CES 2025 ideas and tips: A information to tech’s greatest commerce present

CES 2025 is coming to Las Vegas throughout the week of January 5, and will probably be one of many greatest tech expos on this planet once more.

This 12 months’s present must be massive once more. Final 12 months’s attendance reached 138,789, in line with an audited report by the Shopper Know-how Affiliation (CTA), the group that places on the present.

Final 12 months at CES 2024, I recorded round 80 press occasions, interviews, and periods. I walked 46.78 miles, or 105,407 steps, over six days. My toes harm and my again had been sore. There have been greater than 4,300 exhibitors and a pair of.4 million sq. toes of exhibit house to crawl. And the Goodyear blimp was there.

I’ve been attending the Shopper Electronics Present for the reason that Nineteen Nineties when then-Microsoft CEO Invoice Gates gave the opening keynote speeches yearly. This time, the largest speech will come from Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, the graphics chip maker that has develop into the king of AI {hardware} with a market worth of $3.42 trillion — essentially the most worthwhile firm on this planet.

He’ll give a chat at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time on the Michelob Area on the Mandalay Bay on January 6. Most attendees arrive on the present on January 7 and keep via January 10, when the expos are open. However the press — a number of thousand of us — begin arriving on January 5 for the afternoon previews and CES Unveiled (press solely, in Mandalay Bay), the place award-winning exhibitors present their wares at tables.

“The CES is an amazing, powerful tech event. I was looking back at what you had written last year about it, before and after,” mentioned Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Shopper Know-how Affiliation, in an interview with GamesBeat. “A lot of people go with a very full agenda, but we always say you have to have time for serendipity and discovery. We have a new look, a new feel. We focused the campaign on “Dive in.” We’re inviting attendees to do three issues: join, clear up, and uncover.”

He mentioned the common attendee has about 29 conferences throughout the present, as face-to-face enterprise remains to be necessary. About 75% of attendees say their enterprise is primarily B2B, or each B2B and B2C.

My No. 1 tip is to all the time put on comfy sneakers. I realized that lesson after some blisters throughout a CES years in the past. As for a masks, I put on it on planes and sometimes throughout massive, crowded indoor occasions. However issues have modified for the reason that COVID days when the present was canceled outright in January 2021 and severely restricted in January 2022, with solely 45,000 exhibiting up.

A lot of my recommendation will not be rocket science. However I renew this story yearly since there are new individuals attending the present and lots of going again for the primary time. I take no accountability for unhealthy recommendation. You’ll be able to take a look at the CES app right here.

Attendance will not be fairly the place it as soon as was. Again in 2019, the present drew 175,212 in 2019 and 171,268 in 2020. CES 2020 had about 4,500 exhibitors throughout 2.9 million sq. toes of house. This 12 months, the present is not less than a number of days after New Yr’s and that provides some respiration room for these planning on going.

Must you go?

It’s an enormous present, and, in contrast to the gaming {industry}’s canceled E3 present, it’s nonetheless related. Final 12 months, there have been 5,355 media final 12 months, up from 4,800 media attending CES 2023, up from 3,100 media at CES 2022. Eureka Park on the Venetian’s Sands Expo had greater than 1,400 startups.

There have been 46,000 worldwide guests, or 40.6% of the entire, final 12 months. Some 5,975 had been from the Americas outdoors the U.S., 12,424 had been from Europe, 36,017 had been from the Center East and Asia, 229 had been from Africa and 552 had been from Oceania. About 15,723 had been presidents or founders, or 11.7% of general attendance, and one other 12,768, or 9.5%, had been C-suite executives.

Final 12 months’s prime areas of curiosity had been AI, automobile tech, IoT sensors, smarthomes and home equipment, AR/XR/VR, robotics, advertising and promoting, startups, video applied sciences, 5G, vitality/energy, cloud computing/knowledge and health/wearables.

The 12 months earlier than, the highest areas of curiosity had been AI, IoT/sensors, automobile expertise, AR/VR/XR, smarthomes and home equipment, 5G, robotics, startups, vitality/energy, health and wearables and advertising and promoting.

I nonetheless view CES as a bellwether for the tech economic system, as no different occasion spans your entire tech world prefer it does. Firms need to create a buzz at CES, which is designed to sign merchandise coming within the subsequent 12 months. I discover the present a helpful strategy to keep in control on the newest expertise. Should you discover the well being threat acceptable, then it will possibly nonetheless be a worthwhile strategy to keep in contact.

