CES 2021 Goes Online Only in Face of Coronavirus

CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show that that takes place in Los Angeles each year, is one of the biggest events in the tech industry and it's going virtual for 2021. Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association (which runs CES), shared a video message on Twitter where he outlined how next year's CES will be online only. CES was the last major tech event of 2020 to take place in person — its usually followed by Mobile World Congress, which takes place in February in Barcelona, but this year's event was cancelled as the spread of COVID-19 started to become more evident. Since then, more and more events have been following suit. 

"Amid the pandemic and growing global health concerns about the spread of Covid-19, it's just not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business in person," CTA Chief Executive Officer Gary Shapiro said in a statement shared on Twitter.

"Moving to an all-digital format for CES is simply the right thing to do. Our exhibitors, partners and thought-leaders will now have the time to plan, to think, to create compelling ways to engage digital audiences from around the world," Shapiro added, and said, "Like the tech sector itself, CES constantly innovates and evolves. For more than 50 years, CES has been the global stage for innovation and this is the next stage of our evolution."

CES is one of the biggest technology events, and includes everything from smartphones to televisions to robots and much more. This will be the first time that CES goes digital — however, the plan seems to be for one year only, as Shapiro added in his message that he hopes to see people in person again in 2022.

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