Here’s why I’m canceling my trip to the in-person CES 2022 conference

As much as I wanted to attend the return of CES to an in-person event in Las Vegas, I can no longer justify the trip.
I was holding out hope that exhibitors would not give into fear about the ongoing Covid pandemic and would show up in force to CES 2022, which officially runs Jan. 5-8. Organizers of the conference had set measures to keep people safe, including requiring attendees and exhibitors to be fully vaccinated against the airborne disease and to wear masks and socially distance indoors.
But major exhibitors this week began canceling their attendance at the show. Eventually enough dominoes fell that I had to cancel as well.
Companies canceling include Amazon, AMD, AT&T, Casio, General Motors, Google, iHeartMedia, Intel, Lenovo, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, Pinterest, TikTok, T-Mobile, Twitter and Waymo. Other exhibitors plan to have a scaled-down presence at the show.
I have no doubt that CES 2022 will continue with an in-person event, though it will be much smaller than in past years. It will not be canceled though, despite calls by a vocal minority on Twitter.
But an increasing number of registered attendees will switch to the companion online version of the show. However, the digital version of the show is a poor substitute for the experience of discovering new technology products in person.
I believe the media that do attend CES 2022 in Las Vegas will see a lot of cool devices that will generate some interesting articles. Those articles likely will focus on the many smaller companies exhibiting at the show.
But I focus mostly on large, publicly traded companies. And those are the types of exhibitors that have been canceling attendance at CES 2022. Those corporations are more concerned about liability issues and the optics of sending employees to an in-person conference amid a wave of infections from the omicron variant of Covid-19.
I’m not going to fly across the country to watch online press conferences on my PC or tour sparse exhibit halls.
So far, only one of my interview appointments has canceled, but I’m sure there will be more in the week ahead. That’s why I’m switching to online coverage of CES 2022. That includes phone interviews, Zoom calls and watching videos of keynotes and panel discussions.
It will be just like the all-digital CES 2021, which took place after the in-person show was canceled because of Covid. But I didn’t find the online CES 2021 very engaging.
I have attended every in-person CES conference since 2000. And I’m not looking forward to more time stuck in my home office. Damn you, Covid!

Photo: Internet meme of Mark Cuban from ABC’s “Shark Tank.”