North America’s largest trade show — the biggest consumer electronics gathering in the world — makes its annual appearance in Las Vegas next week with a gift to the city, courtesy of the convention calendar, and a touch of industry intrigue.
The four-day International Consumer Electronics Show officially begins Tuesday, but organizers, analysts and industry trade media will start showing up over the weekend to take advantage of previews, parties and media conferences leading up to the opening of the show that is expected to bring more than 140,000 people to the city.
Because Christmas and New Year’s Day fell on Sundays, pushing back setup schedules, CES 2012 is starting later than normal. It’s also running Tuesday through Friday, enabling Las Vegas resorts to host conventioneers during the middle of the week and not lose any traffic on weekends, when most tourists visit.
“Traditionally, CES is here Thursday through Sunday,” said Chris Meyer, vice president of sales for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “This is absolutely a good thing for us and one of the reasons the destination works so well. We try to bring in convention visitors during the week and then the traditional weekend crowd comes in.”
Tara Dunion, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Consumer Electronics Association, which sponsors CES, says selecting dates for the show is just a matter of setup logistics and the availability of convention facilities.
“We already have dates planned 10 years out,” Dunion said. “This show is about the latest we’ve had it in a decade, but there has to be a cushion between the holidays and the show.”
Setting up CES is a logistical Rubik’s Cube that begins for the next year days after the current show ends. Las Vegas-based Global Experience Specialists breaks down and recycles booth materials, rolls up and stows the carpet in its local warehouse and then maps out the next show before designing and manufacturing the hundreds of signs and graphics needed for the event.
The finishing touches include marshaling the arrival of equipment from all over the world and building booths on the trade show floor.
And this year’s floor will be monstrous: 1.8 million square feet — bigger than 31 National Football League fields. It will fill every hall within the Las Vegas Convention Center, plus some temporary structures set up in the parking lot. There also will be exhibits set up at the Venetian, the Renaissance and the Las Vegas Hotel (formerly Las Vegas Hilton).
The Consumer Electronics Association estimates that 140,000 people will attend, and 2,700 exhibitors will show products. Last year, the show got a 12 percent boost in attendance to an officially audited 126,641 people. Add the exhibitors and support staff, and the show drew about 149,000 people to Southern Nevada.
Attendance of 140,000 would generate $148.3 million in nongaming revenue to the area, as estimated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Much of that revenue will come in the form of high room rates, inflated because demand is unusually high. Some hotel rooms are selling for up to nearly 10 times more than usual.
While some properties have been sold out for weeks, a price listing on VEGAS.com offered rates of an average $699 a night for the cheapest rooms at Aria, Wynn and Encore on Tuesday and Wednesday. A week later, those same rooms go for $169 at Aria and $259 a night at Wynn and Encore.
Even lower-end properties like Stratosphere (usually $39 a night midweek) and Excalibur ($42 a night) are selling for $309 and $427, respectively, next week.
While exhibitors and attendees will be coming from around the world, one group that won’t be at CES is the general public. CES is open only to those affiliated with the $190 billion consumer electronics industry.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives his keynote speech Jan. 5, 2011, at the Consumer Electronics Show.
What those who attend will see and hear will include a record eight keynote speakers and panels. Among the dignitaries who will take the stage at CES this year will be Paul Ottelini, president and CEO of Intel; Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm; Alan Mulally, chairman and CEO of Ford Motor Co., and Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski also is scheduled to appear in a CES session.
The night before the show officially begins, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speaks in the 14th straight year the Redmond, Wash.-based software company has delivered the show’s kickoff address.
Microsoft executive Bill Gates dominated the slot for a decade before giving way to Ballmer, his top lieutenant, in 2009.
But late last year, Microsoft announced this would be the last year the company would have a lead role, both as keynote deliverers and exhibitors.
CEA’s Dunion said it was a mutual decision between Microsoft and the association, but some speculated that Microsoft would go the way of Apple and develop its own specialty show for select audiences while taking up the practice known in the exhibitions industry as “outboarding” — showing products in hotel suites or smaller venues at the same time as the show to take advantage of the gathering of industry buyers without having to pay for exhibit space.
Microsoft has said that the release of some of its products did not align with CES dates and the company would explore communicating with customers and buyers electronically and via social media.
Dunion said Microsoft’s move would open opportunities for other rising industry stars.
Among the brands to be represented on panels and presentations during the show are Facebook, YouTube, Unilever, Sony, Best Buy, OnStar, Mercedes-Benz, General Electric, Hyundai, AT&T Wireless and Walmart.
Still, there has to be some uneasiness about losing Microsoft. The decision by IBM, Apple and Compaq to bail out of the Comdex computer exhibition show in 2000 was one of the contributors to the demise of that event three years later. The show, like CES, was held in Las Vegas.
While companies and their executives are key players, it’s the gadgets themselves that are the rock stars of CES.
Over the years, the show has been the coming-out party for some of the world’s favorite toys — VCRs, compact discs, Xboxes, HDTVs, TiVos and Blu-Rays.
Dunion said some of the preshow buzz centered on more efficient and more powerful tablet and notebook computers, voice-command controls and sensor-based technology with commands activated by gesture.
For the second straight year, show organizers are dedicating trade show floor space to innovative startups and entrepreneurs at the Eureka! Park TechZone at the Venetian. Dunion said the area started with 28 exhibitors and had 94 as of late last month.
Just as CES and Las Vegas are places where new devices are nurtured, the city and CES will become home to a site where old devices go to die.
In the middle of CES 2012, U.S. Micro Corp., a new technology recycling company, will have the official opening of its $15 million plant. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., will speak at the company’s opening reception Wednesday.