tuesday January 7 at 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. with Shapiro of the CTA and Kinsey Fabrizio, president of the CTA.
Jennifer Witz, CEO of SiriusXM, is talking with podcaster Ashley Flowers at 11 a.m. Tuesday January 7 on the Aria.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, is talking at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday January 7 at The Venetian.
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta, goes to be one of many highlights partially as a result of he’s bought an awesome location: The Sphere, the spherical live performance venue with superb particular results. He’s talking at 4:55 p.m. on the Sphere on Tuesday January 7. We’ll see what Delta has to say about know-how, contemplating it is going to be celebrating its a centesimal birthday as an organization.
The keynotes wrap up on Wednesday January 8 with Martin Lundstedt, CEO of Volvo Group, at 9 a.m. at The Venetian; Julie Candy, CEO of Accenture at 2 p.m. Wednesday January 8.
There are many different panels. I’m moderating a session on AI and video games. It’s referred to as Velocity, Customization, Innovation: AI in Gaming, going down on the Aria Joshua 8 at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday January 7. It’s about unleashing the ability of AI in recreation improvement. It’s about studying how publishers and builders use AI to hurry up releases and design and tailor video games for gamers.
My panelists embody Burcu Hakguder, cofounder and CRO, Layer; Emilee Helm, head of influencers, Gamesight; Haval Othman, senior director of expertise engineering at HP; and Devin Reimer, founder and CEO at AstroBeam.
Press days
The beginning of the primary press occasion for CES 2023.
As I discussed, the press day will begin on Sunday January 5 with a chat (solely press allowed) concerning the CTA’s view of traits to observe. That can result in the press-only occasion, CES Unveiled, at 5 p.m. on the Mandalay Bay. That’s the place we get a primary take a look at the award winners for the CTA innovation contest.
That is the day after I want the laptop computer with the longest battery life. (Sure, that’s nonetheless a difficulty). Then the press and others can head to the opening keynote speech for Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, on the Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Enviornment at 6:30 p.m. I’m undecided how I’m going to go from the Mandalay Bay to the conference middle and again to the Mandalay Bay is such a short while body. CES is all about such logistical nightmares and complicated options to them.
There’s additionally an enormous press-only celebration at Pepcom’s Digital Expertise at Caesars Palace (RSVPs required) on January 6 (7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., after Huang’s speech), and the rival Showstoppers press-only celebration takes place on the Bellagio on the night of January 7.
This yr, Tuesday is when the true crowds present up, and also you’ll discover it in eating places, transportation strains, conference halls, on line casino flooring, and on the airport. Let’s hope the climate will likely be good, in distinction to the torrential rains we noticed in 2018, when blackouts took out the primary present flooring.
When you’re leaving the conference focus on 6 p.m., you’ll be able to catch a bus to a lot of the main motels. That’s an effective way to get off your toes and the strains can transfer quick. However that’s additionally the busiest site visitors time. You’ll need to stroll (maybe a good distance) to designated areas for Uber/Lyft ride-sharing pickup zones. And there’s the monorail to think about as effectively for some motels.
Getting misplaced within the maze
Gary Shapiro of the CTA is right here, maybe with a French politician.
The two.5 million-plus sq. toes of exhibition house will open at 10 a.m. on Tuesday January 7.
The classes at this yr’s exhibit house embody car tech and superior mobility, digital well being, audio/video, gaming, sensible house, AI/robotics, sensible cities and sustainability, C Area, sports activities and health tech, enterprise and B2B, IoT infrastructure, metaverse, fintech, way of life, accessibility, Eureka Park (startups), 3D printing and house tech.
When you’re actually bold, you possibly can be strolling 30,000 steps a day, about three to 6 occasions as a lot as normal. For me, exhaustion units in round 20,000 steps. When you can minimize some pointless strolling out of your day, that will be clever to do.
This yr’s venues have been renamed the LVCC Campus (Las Vegas Conference Middle West Corridor, North Corridor, South Corridor and Central Corridor), Venetian Campus(The Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore at Wynn) and C Area Campus (Aria, Cosmopolitan, Park MGM and Vdara).
The LVCC campus has the sprawling South Halls 1, 2 and three (upstairs) with all kinds of merchandise. The Central Corridor consists of gaming, audio and video with enormous corporations like Samsung, Sony, TCL, Canon, and extra. The North Corridor consists of classes like AI, B2B enterprise options, fintech, IoT infrastructure, sustainability, sensible cities, sensible cities IoT and car tech.
The West Corridor is filled with car tech with corporations like Brunswick within the marine class, John Deere in heavy equipment, carmakers, EVs and eVTOL plane, self-driving autos, software program, suppliers and car tech.
