CES 2025 is coming to Las Vegas throughout the week of January 5, and it’s going to be certainly one of the largest tech expos on the planet again.
This 12 months’s show must be big again. Last 12 months’s attendance reached 138,789, in line with an audited report by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the group that puts on the show.
Last 12 months at CES 2024, I recorded around 80 press events, interviews, and sessions. I walked 46.78 miles, or 105,407 steps, over six days. My feet hurt and my back were sore. There were greater than 4,300 exhibitors and a couple of.4 million square feet of exhibit space to crawl. And the Goodyear blimp was there.
I’ve been attending the Consumer Electronics Show for the reason that Nineties when then-Microsoft CEO Bill 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 value of $3.42 trillion — the Most worthy company on the planet.
He will give a chat at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time on the Michelob Arena on the Mandalay Bay on January 6. Most attendees arrive on the show on January 7 and stay through January 10, when the expos are open. But the press — a number of thousand of us — start arriving on January 5 for the afternoon previews and CES Unveiled (press only, in Mandalay Bay), where award-winning exhibitors show their wares at tables.
“The CES is an incredible, powerful tech event. I used to be looking back at what you had written last 12 months about it, before and after,” said Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, in an interview with GamesBeat. “Lots of people go along with a really full agenda, but we all the time say you’ve got to have time for serendipity and discovery. We have a brand new look, a brand new feel. We focused the campaign on “Dive in.” We’re inviting attendees to do three things: connect, solve, and discover.”
He said the typical attendee has about 29 meetings throughout the show, as face-to-face business continues to be vital. About 75% of attendees say their business is primarily B2B, or each B2B and B2C.
My No. 1 tip is to all the time wear comfortable shoes. I learned that lesson after some blisters during a CES years ago. As for a mask, I wear it on planes and infrequently during big, crowded indoor events. But things have modified for the reason that COVID days when the show was canceled outright in January 2021 and severely restricted in January 2022, with only 45,000 showing up.
Much of my advice shouldn’t be rocket science. But I renew this story yearly since there are recent people attending the show and plenty of going for the primary time. I take no responsibility for bad advice. You can try the CES app here.
Attendance shouldn’t be quite where it once was. Back in 2019, the show drew 175,212 in 2019 and 171,268 in 2020. CES 2020 had about 4,500 exhibitors across 2.9 million square feet of space. This 12 months, the show is at the very least a number of days after New Year’s and that provides some respiratory room for those planning on going. As a bonus, here’s my gaming predictions for 2025.
The latest word from the CTA: “CES 2025 can be the world’s strongest business event, setting the tech agenda for the 12 months. With nearly 140,000 global attendees at CES 2024, we’re seeing positive momentum and interest from industry executives, top manufacturers, buyers, retailers, and media for CES 2025. Thousands of startups and firms from all over the world will showcase innovation that may solve a few of our most pressing challenges.”
Should you go?
It’s a giant show, and, unlike the gaming industry’s canceled E3 show, it’s still relevant. Last 12 months, there have been 5,355 media last 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 were 46,000 international visitors, or 40.6% of the entire, last 12 months. Some 5,975 were from the Americas outside the U.S., 12,424 were from Europe, 36,017 were from the Middle East and Asia, 229 were from Africa and 552 were from Oceania. About 15,723 were presidents or founders, or 11.7% of overall attendance, and one other 12,768, or 9.5%, were C-suite executives.
Last 12 months’s top areas of interest were AI, vehicle tech, IoT sensors, smarthomes and appliances, AR/XR/VR, robotics, marketing and promoting, startups, video technologies, 5G, energy/power, cloud computing/data and fitness/wearables.
The 12 months before, the highest areas of interest were AI, IoT/sensors, vehicle technology, AR/VR/XR, smarthomes and appliances, 5G, robotics, startups, energy/power, fitness and wearables and marketing and promoting.
I still view CES as a bellwether for the tech economy, as no other event spans your complete tech world prefer it does. Companies need to create a buzz at CES, which is designed to signal products coming in the following 12 months. I find the show a useful approach to stay up to the mark on the most recent technology. If you discover the health risk acceptable, then it could still be a priceless approach to stay in contact.