Apple doesn’t attend the present, however nearly each different tech large does. It’s the place the tech {industry} will likely be subsequent week, although it’s not a lot of a sport occasion lately. Sony, nevertheless, will likely be exhibiting up and they’re anticipated to indicate off the Afeela electrical automobile (created with Honda) full with a PlayStation 5 within the automobile on the present.

Since 2020, CES official exhibit venues have been geared up with improved air flow techniques and contemporary air circulation. 

The Las Vegas Conference Heart, Mandalay Bay and the Venetian Expo have been awarded International Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) Star certification by ISSA. This accreditation means the properties are observing cleansing protocols and work practices that decrease dangers related to the unfold of infectious ailments. 

Once more in 2025, CES will work to reduce floor contact factors and improve contemporary airflow at high-traffic areas. 

Hand sanitization stations will likely be positioned all through CES venues.  Pack heat as Vegas in January is a mean of 57 levels.

Masks can be found onsite. Should you select to not put on one, please respect these round you who do, the CTA says.

Getting your badge and stepping into the present

It’s a must to work within the tech {industry} to get into the present. It’s a spot for professionals, not vacationers, and registration is designed to display the vacationers out. With 140,000 or extra individuals on the present, you don’t need to get caught in lengthy traces.

All present attendees, together with media and particular person exhibitor personnel should decide up their very own CES 2025 official badge at a distant badge pickup location You can’t decide up badges for different attendees. I often decide mine up on the Las Vegas airport.

To choose up your badge at a distant badge decide up location, you should current the next: Authorities-issued picture ID and a registration affirmation – both saved in your Google or Apple pockets or affirmation e mail with QR code to scan.

Safety

The CTA mentioned its safety measures imply attendees will face a bag search on the entrance to all present venues.

A novel e mail deal with is required for every registrant. CES badges embrace a photograph ID for attendees, exhibitors and media.

Date of delivery will once more be required consistent with steerage from federal regulation enforcement and {industry} greatest practices.

At CES 2025, the CTA mentioned you’ll discover a extremely seen regulation enforcement presence all through the present and in any respect venues. Regulation enforcement officers and K9 (canine) models will likely be at each the entrances to the venues and on the exhibit ground. The venues will likely be performing random safety checks on present premises.

As an enhanced safety measure, the CTA is are implementing a automobile deterrence plan in and round key venues.

Should you see one thing suspicious, please report it to CES through the safety cellphone numbers printed on the again of your CES badge. Venue safety numbers might also be discovered on the On-Website Companies web page. It’s also possible to ask any CES employees member or venue or safety personnel. It’s possible you’ll contact CES Safety or venue safety via the CES App within the Safety part.

Attendees could carry two small luggage, every smaller than 12”x17”x6” into present venues. Attendees are inspired to think about their bag kind and use clear luggage (mesh, plastic, vinyl, and so on.) to expedite entry.

Rolling luggage of any measurement are prohibited together with baggage, carry-ons, laptop computer and pc luggage, and rolling baggage carts.

Media with an official media badge are permitted to hand-carry tools onto present premises in extra of the two-bag restriction. Tools is topic to look and tagged as authorized for entry.

Exhibitors are permitted to deliver product and show materials onto CES present premises in extra of our two-bag restriction, starting January 6 and prior to eight a.m. on present days January 7-10. Exhibitors might also herald supplies on move-in days between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.

You need to depart your luggage at your resort. Nevertheless, there are bag-check amenities at LVCC outdoors of Central and West Halls, Venetian Expo, Degree 1 Foyer; and the Venetian Ballroom Lobby.

Peak instances for CES crowds

The press occasions begin late on January 5 and proceed all day on January 6. That’s when a lot of the tales will run from CES bulletins, with some show-only bulletins occurring on January 7.

Along with Nvidia’s Huang, different keynote audio system embrace

Panasonic Holdings Group CEO Yuki Kusumi, who’s doing the morning keynote on Tuesday January 7 at 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. with Shapiro of the CTA and Kinsey Fabrizio, president of the CTA.

Jennifer Witz, CEO of SiriusXM, is talking with podcaster Ashley Flowers at 11 a.m. Tuesday January 7 on the Aria.

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, is talking at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday January 7 at The Venetian.

Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta, goes to be one of many highlights partially as a result of he’s bought an amazing location: The Sphere, the spherical live performance venue with superb particular results. He’s talking at 4:55 p.m. on the Sphere on Tuesday January 7. We’ll see what Delta has to say about expertise, contemplating will probably be celebrating its one centesimal birthday as an organization.