Over on the Venetian, there are greater than 1,400 startups that will likely be at Eureka Park. Tech West is a bunch of pavilions on the Venetian. There are tons of startups on Degree 1. You could find regional cubicles equivalent to these from France, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and extra. On Degree 2, yow will discover AARP AgeTech, Kohler, Hyundai, Narwal, and extra.
Probably the most incessantly visited halls at LVCC was the South Corridor, however this yr the multi-level corridor is closed.
In Tech South, at Aria Resort, yow will discover C Area, which is the place there are loads of talks about Hollywood and know-how. The Cosmopolitan has Cosmo exhibitors that embody Nvidia, Disney, Paramount, NBC Common, Netflix, Reddit, Roku, Samsung, T-Cell, and Snap.
What’s trending and what’s not
Electrical autos at CES 2023.
Whereas blockchain and the metaverse had been large themes just a few years in the past, AI was the large theme for 2024. In 2025, AI will nonetheless command loads of consideration. However that doesn’t imply that tech growth goes to occur. The worldwide economic system faces loads of unknowns, like how pleasant towards tech and shopper gross sales the Trump administration will likely be, particularly if Donald Trump is threatening tariffs. Tariffs may result in commerce wars and that might imply a $300 to $500 recreation console may all of the sudden value $1,000.
Tim Bajarin, who’s going to his fiftieth CES, expects these traits: AI PCs are all over the place; earbuds will likely be smarter and smarter; smarter autos; smarter and better decision TVs; AI all over the place else; and spatial computing will make many appearances with XR/AR goggles or glasses.
Beneath the “connect” a part of the theme of the present, Shapiro stated one main matter is human safety for all.
” We talked about human safety for all, our work with the United Nations specializing in the sustainable improvement targets, specializing in elementary human safety in areas like well being care, funds, private security. We see that in all kinds of the way. In fact accessibility is one other large factor. Even for me, attending the present in 2024, that was one of many largest surprises and themes,” Shapiro stated. “I don’t think I even talked about that before the show – how many people were there looking out on behalf of the disability community, and how many companies were responding to that with all sorts of technology.”
Requested about different sizzling classes, Shapiro stated, “Obviously AI is still a big thing. It pervades almost every category. Digital health is also very big. Mobility is huge with electric vehicles and connected cars, autonomy, sustainability. We’ve done our own pivots as well. The concept of electricity being available is not something we’ve talked about at CES before. Now we have a whole conference track on it. With electric cars, generative AI, and quantum, they all use tremendous amounts of electricity that we’re not prepared for. Not surprising to me, a number of companies in the last month have announced deals with nuclear power plants and things like that, which is totally new, but it’s a way of dealing with it.”
And Shapiro stated, “We’ll have exhibitors focusing on energy savings on the supply side, heat reduction, local production. We’ll also have panels talking about how we can look at the electric grid. Similarly to that vein, we’ll have a shift that we haven’t had before to quantum computing. We have a half day of programming on that. While AI and generative AI is currently the thing, now generative AI doesn’t get you to the finish line with a lot of things, for example in health care. It’s a whole shift upwards in computing that we haven’t had in a long time.”
Regulators will likely be current, and Shapiro stated (earlier than the election happened) he was involved that the U.S. has turn out to be too aggressive in blocking mergers for antitrust causes. He worries that the Biden administration has been anti-innovation. I famous that I might like to see us return to balanced progress, the place we see innovation with AI, job progress for tech, and income progress for corporations all on the similar time.
Shapiro stated, “What I’ve learned in my career is that you never get to perfect, but you just try to do better than you did last year. The definition of perfect changes. I don’t think, in a free market economy, that perfect is where everyone gets to keep their jobs. You have to learn new skills.”
He added, “There is another theory out there, though, which is that it will add more free time, and that will generate its own economic growth. My wife goes to a lot of medical conferences, and there’s a generational difference between doctors in that the incoming doctors don’t want to work as hard. They want regular hours. They don’t want the lengthy hours. I’ve been talking about this for two years now. It’s true, and I know this because I’ve talked to enough doctors in different fields about it. People want time now. It probably predated COVID. People value experience and time. That’s what it is.”
Your CES survival ideas
Simply Dean Takahashi and some of his journalist pals.
A lot of the following pointers are recycled from previous years, however I’ve gone by and renewed them with my newest information. As I discussed, it’s laborious to get round at CES. You need to preserve appointments to a half hour however notice that it takes time to stroll between venues. Chances are you’ll not understand it however the distance between motels (that are very giant) and halls might look visually shut however they’re typically actually far aside.
Chances are you’ll encounter delays as a result of different individuals are not on time. And chances are you’ll even have bother discovering folks at giant cubicles. So, it’s good to pad your schedule to account for doable delays and isolate the actually essential appointments.
