In the age of software and AI, are mega tech events like CES still relevant?

In December 2023, one of the biggest, and most profound news to hit the tech industry was undoubtedly the official announcement that E3 was no more. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, or Electronic Entertainment Extravaganza as I would fondly remember it as, was once the most prolific video games and digital entertainment showcase in the world. The news of its permanent closure immediately raised questions if other technology shows would follow suit. Chiefly, all eyes were on CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, which was happening just one month later in January 2024, and I was scheduled to attend.

Well, that was a month ago. It’s now February. I’ve returned from CES 2024, had time to digest a few things, talk to a few people, and am happy to report these fears are unfounded…for the time being.

Let’s backtrack a little to E3. Covid killed the tech show. That’s the simplistic conclusion. But, if Covid did the whole industry dirty, why are shows like CES making a full-force comeback almost immediately while E3 withered away?

By the numbers

Dig deeper, and you’d see that Covid was merely a facilitator. It made the world realise that E3 wasn’t necessary anymore. In-person events have always been hailed as being indispensable; there was just nothing like the experience of meeting people and experiencing things physically. However, the rise of streaming platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and social media have proven that gaming can just be as communal, interactive and engaging in a digital format. This shift in audience was already felt pre-Covid, with the first dip in attendance reported for E3 2019.

Conversely, 2019 was the peak of all the major technology shows that HardwareZone normally attends and covers. CES Las Vegas, MWC Barcelona, IFA Berlin, Computex Taipei, all of them reporting record number of attendees and exhibitors pre-Covid. These shows have all successfully returned to their physical in-person format by 2023, coming out of the pandemic seemingly unscathed.

CTA (Consumer Technology Association), the body that runs CES reported around 175,000 attendees in 2019. This number dropped to 45,000 in 2022 due to Covid. However, by 2023, they were back up to 115,000 visitors, and the initial reports of the recent 2024 edition have them sitting at a healthy 135,000. Not only that, CTA also reported that CES 2024 grew by 15 per cent over 2023, featuring 2.5 million square feet of exhibits and 4,300 exhibitors, 1,400 of which were startups.

And it’s not just CES, all the other shows I’ve mentioned above have also posted similar, almost instant recovery in attendance once they opened back up the physical events. MWC Barcelona had 109,000 attendees in 2019; 88,500 in 2023. IFA Berlin had 250,000 attendees in 2019; 180,000 in 2023. Computex Taipei even managed to grow by 12% from pre-Covid 2019 to 47,594 in 2023.

Covid was merely a pause, and unlike E3, it seems that you cannot take the physical component out of technology. These four major shows represent more than just a showcase of fancy new gadgets that gets reported on HardwareZone or fun little TikTok videos. There’s a whole supply chain underneath the surface. Everyone there is hoping to do business with someone else.

Why should you, the consumer, care?

Because shows like these do make the industry more robust. They encourage real innovation and highlight competition. Regardless of how big any one brand is, every gadget we use today actually incorporates technology and parts from a dozen or more different companies, big and small. An unknown startup may have a breakthrough idea that eventually makes its way into a bigger brand’s product, or finds its way into a market outside its home country. These connections rarely happen randomly online. Shows like CES allow such meetings to take place, even if it’s just for the discovery of new technologies and partnerships beyond product peacocking.

I talked to John T. Kelley, CTA Vice President and CES Show Director about the continued relevance of CES. His replies echo my sentiments above,

We're constantly evolving and we're constantly improving. I think we listened to our attendees, we listened to our exhibitors, we listen to members of the media like yourself and said, ‘Hey, what do we need to do different? How can we be better?’ Often times, that's identifying new industries, new areas for growth. A perfect example would be the transportation mobility space. This is my 16th CES. When I started, there were only a handful of automobile companies that were in the show; maybe just one or two. Now we have over 250. And it's not just the OEMs. It's the suppliers. It's everyone along the value chain. I think that's a perfect example of an industry that has grown and that's how we remain relevant.

In the same vein, the femtech and beauty tech industry is going through a similar expansion as to what John referred to automobiles 8 years ago. This past CES, L’Oreal was even the opening keynote for the entire show. One of the more interesting observations John gave about post-Covid impact was that CES is an experience that people were willing to pay for,

Live events were (definitely) impacted by Covid, but one thing that people value is face to face interaction. I think that was something that got lost during Covid. You walk down the aisle and say, that looks interesting. Let me stop and see it. You can't replicate that in a digital environment.

I think people prioritize face to face interactions and experiences more so than they might have pre-Covid. And we've seen that, at least particularly here in the US, is a lot of consumer spending directed towards experiences. And in many ways CES is one of those experiences. It's an opportunity more businesses are choosing to spend their money on. It's an opportunity to bring people together, to connect, to discuss business, to meet just to share ideas about the future. Discuss partnerships, discuss and find new investors, attract investors, meet media like yourself. This is a great experience I can't replicate that anywhere else.

Now, I also asked John about the trends he’s seen over the years, and his reply enforces the reason why shows like CES continue to be relevant and necessary for today’s tech industry,

There are certain things that I thought would hold more promise than that never really gained consumer adoption. I thought 3D printing is an awesome concept, and every home would have a 3D printer and you could print small objects, whatever you may need for your house. You know, if you needed to replace a screw, or you needed to mould a cup, I always thought like there's so much promise there. We just never evolved to the point.

In another example. Eight years ago (~2016) VR headsets were already at CES, and then all of a sudden last year (2023) with metaverse, VR headsets are the big story again. Sometimes, it's cyclical, and sometimes technologies are ahead of their time. Eventually we'll catch up, and then you know, there’s kind of a resurrection at CES.

Trends come and go, but they might also make a comeback. And that’s why shows like CES, MWC, IFA, and Computex work. They all provide a central, physical platform to see and experience such trends. And there’s that word again. Experience.

For E3, you may be able to experience a new game in-person, but as people have realised, you can get the same experience right at home. Not only that, there are also no new genres, no new trends so to speak, just iterations of existing IPs or archetypes. The actual technological improvements that affect games, would usually be revealed in shows like CES. For example, NVIDIA's ACE real-time AI NPC conversation, was first announced in Computex 2023, and we got to interact with it during CES 2024.

How long will the honeymoon last?

We now circle back to trends and experiences. At CES 2024, the biggest trend was AI and software defined hardware. As I was walking through the halls last month, I did feel this shift in focus. I saw less product-specific demos. For example, Hyundai Motor Group’s keynote was just a panel discussion about the future of hydrogen energy, nothing was revealed at all. SK Hynix had a huge booth with carnival rides like a train track and hovercraft, but again, no real products to show. Sony didn’t have any new products either, choosing instead to showcase technologies for creators. Both LG and Samsung showcased a version of a smart home with a robotic butler. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis was a demo of what an AI smart car platform can do, not just a car with smarts.

The key is that all of these were big picture promises of the future, perhaps a very near future, but not the immediacy of usual consumer product-based showcase. While I do think CES is still very much relevant today and will probably continue to be so for years to come, when software fully overtakes the hardware experience, what then?

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