Strategy in TECH...
Last Friday, Snap One held a Virtual Partner Summit in which they unveiled a whole roster of new products to dealers participating in the online event. It was an impressive launch in key product areas for the company including OvrC, audio, new controllers, new soundbar and wireless sub, new architectural speakers, a major new operating system upgrade called OS 3.3.0, and more.
Emerald Holding Inc., [NYSE:EEX] parent company to Emerald Expositions, which itself is the parent company of CEDIA Expo, and CE Pro (and other former EH Publishing properties) announced this morning their financial results for both their fourth quarter and full year, fiscal 2021. As the company has begun to restart their live in-person events, they reported a revenue gain over fiscal 2020 – a year of almost total lockdown and the absence of live events.
But the gain seems surprisingly small.
Multiple media outlets, including the venerable Reuters News Agency, are reporting that Samsung Electronics chartered two jets to return a total of 20 of their executives and staff who became infected with COVID-19 at CES 2022. In addition to this, South Korean health officials are reporting that a total of 70 Korean nationals – including the 20 Samsung employees – returned (or are trying to return) from CES infected by COVID.
Integrated Systems Europe (ISE), a popular custom integration trade show that takes place in Barcelona, Spain, announced this week that the show managers have decided to postpone the event from its originally scheduled run of February 1-4, 2022 to now May 10-13, 2022. The reason for the postponement is due to the rapid rise of Omicron-variant COVID-19 infections in Spain as well as its impact on international travel overall.
On Monday evening (January 3, 2022), as part of their festivities kicking off the 2022 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Vice President of Research for the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Steve Koenig shared what the association believes to be some of the top trends in Tech today. Saying, “…we’ve witnessed an abundance of innovation across this whole season and certainly over the past year…”
So let me start by saying there was a veritable slew of introductions at CES 2022 Media Day, which took place on Tuesday before the show opened. Most of them were incremental advancements of existing product lines. Only a couple of announcements rose above the noise to catch the attention of just about everyone who attended those presentations. One from an industry stalwart…and another from out of left field (almost literally).
Heading to CES 2022? Be sure to check the online version of the show schedule regularly, as Advertising Age (Ad Age) is reporting that CES has apparently removed “a slate of programs,” including several previously scheduled sessions and panels planned for Tuesday. The move is said to be a result of so many companies and executives canceling or otherwise pulling out of the show.
Strata-gee readers reached out to me on late Friday as word circulated that the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) was taking the unusual step of cutting the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) short by one day “…as an additional safety measure.” That is essentially all that an announcement from the association says about this decision, which on the face of it seems to call into question the safety of attending the event at all.
UPDATED 12/30/2021 – Scroll down for update – I reported last week that several major exhibitors, including one major event sponsor whose CEO was scheduled as a keynote presenter, had announced they would be pulling out of CES due to the meteoric rise in COVID infections resulting from the Omicron variant. Now we learn even more major exhibitors have decided to join the increasing line of brands heading for the exits from the industry’s largest tech event of the year.
**SEE BELOW FOR STORY UPDATE** – On Tuesday, several large exhibitors independently announced that they would be pulling out of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), scheduled to start the week-after-next in Las Vegas, NV. The reason given for these pull-outs was the rapidly spreading COVID-19 infections due to the emerging hyper-infectious Omicron variant. Major brands, such as Amazon, Meta Platforms (Facebook), T-Mobile and more said the rapidly changing COVID situation caused them to consider the safety of their teams and other attendees of CES 2022 – a major indoor event.
