It’s a strange week. Strange and strangely familiar. You stay at the same hotel in a nearly identical room to the one you stayed in for the last 10 years or so. You see friends and colleagues you’ve not seen in a while. Everyone is three years older and a bit worse for wear. A global pandemic will do that to a person.
Last year was supposed to be your triumphant return to the show, after two years away. But you got cold feet when the omicron numbers started spiking around the holidays. The subsequent holiday travel, coupled with exhibitors flying in from all over the world, was sufficient cause for concern. And you were far from alone. Attendance numbers — which had hit 170,000 in 2020 — were down to ~40,000, representing a 75% drop in attendance.
The year between — 2021 — there was no in-person CES at all. The CTA, which puts on the event, ultimately made the right decision and went all-virtual for the first time in its history. That was its own kind of mess. The i...
