The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show is circling the drain as many major displayers pull their commitment to the show. General Motors, despite telling media as recent as Wednesday that it would still attend the show as other companies pulled out, has decided on Thursday to make its CES display an all-digital affair without any in-person component on the floor in Las Vegas. As the wildly contagious Coronavirus Omicron variant spreads throughout the world, Vegas in early January seems like a really bad idea.
We’re two years into the spread of this virus, and it continues to kill. CES seems to have done the right thing and updated its policies to include mandatory vaccination, daily complimentary testing, and mandatory masks inside, but many companies don’t believe this is enough and are planning to rescind their attendance regardless.
General Motors issued the following statement on Thursday : “We have decided to move to an all-digital approach with our activation at CES 2022 in January. CES is an important technology platform, and we are continuing with our plans on January 5 to share our significant company news including the reveal of the Chevrolet Silverado EV.”
While big departures from the show in the form of Lenovo, Waymo, and others are certainly important, General Motors CEO Mary Barra was scheduled to be the show’s keynote speaker. On top of that, Chevrolet was supposed to debut its Silverado EV in Las Vegas. Now both of those major components of the show will be virtual instead, severely neutering the in-person aspect of the show. Perhaps it would be best for all parties to discontinue the show altogether.
In recent days Meta, Twitter, Pinterest, T-mobile, and iHeartRadio all pulled out of the show, and our friends at Gizmodo, among many other tech-focused outlets, have cancelled plans to send reporters to cover the show.
They say ‘The show must go on’ but must it?
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