Apple doesn’t attend the show, but nearly every other tech giant does. It’s where the tech industry can be next week, though it’s not a lot of a game event lately. Sony, nonetheless, can be showing up and so they are expected to indicate off the Afeela electric automobile (created with Honda) complete with a PlayStation 5 within the vehicle on the show.
Since 2020, CES official exhibit venues have been equipped with improved ventilation systems and fresh air flow.
The Las Vegas Convention Center, Mandalay Bay and the Venetian Expo have been awarded Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) Star certification by ISSA. This accreditation means the properties are observing cleansing protocols and work practices that minimize risks related to the spread of infectious diseases.
Again in 2025, CES will work to attenuate surface touch points and increase fresh airflow at high-traffic areas.
Hand sanitization stations can be placed throughout CES venues. Pack warm as Vegas in January is a median of 57 degrees.
Masks can be found onsite. If you select to not wear one, please respect those around you who do, the CTA says.
Getting your badge and entering into the show
You must work within the tech industry to get into the show. It’s a spot for professionals, not tourists, and registration is designed to screen the tourists out. With 140,000 or more people on the show, you don’t need to get stuck in long lines.
All show attendees, including media and individual exhibitor personnel must pick up their very own CES 2025 official badge at a distant badge pickup location You cannot pick up badges for other attendees. I normally pick mine up on the Las Vegas airport.
To pick up your badge at a distant badge pick up location, you have to present the next: Government-issued photo ID and a registration confirmation – either saved in your Google or Apple wallet or confirmation email with QR code to scan.
Security
The CTA said its security measures mean attendees will face a bag search at the doorway to all show venues.
A novel email address is required for every registrant. CES badges include a photograph ID for attendees, exhibitors and media.
Date of birth will again be required according to guidance from federal law enforcement and industry best practices.
At CES 2025, the CTA said you’ll notice a highly visible law enforcement presence throughout the show and in any respect venues. Law enforcement officers and K9 (dog) units can be at each the entrances to the venues and on the exhibit floor. The venues can be performing random security checks on show premises.
As an enhanced security measure, the CTA is are implementing a vehicle deterrence plan in and around key venues.
If you see something suspicious, please report it to CES via the safety phone numbers printed on the back of your CES badge. Venue security numbers may be found on the On-Site Services page. You may ask any CES staff member or venue or security personnel. You may contact CES Security or venue security through the CES App within the Security section.
Attendees may carry two small bags, each smaller than 12”x17”x6” into show venues. Attendees are encouraged to contemplate their bag type and use clear bags (mesh, plastic, vinyl, etc.) to expedite entry.
Rolling bags of any size are prohibited including luggage, carry-ons, laptop and computer bags, and rolling luggage carts.
Media with an official media badge are permitted to hand-carry equipment onto show premises in excess of the two-bag restriction. Equipment is subject to look and tagged as approved for entry.
Exhibitors are permitted to bring product and display material onto CES show premises in excess of our two-bag restriction, starting January 6 and prior to eight a.m. on show days January 7-10. Exhibitors may usher in materials on move-in days between 7:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
You should leave your bags at your hotel. However, there are bag-check facilities at LVCC outside of Central and West Halls, Venetian Expo, Level 1 Lobby; and the Venetian Ballroom Foyer.
Peak times for CES crowds
The press events start late on January 5 and proceed all day on January 6. That’s when a lot of the stories will run from CES announcements, with some show-only announcements happening on January 7.
In addition to Nvidia’s Huang, other keynote speakers include
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 speaking with podcaster Ashley Flowers at 11 a.m. Tuesday January 7 on the Aria.
Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, is speaking at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday January 7 at The Venetian.
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta, goes to be certainly one of the highlights partly because he’s got an amazing location: The Sphere, the spherical concert venue with amazing computer graphics. He is speaking at 4:55 p.m. on the Sphere on Tuesday January 7. We’ll see what Delta has to say about technology, considering it’s going to be celebrating its a 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 Sweet, CEO of Accenture at 2 p.m. Wednesday January 8.