The CES badges now have images on them, streamlining identification and making it tougher for folks to share badges. Since they’re paper badges (plastic eradicated within the title of sustainability), it’s important to watch out to not lose them.
In your crowded flights, attempt to journey gentle. For Southwest, I all the time test in forward of boarding, setting an alarm for precisely 24 hours earlier than my flight. Examine your baggage when you don’t need to get wherever shortly. Be ready for lengthy cab strains and rental automobile check-in strains. (Companies like Uber and Lyft are very helpful at CES, significantly as parking shouldn’t be plentiful sufficient and the large casinos/motels now cost a payment per go to at their self-parking garages). I don’t lease a automobile anymore. On the airport, it’s important to stroll to a chosen space in a parking storage and discover your rideshare in a selected parking slot to get out of the airport in an Uber/Lyft.
Uber and Lyft vehicles are actually the best way to journey from venue to venue now. In previous years I discovered that the pickup on the LVCC (close to the Renaissance Resort) was a site visitors logjam. The Tesla tunnel (the place Tesla EVs take an underground tunnel from one location to a different) is nice for attending to a number of the motels and between the central corridor and the west corridor of the LVCC. The tunnel now goes to the Resorts World Las Vegas, Westgate Las Vegas Resort & On line casino, Encore Las Vegas and Virgin Resorts Las Vegas.
The Tesla underground tunnel on the Las Vegas Conference Middle.
Schedule your appointments in places which can be close to one another, and test exhibitor places on a CES map. Arrive early for keynotes as a result of the strains are lengthy. I don’t typically stray past LVCC/WestHall/TechWest/Venetian as a result of time it takes to get different locations.
I like to recommend sleep. The Vegas air is tremendous dry so perhaps use a humidier or nostril spray. If the events are what you care about, there are sometimes celebration lists that flow into. You possibly can Google CES 2025 celebration lists, however the KarenNet CES celebration listm has been round for a very long time.
Keep in mind to swap cellphone numbers with the folks you’re assembly so you’ll be able to coordinate, significantly as somebody is often held up by the crowds. Incorporate driving and consuming occasions into your calendar or use a calendar that does that routinely for you.
Smartphone reception is healthier than it was, but it surely’s nonetheless most likely vulnerable to interference. Textual content message is often an honest strategy to talk with coworkers. We all the time search out the Wi-Fi/5G havens within the press rooms or wherever we are able to discover them.
However carry a MiFi or activate a private hotspot when you can; even lodge web connections are more likely to be confused to the restrict throughout the present. When you’re answerable for importing video, thanks for clogging the community for the remainder of us. By CES 2025, I hopefully gained’t need to complain about this, as 5G networks ought to theoretically allow quicker connection speeds on mobile information.
When you acquire loads of swag, you’ll be able to ship it house by way of transport companies as a substitute of carting it on the airplane. I believe that the price of transport might be larger than the worth of the swag.
You need to print a map of the exhibit flooring or rip one out of the present information. You also needs to print your tickets, schedule, and RSVPs for occasions — or make them simply accessible in your cellphone. (If somebody steals your cellphone or your major bag, you need to have backups in a second bag).
You want battery backup in your laptop computer or smartphone, hand sanitizer, digital camera, ibuprofen, and nutritional vitamins. I’ve bought Acer Swift Go 14 and a spare Dynabook laptop computer this yr. The Acer specifically has battery life. Carry a backup for every thing, even when it’s important to go away it in your lodge room this yr.
I used to suggest taking enterprise playing cards. I lastly printed a batch for the primary time for the reason that pandemic. Now you’ll be able to swap your LinkedIn credentials with folks by way of your smartphone. When you’re exhibiting, put on your organization model in your shirt. Attempt very laborious to keep away from dropping your cellphone. I put on a jacket with zippered pockets so I can put my cellphone and pockets inside.
Make a while to stroll the present flooring. If the cab/rideshare strains have you ever annoyed, don’t take into consideration strolling to a close-by lodge. Likelihood is the cab line there’s additionally dangerous, and the motels are so enormous {that a} mirage impact makes them look deceptively shut. You probably have a rental automobile, attempt to not get caught in a site visitors jam in a 10-story parking storage. And all the time mark down the place you parked your automobile in your cellphone map or paper.
Drink a number of water. Get some sleep — you actually don’t need to celebration each evening. For essentially the most half, I don’t shake arms anymore, because it’s an effective way to go germs round. As an alternative, I do fist bumps. You don’t wish to come again sick with “CES crud” or COVID.
Don’t miss your flight on the best way out. Pack up a bunch of snacks early on to keep away from getting caught in breakfast or lunch strains. Take a smartphone with digital camera as a result of what occurs in Vegas … will get shared on the web.
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