The keynotes wrap up on Wednesday January 8 with Martin Lundstedt, CEO of Volvo Group, at 9 a.m. at The Venetian; Julie Candy, CEO of Accenture at 2 p.m. Wednesday January 8.

There are many different panels. I’m moderating a session on AI and video games. It’s referred to as Velocity, Customization, Innovation: AI in Gaming, happening on the Aria Joshua 8 at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday January 7. It’s about unleashing the facility of AI in sport improvement. It’s about studying how publishers and builders use AI to hurry up releases and design and tailor video games for gamers.

My panelists embrace Burcu Hakguder, cofounder and CRO, Layer; Emilee Helm, head of influencers, Gamesight; Haval Othman, senior director of expertise engineering at HP; and Devin Reimer, founder and CEO at AstroBeam.

Press days

As I discussed, the press day will begin on Sunday January 5 with a chat (solely press allowed) concerning the CTA’s view of developments to observe. That can result in the press-only occasion, CES Unveiled, at 5 p.m. on the Mandalay Bay. That’s the place we get a primary have a look at the award winners for the CTA innovation contest.

Then comes (for the media) a baptism of fireplace beginning on Monday at 8 a.m. Pacific with LG’s press convention. It peaks with Samsung’s press occasion at 2 p.m. and continues on to Sony’s 5 p.m. press occasion on the Las Vegas Conference Heart. These press occasions occur in fast fireplace and it’s an actual problem to maintain up with the information. Luckily, lots of the occasions are livestreamed for non-press to observe.

That is the day after I want the laptop computer with the longest battery life. (Sure, that’s nonetheless a difficulty). Then the press and others can head to the opening keynote speech for Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, on the Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Area at 6:30 p.m. I’m unsure how I’m going to go from the Mandalay Bay to the conference heart and again to the Mandalay Bay is such a short while body. CES is all about such logistical nightmares and sophisticated options to them.

There may be additionally an enormous press-only get together at Pepcom’s Digital Expertise at Caesars Palace (RSVPs required) on January 6 (7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., after Huang’s speech), and the rival Showstoppers press-only get together takes place on the Bellagio on the night of January 7.

This 12 months, Tuesday is when the actual crowds present up, and also you’ll discover it in eating places, transportation traces, conference halls, on line casino flooring, and on the airport. Let’s hope the climate will likely be good, in distinction to the torrential rains we noticed in 2018, when blackouts took out the principle present ground.

Should you’re leaving the conference focus on 6 p.m., you possibly can catch a bus to a lot of the main motels. That’s a good way to get off your toes and the traces can transfer quick. However that’s additionally the busiest site visitors time. You’ll should stroll (maybe a good distance) to designated areas for Uber/Lyft ride-sharing pickup zones. And there’s the monorail to think about as nicely for some motels.

Getting misplaced within the maze

The two.5 million-plus sq. toes of exhibition house will open at 10 a.m. on Tuesday January 7.

The classes at this 12 months’s exhibit house embrace automobile tech and superior mobility, digital well being, audio/video, gaming, good residence, AI/robotics, good cities and sustainability, C House, sports activities and health tech, enterprise and B2B, IoT infrastructure, metaverse, fintech, way of life, accessibility, Eureka Park (startups), 3D printing and house tech.

Should you’re actually formidable, you may be strolling 30,000 steps a day, about three to 6 instances as a lot as standard. For me, exhaustion units in round 20,000 steps. Should you can lower some pointless strolling out of your day, that might be clever to do.

This 12 months’s venues have been renamed the LVCC Campus (Las Vegas Conference Heart West Corridor, North Corridor, South Corridor and Central Corridor), Venetian Campus(The Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore at Wynn) and C House Campus (Aria, Cosmopolitan, Park MGM and Vdara).

The LVCC campus has the sprawling South Halls 1, 2 and three (upstairs) with all kinds of merchandise. The Central Corridor consists of gaming, audio and video with enormous firms like Samsung, Sony, TCL, Canon, and extra. The North Corridor consists of classes like AI, B2B enterprise options, fintech, IoT infrastructure, sustainability, good cities, good cities IoT and automobile tech.

The West Corridor is filled with automobile tech with firms like Brunswick within the marine class, John Deere in heavy equipment, carmakers, EVs and eVTOL plane, self-driving automobiles, software program, suppliers and automobile tech.

Over on the Venetian, there are greater than 1,400 startups that will likely be at Eureka Park. Tech West is a bunch of pavilions on the Venetian. There are tons of startups on Degree 1. Yow will discover regional cubicles resembling these from France, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and extra. On Degree 2, you’ll find AARP AgeTech, Kohler, Hyundai, Narwal, and extra.