There are loads of other panels. I’m moderating a session on AI and games. It’s called Speed, Customization, Innovation: AI in Gaming, going down 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 game development. It’s about learning how publishers and developers use AI to hurry up releases and design and tailor games for players.
My panelists include Burcu Hakguder, cofounder and CRO, Layer; Emilee Helm, head of influencers, Gamesight; Haval Othman, senior director of experience engineering at HP; and Devin Reimer, founder and CEO at AstroBeam.
Press days
As I discussed, the press day will start on Sunday January 5 with a chat (only press allowed) in regards to the CTA’s view of trends to observe. That will result in the press-only event, CES Unveiled, at 5 p.m. on the Mandalay Bay. That’s where 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 starting on Monday at 8 a.m. Pacific with LG’s press conference. It peaks with Samsung’s press event at 2 p.m. and continues on to Sony’s 5 p.m. press event on the Las Vegas Convention Center. These press events occur in rapid fire and it’s an actual challenge to maintain up with the news. Fortunately, most of the events are livestreamed for non-press to observe.
This is the day when I would like the laptop with the longest battery life. (Yes, that’s still a problem). Then the press and others can head to the opening keynote speech for Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, on the Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Arena at 6:30 p.m. I’m unsure how I’m going to go from the Mandalay Bay to the convention center and back to the Mandalay Bay is such a brief timeframe. CES is all about such logistical nightmares and complicated solutions to them.
There can also be a giant press-only party at Pepcom’s Digital Experience 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 party takes place on the Bellagio on the evening of January 7.
This 12 months, Tuesday is when the true crowds show up, and also you’ll notice it in restaurants, transportation lines, convention halls, casino floors, and on the airport. Let’s hope the weather can be good, in contrast to the torrential rains we saw in 2018, when blackouts took out the fundamental show floor.
If you’re leaving the convention focus on 6 p.m., you’ll be able to catch a bus to most of the main hotels. That’s an amazing approach to get off your feet and the lines can move fast. But that’s also the busiest traffic time. You’ll must walk (perhaps a good distance) to designated areas for Uber/Lyft ride-sharing pickup zones. And there’s the monorail to contemplate as well for some hotels.
Getting lost within the maze
The 2.5 million-plus square feet of exhibition space will open at 10 a.m. on Tuesday January 7.
The categories at this 12 months’s exhibit space include vehicle tech and advanced mobility, digital health, audio/video, gaming, smart home, AI/robotics, smart cities and sustainability, C Space, sports and fitness tech, enterprise and B2B, IoT infrastructure, metaverse, fintech, lifestyle, accessibility, Eureka Park (startups), 3D printing and space tech.
If you’re really ambitious, you might be walking 30,000 steps a day, about three to 6 times as much as usual. For me, exhaustion sets in around 20,000 steps. If you’ll be able to cut some unnecessary walking out of your day, that will be sensible to do.
This 12 months’s venues have been renamed the LVCC Campus (Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall, North Hall, South Hall and Central Hall), Venetian Campus(The Venetian, Palazzo, Wynn, Encore at Wynn) and C Space Campus (Aria, Cosmopolitan, Park MGM and Vdara).
The LVCC campus has the sprawling South Halls 1, 2 and three (upstairs) with a wide range of products. The Central Hall includes gaming, audio and video with huge corporations like Samsung, Sony, TCL, Canon, and more. The North Hall includes categories like AI, B2B enterprise solutions, fintech, IoT infrastructure, sustainability, smart cities, smart cities IoT and vehicle tech.
The West Hall is stuffed with vehicle tech with corporations like Brunswick within the marine category, John Deere in heavy machinery, carmakers, EVs and eVTOL aircraft, self-driving vehicles, software, suppliers and vehicle tech.
Over on the Venetian, there are greater than 1,400 startups that can be at Eureka Park. Tech West is a bunch of pavilions on the Venetian. There are tons of startups on Level 1. You can find regional booths corresponding to those from France, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and more. On Level 2, you could find AARP AgeTech, Kohler, Hyundai, Narwal, and more.
One of probably the most regularly visited halls at LVCC was the South Hall, but this 12 months the multi-level hall is closed.
