• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact

Daily Business Magazine

A magazine complement to the Daily Business website

  • Life, Arts & Leisure
    • Creative
    • Festival
      • Festival Reviews
    • Film
    • Food & Drink
    • Stage Shows
    • Life
    • Leisure
      • Rio Recommends – dog walks and cafes
    • Homes
    • Style
    • Travel
  • Opinion
    • Bill Magee
    • Craig Alexander Rattray
    • Karen Harvie
    • Keith Anderson
    • Russell Dalgleish
    • Terry Murden
  • Interviews
  • Notebook
  • Working Life
    • Careers & Management
    • Finance and legal
    • Technology
      • Tech Talk
    • Well Being
  • Daily Business News
    • All Content

Tech meet-ups on trial as Vegas goes virtual

January 9, 2022 by Bill Magee Leave a Comment

Bill Magee

TECH TALK: BILL MAGEE asks if big tech events have a future


One really has to feel for any bright tech start-up gambling on its entire future by cashing in hard-earned chips, probably some borrowed, to undergo a near 10,000-mile once in a commercial lifetime round trip to Las Vegas. Months of planning to finally roll up, somewhat bleary-eyed in person at the world’s largest consumer electronics trade show. Only to find there’s hardly anyone there.

CES 2022 was supposed to be where a fledgling IT hopeful’s commercial aspirations were transformed by hitting the radar of a Big Tech venture capital early-stage investor. Instead, they were welcomed by an endless array of video screens, wherever they looked, mostly showing off electric cars.

For the second year organisers were forced to drastically cut back the event and go virtual because of a resurgent global pandemic, but many alterations were left until the last minute. One observer described the tech show as “soulless.” It raises a question: what’s the point of such tech conferences?

North American Evan Wilson, with a Scots mother and settled in Scotland, going freelance this month as a senior IT engineer and project manager, after 14 years with the same tech company, believes CES has had its day.

He told me: “There’s definitely a certain irony in such tech conferences being held in person given technology has made remote attendance possible. I can easily see such events moving to the ‘metaverse’ in future years.”

CES is one of those events he has always viewed as a “sort of pseudo-holiday” for enterprise level companies with endless budgets. “I’ve never quite understood their value, also with travel and entry it’s cost-prohibitive.”

Pandemic times and rising travel costs will see people less inclined to market themselves there as larger corporations move to virtual-only. During his spell as a senior solutions manager he did give a nod to CES: “Thankfully, I never attended.”

CES 2022 organisers admitted to “big gaps in the show floor” shortening the event by a day but preserving as much “in person” involvement as possible. Typically, it’s all about “dollars and cents” as in normal times the event contributes more than £150 million a year to Vegas coffers.

By far, the biggest financial investment comes from tech multinationals’ corporate spend but an A-to-Z from Amazon to Verizon with Microsoft and Google in the middle, pulled out in their droves opting for solely visual.

CES is considered the proving ground for breakthrough technologies. It’s well and truly baked into the digital calendar as an event where Big Tech must be seen, especially by competitors.

In normal CES times, around 180,000 attendees tramp through 2.9 million square feet of exhibition space along with numerous conference and panel keynotes, a monolith leading to a distinct feeling of being disconnected. I know this at first hand as one of the global press corps (one-time only) traipsing around cavernous halls, hour after hour, and hardly the occasional bar in between (for an expresso three-shot, of course).

Glasgow’s SECC, where the COP26 global climate change conference was recently staged in five interconnected exhibition and meeting rooms, represents a combined area a mere minnow at 236,800 square feet.

CES usually hosts around 2,200 exhibitors, mostly small companies, tucked into tiny booths costing up to £17,000 each. Goodness knows what the collective Big Tech spend is. As the Americans say “you do the math.”

Silicon Valley veteran coach and author Joe DiNucci claimed at an Oxford Union debate way back in 2010 that the Valley was “addicted to the fast-food of innovation” and that such a “tribal” profit-driven approach cannot be sustained.

He added the Valley shouldn’t need telling that it needs to take advantage of global, long-term opportunities, especially those caused by climate change.

A CES 2022 “hot area” was Facebook’s alter ego, the metaverse. Even though it is very early days for the imagined virtual-reality space, “touchy-feely” online connected T-shirts were marketed in abundance. No doubt, there’s an app for that.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Bill Magee, Contributors, Opinion, Tech Talk, Technology, Working Life Tagged With: CES

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar



Editor’s Pick

Dave Johns

Review: Dave Johns – A Comic’s Tale

Andy Moseley

… [More...] about Review: Dave Johns – A Comic’s Tale

Bill Magee

Securing safe passage to the metaverse economy

Terry Murden

… [More...] about Securing safe passage to the metaverse economy

Tim Key

Review: Tim Key – Mulberry

Andy Moseley

… [More...] about Review: Tim Key – Mulberry

Sook Edinburgh

Pop-ups give stores a new lease of life

Julena Drumi

… [More...] about Pop-ups give stores a new lease of life

Advertising



Footer

  • All Content
  • Site Map
  • Privacy Policy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • WordPress

Copyright © 2022 · Design by jPAD Consulting · Magazine Pro · Genesis Framework

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
 

Loading Comments...