Probably the most incessantly visited halls at LVCC was the South Corridor, however this 12 months the multi-level corridor is closed.

In Tech South, at Aria Resort, you’ll find C House, which is the place there are numerous talks about Hollywood and expertise. The Cosmopolitan has Cosmo exhibitors that embrace Nvidia, Disney, Paramount, NBC Common, Netflix, Reddit, Roku, Samsung, T-Cellular, and Snap.

What’s trending and what’s not

Whereas blockchain and the metaverse had been massive themes a number of years in the past, AI was the large theme for 2024. In 2025, AI will nonetheless command numerous consideration. However that doesn’t imply that tech growth goes to occur. The worldwide economic system faces numerous unknowns, like how pleasant towards tech and client gross sales the Trump administration will likely be, particularly if Donald Trump is threatening tariffs. Tariffs might result in commerce wars and that would imply a $300 to $500 sport console might immediately price $1,000.

Tim Bajarin, who’s going to his fiftieth CES, expects these developments: AI PCs are in every single place; earbuds will likely be smarter and smarter; smarter automobiles; smarter and better decision TVs; AI in every single place else; and spatial computing will make many appearances with XR/AR goggles or glasses.

Underneath the “connect” a part of the theme of the present, Shapiro mentioned one main subject is human safety for all.

” We talked about human safety for all, our work with the United Nations specializing in the sustainable improvement objectives, specializing in elementary human safety in areas like well being care, funds, private security. We see that in all types of how. In fact accessibility is one other massive factor. Even for me, attending the present in 2024, that was one of many greatest surprises and themes,” Shapiro mentioned. “I don’t think I even talked about that before the show – how many people were there looking out on behalf of the disability community, and how many companies were responding to that with all sorts of technology.”

Requested about different scorching classes, Shapiro mentioned, “Obviously AI is still a big thing. It pervades almost every category. Digital health is also very big. Mobility is huge with electric vehicles and connected cars, autonomy, sustainability. We’ve done our own pivots as well. The concept of electricity being available is not something we’ve talked about at CES before. Now we have a whole conference track on it. With electric cars, generative AI, and quantum, they all use tremendous amounts of electricity that we’re not prepared for. Not surprising to me, a number of companies in the last month have announced deals with nuclear power plants and things like that, which is totally new, but it’s a way of dealing with it.”

And Shapiro mentioned, “We’ll have exhibitors focusing on energy savings on the supply side, heat reduction, local production. We’ll also have panels talking about how we can look at the electric grid. Similarly to that vein, we’ll have a shift that we haven’t had before to quantum computing. We have a half day of programming on that. While AI and generative AI is currently the thing, now generative AI doesn’t get you to the finish line with a lot of things, for example in health care. It’s a whole shift upwards in computing that we haven’t had in a long time.”

Regulators will likely be current, and Shapiro mentioned (earlier than the election happened) he was involved that the U.S. has develop into too aggressive in blocking mergers for antitrust causes. He worries that the Biden administration has been anti-innovation. I famous that I might like to see us return to balanced progress, the place we see innovation with AI, job progress for tech, and income progress for firms all on the identical time.

Shapiro mentioned, “What I’ve learned in my career is that you never get to perfect, but you just try to do better than you did last year. The definition of perfect changes. I don’t think, in a free market economy, that perfect is where everyone gets to keep their jobs. You have to learn new skills.”

He added, “There is another theory out there, though, which is that it will add more free time, and that will generate its own economic growth. My wife goes to a lot of medical conferences, and there’s a generational difference between doctors in that the incoming doctors don’t want to work as hard. They want regular hours. They don’t want the lengthy hours. I’ve been talking about this for two years now. It’s true, and I know this because I’ve talked to enough doctors in different fields about it. People want time now. It probably predated COVID. People value experience and time. That’s what it is.”

Your CES survival ideas

Lots of the following tips are recycled from previous years, however I’ve gone via and renewed them with my newest information. As I discussed, it’s arduous to get round at CES. You need to hold appointments to a half hour however word that it takes time to stroll between venues. It’s possible you’ll not understand it however the distance between motels (that are very giant) and halls could look visually shut however they’re usually actually far aside.

It’s possible you’ll encounter delays as a result of different persons are delayed. And chances are you’ll even have hassle discovering individuals at giant cubicles. So, it’s good to pad your schedule to account for attainable delays and isolate the actually necessary appointments.