In Tech South, at Aria Hotel, you could find C Space, which is where there are lots of talks about Hollywood and technology. The Cosmopolitan has Cosmo exhibitors that include Nvidia, Disney, Paramount, NBC Universal, Netflix, Reddit, Roku, Samsung, T-Mobile, and Snap.
What’s trending and what’s not
While blockchain and the metaverse were big themes a number of years ago, AI was the massive theme for 2024. In 2025, AI will still command lots of attention. But that doesn’t mean that tech boom goes to occur. The global economy faces lots of unknowns, like how friendly toward tech and consumer sales the Trump administration can be, especially if Donald Trump is threatening tariffs. Tariffs could lead on to trade wars and that might mean a $300 to $500 game console could suddenly cost $1,000.
Tim Bajarin, who’s going to his fiftieth CES, expects these trends: AI PCs are in all places; earbuds can be smarter and smarter; smarter vehicles; smarter and better resolution TVs; AI in all places else; and spatial computing will make many appearances with XR/AR goggles or glasses.
Under the “connect” a part of the theme of the show, Shapiro said one major topic is human security for all.
” We talked about human security for all, our work with the United Nations specializing in the sustainable development goals, specializing in fundamental human security in areas like health care, funds, personal safety. We see that in all forms of ways. Of course accessibility is one other big thing. Even for me, attending the show in 2024, that was certainly one of the largest surprises and themes,” Shapiro said. “I don’t think I even talked about that before the show – how many individuals were there looking on behalf of the incapacity community, and what number of corporations were responding to that with all forms of technology.”
Asked about other hot categories, Shapiro said, “Obviously AI continues to be a giant thing. It pervades almost every category. Digital health can also be very big. Mobility is big with electric vehicles and connected cars, autonomy, sustainability. We’ve done our own pivots as well. The concept of electricity being available shouldn’t be something we’ve talked about at CES before. Now we’ve got an entire conference track on it. With electric cars, generative AI, and quantum, all of them use tremendous amounts of electricity that we’re not prepared for. Not surprising to me, various corporations within the last month have announced deals with nuclear power plants and things like that, which is completely recent, however it’s a way of coping with it.”
And Shapiro said, “We’ll have exhibitors specializing in energy savings on the provision side, heat reduction, local production. We’ll even have panels talking about how we are able to have a look at the electrical 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 lots of things, for instance in health care. It’s an entire shift upwards in computing that we haven’t had in an extended time.”
Regulators can be present, and Shapiro said (before the election took place) he was concerned that the U.S. has develop into too aggressive in blocking mergers for antitrust reasons. He worries that the Biden administration has been anti-innovation. I noted that I’d like to see us return to balanced growth, where we see innovation with AI, job growth for tech, and revenue growth for corporations all at the identical time.
Shapiro said, “What I’ve learned in my profession is that you just never get to perfect, but you simply attempt to do higher than you probably did last 12 months. The definition of perfect changes. I don’t think, in a free market economy, that perfect is where everyone gets to maintain their jobs. You must learn recent skills.”
He added, “There is one other theory on the market, though, which is that it’s going to add more free time, and that may generate its own economic growth. My wife goes to lots of medical conferences, and there’s a generational difference between doctors in that the incoming doctors don’t need to work as hard. They want regular hours. They don’t want the lengthy hours. I’ve been talking about this for 2 years now. It’s true, and I do know this because I’ve talked to enough doctors in several fields about it. People want time now. It probably predated COVID. People value experience and time. That’s what it’s.”
Your CES survival suggestions
Many of the following pointers are recycled from past years, but I’ve undergone and renewed them with my latest info. As I discussed, it’s hard to get around at CES. You should keep appointments to a half hour but note that it takes time to walk between venues. You may not know it but the space between hotels (that are very large) and halls may look visually close but they’re often really far apart.
You may encounter delays because other persons are behind schedule. And you could even have trouble finding people at large booths. So, it’s good to pad your schedule to account for possible delays and isolate the really vital appointments.
The CES badges now have photos on them, streamlining identification and making it harder for people to share badges. Since they’re paper badges (plastic eliminated within the name of sustainability), you’ve got to watch out to not lose them.
