As of this writing, CES 2022 is still scheduled to take place in Las Vegas on January 5th through the 8th.
To try to accomplish that in the face of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant CTA, the organization behind CES, has put in place health and safety measures ranging from vaccine requirements to free antigen tests for all participants.
Still a growing number of big name exhibitors have already backed out of this year’s in-person show over health concerns.
The list keeps growing seemingly by the hour, but so far some of the names include:
- Mercedes
- BMW
- Panasonic
- OnePlus
- AMD
- Microsoft
- Meta
- Amazon
- GM
- Intel
- T-Mobile
- iHeartMedia
- Procter & Gamble
- Lenovo
- AT&T
- TikTok
- and this list doesn’t even include the very many smaller Exhibitors that have also already bailed.
The cancellations also have domino effects; for example, T-Mobile and GM were set to deliver keynotes, and iHeartMedia had hired Swedish House Mafia to play a show during CES, that show is now cancelled.
Other companies such as LG, Samsung, Sony, HTC, Qualcomm,and AMD are planning to have scaled down exhibits (many of which will replace people with QR codes to keep their employees safe).
Many media outlets won’t be in attendance and are choosing instead, to cover event remotely. Some of those include The Verge, CNET, PCMag, Engadget, TechCrunch, Tom’s Guide, TechRadar as well as traditional media companies like CNN.
However … at the moment (subject to change, void where prohibited, your mileage may vary…) the “Into Tomorrow” & ITTV Team still plans to attend in-person and conduct as many interviews as humanly possible from the various show floors as well as the evening Press events. So … stay tuned!!!
CTA is planning to push ahead with this year’s CES after last year’s virtual-only show. Should that change, we will update this post.