The CES badges now have images on them, streamlining identification and making it tougher for individuals to share badges. Since they’re paper badges (plastic eradicated within the identify of sustainability), you must watch out to not lose them.

In your crowded flights, attempt to journey gentle. For Southwest, I all the time verify in forward of boarding, setting an alarm for precisely 24 hours earlier than my flight. Examine your baggage in the event you don’t should get anyplace rapidly. Be ready for lengthy cab traces and rental automobile check-in traces. (Companies like Uber and Lyft are very helpful at CES, notably as parking will not be plentiful sufficient and the large casinos/motels now cost a payment per go to at their self-parking garages). I don’t lease a automobile anymore. On the airport, you must stroll to a chosen space in a parking storage and discover your rideshare in a selected parking slot to get out of the airport in an Uber/Lyft.

Uber and Lyft automobiles are actually the best way to journey from venue to venue now. In previous years I discovered that the pickup on the LVCC (close to the Renaissance Resort) was a site visitors logjam. The Tesla tunnel (the place Tesla EVs take an underground tunnel from one location to a different) is nice for attending to among the motels and between the central corridor and the west corridor of the LVCC. The tunnel now goes to the Resorts World Las Vegas, Westgate Las Vegas Resort & On line casino, Encore Las Vegas and Virgin Accommodations Las Vegas.

Schedule your appointments in places which are close to one another, and verify exhibitor places on a CES map. Arrive early for keynotes as a result of the traces are lengthy. I don’t usually stray past LVCC/WestHall/TechWest/Venetian because of the time it takes to get different locations.

I like to recommend sleep. The Vegas air is tremendous dry so perhaps use a humidier or nostril spray. If the events are what you care about, there are sometimes get together lists that flow into. You’ll be able to Google CES 2025 get together lists, however the KarenNet CES get together listm has been round for a very long time.

Keep in mind to swap cellphone numbers with the individuals you might be assembly so you possibly can coordinate, notably as somebody is often held up by the crowds. Incorporate driving and consuming instances into your calendar or use a calendar that does that routinely for you.

Smartphone reception is healthier than it was, however it’s nonetheless most likely liable to interference. Textual content message is often an honest strategy to talk with coworkers. We all the time search out the Wi-Fi/5G havens within the press rooms or wherever we will discover them.

However carry a MiFi or activate a private hotspot in the event you can; even resort web connections are prone to be careworn to the restrict throughout the present. Should you’re answerable for importing video, thanks for clogging the community for the remainder of us. By CES 2025, I hopefully received’t should complain about this, as 5G networks ought to theoretically allow quicker connection speeds on mobile knowledge.

Should you acquire numerous swag, you possibly can ship it residence through delivery providers as a substitute of carting it on the airplane. I believe that the price of delivery might be better than the worth of the swag.

You need to print a map of the exhibit ground or rip one out of the present information. You also needs to print your tickets, schedule, and RSVPs for occasions — or make them simply accessible in your cellphone. (If somebody steals your cellphone or your major bag, it’s best to have backups in a second bag).

You want battery backup on your laptop computer or smartphone, hand sanitizer, digital camera, ibuprofen, and nutritional vitamins. I’ve bought Acer Swift Go 14 and a spare Dynabook laptop computer this 12 months. The Acer specifically has battery life. Convey a backup for all the pieces, even when you must depart it in your resort room this 12 months.

I used to suggest taking enterprise playing cards. I lastly printed a batch for the primary time for the reason that pandemic. Now you possibly can swap your LinkedIn credentials with individuals through your smartphone. Should you’re exhibiting, put on your organization model in your shirt. Attempt very arduous to keep away from shedding your cellphone. I put on a jacket with zippered pockets so I can put my cellphone and pockets inside.

Make a while to stroll the present ground. If the cab/rideshare traces have you ever annoyed, don’t take into consideration strolling to a close-by resort. Likelihood is the cab line there may be additionally unhealthy, and the motels are so enormous {that a} mirage impact makes them look deceptively shut. If in case you have a rental automobile, attempt to not get caught in a site visitors jam in a 10-story parking storage. And all the time mark down the place you parked your automobile in your cellphone map or paper.

Drink a number of water. Get some sleep — you actually don’t should get together each night time. For essentially the most half, I don’t shake fingers anymore, because it’s a good way to move germs round. As a substitute, I do fist bumps. You don’t need to come again sick with “CES crud” or COVID.

Don’t miss your flight on the best way out. Pack up a bunch of snacks early on to keep away from getting caught in breakfast or lunch traces. Take a smartphone with digital camera as a result of what occurs in Vegas … will get shared on the web.