On your crowded flights, attempt to travel light. For Southwest, I all the time check in ahead of boarding, setting an alarm for exactly 24 hours before my flight. Check your baggage if you happen to don’t must get anywhere quickly. Be prepared for long cab lines and rental automobile check-in lines. (Services like Uber and Lyft are very useful at CES, particularly as parking shouldn’t be plentiful enough and the massive casinos/hotels now charge a fee per visit at their self-parking garages). I don’t rent a automobile anymore. At the airport, you’ve got to walk to a chosen area in a parking garage and find your rideshare in a selected parking slot to get out of the airport in an Uber/Lyft.
Uber and Lyft cars are really the approach to travel from venue to venue now. In past years I discovered that the pickup on the LVCC (near the Renaissance Hotel) was a traffic logjam. The Tesla tunnel (where Tesla EVs take an underground tunnel from one location to a different) is great for attending to among the hotels and between the central hall and the west hall of the LVCC. The tunnel now goes to the Resorts World Las Vegas, Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino, Encore Las Vegas and Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Schedule your appointments in locations which might be near one another, and check exhibitor locations on a CES map. Arrive early for keynotes since the lines are long. I don’t often stray beyond LVCC/WestHall/TechWest/Venetian on account of the time it takes to get other places.
I like to recommend sleep. The Vegas air is super dry so possibly use a humidier or nose spray. If the parties are what you care about, there are sometimes party lists that flow into. You can Google CES 2025 party lists, but the KarenNet CES party listm has been around for a very long time.
Remember to swap phone numbers with the people you might be meeting so you’ll be able to coordinate, particularly as someone is frequently held up by the crowds. Incorporate driving and eating times into your calendar or use a calendar that does that mechanically for you.
Smartphone reception is healthier than it was once, however it’s still probably susceptible to interference. Text message is frequently a good approach to communicate with coworkers. We all the time hunt down the Wi-Fi/5G havens within the press rooms or wherever we are able to find them.
But carry a MiFi or activate a private hotspot if you happen to can; even hotel web connections are prone to be stressed to the limit throughout the show. If you’re accountable for uploading video, thanks for clogging the network for the remainder of us. By CES 2025, I hopefully won’t must complain about this, as 5G networks should theoretically enable faster connection speeds on cellular data.
If you collect lots of swag, you’ll be able to send it home via shipping services as a substitute of carting it on the plane. I believe that the price of shipping might be greater than the worth of the swag.
You should print a map of the exhibit floor or rip one out of the show guide. You must also print your tickets, schedule, and RSVPs for events — or make them easily accessible in your phone. (If someone steals your phone or your primary bag, it’s best to have backups in a second bag).
You need battery backup on your laptop or smartphone, hand sanitizer, camera, ibuprofen, and vitamins. I’ve got Acer Swift Go 14 and a spare Dynabook laptop this 12 months. The Acer particularly has battery life. Bring a backup for all the pieces, even when you’ve got to depart it in your hotel room this 12 months.
I used to recommend taking business cards. I finally printed a batch for the primary time for the reason that pandemic. Now you’ll be able to swap your LinkedIn credentials with people via your smartphone. If you’re exhibiting, wear your organization brand in your shirt. Try very hard to avoid losing your phone. I wear a jacket with zippered pockets so I can put my phone and wallet inside.
Make a while to walk the show floor. If the cab/rideshare lines have you ever frustrated, don’t take into consideration walking to a close-by hotel. Chances are the cab line there’s also bad, and the hotels are so huge that a mirage effect makes them look deceptively close. If you’ve got a rental automobile, try to not get stuck in a traffic jam in a 10-story parking garage. And all the time mark down where you parked your automobile in your phone map or paper.
Drink numerous water. Get some sleep — you actually don’t must party every night. For probably the most part, I don’t shake hands anymore, because it’s an amazing approach to pass germs around. Instead, I do fist bumps. You don’t want to return back sick with “CES crud” or COVID.
Don’t miss your flight on the way in which out. Pack up a bunch of snacks early on to avoid getting stuck in breakfast or lunch lines. Take a smartphone with camera because what happens in Vegas … gets shared on the web.
