Monstrous CES technology show opening in Las Vegas

The New Year’s celebrations are over and all the party-goers have left. Long-time Las Vegans know what that means — CES attendees are on their way to the city.

The city’s largest audited annual trade show, sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association, begins its four-day run Tuesday with media previews and pre-show events running Sunday and Monday.

CES, which spotlights the consumer electronics industry, is expected to draw upwards of 150,000 people to Southern Nevada across four major convention venues.

Gary Shapiro, the Consumer Technology Association’s CEO, said in an exclusive interview with the Review Journal last week that “every sign is pointing to a positive at this point.

“We have a huge number of exhibitors, we’ve got a lot of new exhibitors, we’ve got a lot of floor space, we’ve got a lot of registrations, we have a record number of innovation award winners, our hotel pickup is very strong and positive, everything looks really good. I just learned our whole startup area, Eureka Park, is officially sold out ….”

And days before the event’s start-up, the show’s director noted that CES will go on with increased security, after the New Year’s Day bombing at Trump International.

“CES is the world’s most powerful tech event, bringing together attendees from over 150 countries to showcase innovation and address global challenges,” said John Kelley, vice president and show director of CES. “In response to recent tragic events, we have increased our already robust security protocols. We continue to monitor the situation and are in touch with our security partners and law enforcement officials. Ensuring a secure and seamless experience for all is our top priority. We are working closely with trusted partners, including all levels of government, to deliver robust security, advanced infrastructure, and essential services so attendees can focus on driving growth and forging impactful connections.”

4,300 exhibitors

More than 4,300 exhibitors are expected to show their products at CES, which is only open to registered technology professionals. About a third of the attendees are vice presidents or C-suite executives while 40 percent are coming from outside the United States.

Shapiro has overseen too many shows to predict how many will attend, knowing there’s a wide range of last-minute events that can cause the final tally to spike or decline. He prefers to share how many attended previous shows since those results are audited. In 2024, there were 138,739 attendees, 56,432 from 161 countries, 69,294 senior executives, 4,312 exhibitors and 5,355 media members.

Several airlines have added special flights from destinations they don’t normally serve to and from Las Vegas to accommodate CES attendees.

CES is spread out over exhibit halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center, The Venetian Expo, the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and Aria. And, for the first time, a CES keynote address will be held at Sphere by Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian.

The airline, observing its 100th anniversary, intends to show its technological advancements in its presentation.

The Delta keynote is one of eight speech presentations over three days featuring a majority of women executives.

On Monday evening, Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA, an artificial intelligence computing company, will speak at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena.

Tuesday morning, Yuki Kusumi, group CEO of Panasonic Holdings Corp., will kick off the formal opening day keynote, with CTA executives Shapiro and President Kinsey Fabrizio giving state-of-the-industry remarks at The Venetian. Later that morning, Sirius XM CEO Jennifer Witz will be interviewed by the top female podcaster in the United States, Crime Junkie host Ashley Flowers at Aria. Later in the afternoon, X Corp CEO Linda Yaccarino will speak at The Venetian, followed by Bastian at Sphere.

On Wednesday, Martin Lundstedt, president and CEO of Volvo Group starts the morning session at The Venetian, followed there in the afternoon by Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet. An invitation-only dinner presentation by Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana ends the speaking presentations.

Celebrity appearances

Several celebrities are scheduled to make appearances during CES. Among them are music icon Lenny Kravitz, performing at the Delta keynote; businessman, tech entrepreneur, “Shark Tank” investor and Dallas Mavericks co-owner Mark Cuban; journalist and writer Maria Shriver; businesswoman and writer Martha Stewart; musician Stevie Wonder; and actors Terry Crews and Tim Meadows.

The presentation of the CES Innovation Awards featuring technology advancements across 33 categories is a show highlight that will determine what are some of the products that will be in households in the years ahead.

Compact discs, VCRs, streaming services, home computing, smart homes, smart watches and self-driving vehicles are among the innovations that made their first appearances at past CES shows.

Fabrizio said Amazon, AMD, Disney, John Deere, LG, Netflix, Samsung, Siemens, SK and Waymo lead the list of companies returning to CES with Foxconn, Henkel, Komatsu, Oshkosh and Scout Motors exhibiting for the first time.

AI is a focus

Shapiro said the buzzwords for the 2025 show — quantum artificial intelligence computing — are the same as they were last year, and they’ll likely be around for decades to come because the applications are so vast.

How quantum computing will figure into key topics like transportation and mobility innovations, healthtech and wearable technology will be key elements of the show.

“We have a focus on energy creation, which is a big deal for us because a lot of our new things like quantum and electric cars and generative AI use a tremendous amount of energy, and it’s just not there yet on the grid,” Shapiro said. “We need energy, so that’s a big deal. The big surprise for me is the accessibility products and the strong presence of people with disabilities from the major groups of the show. It was a two-way street of them educating our companies and us providing solutions, some of which hadn’t been considered by the companies, to them.”

With so many people in the city, mobility is an issue, and Shapiro noted that thousands of attendees can move from their hotels to the convention venues, and between convention venues, thanks to a fleet of shuttle buses that will operate throughout the show.

Shapiro also pointed out the city’s growing underground Loop transit system will shuttle passengers as well as the Las Vegas Monorail.

One aspect of the show that will be different this year is that the Las Vegas Convention Center is in the midst of a $600 million renovation and modernization project.

While there won’t be any projects under construction during the show, attendees have been warned that some ingress and egress to the venue may be temporarily blocked requiring attendees to try to get to their places for timed events early.