Convention Center preparing for 100,000 to attend CES 2023

The 2023 version of CES won’t be the biggest one in history, but with the anticipated attendance of 100,000 people, it will be a welcome difference from the way the massive technology show has gone the last two years.

Construction workers started to build temporary exhibit structures on Monday in the parking lots of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and on Dec. 26 they will begin filling nearly every square foot of available indoor space with the 3,000 expected exhibitors.

The four-day show opens Jan. 5 and is open to consumer electronics executives and professionals, not the general public. An estimated 3,000 media members are expected to attend the show this year.

Next month’s CES will include exhibits at the Convention Center, The Venetian Expo Center and Aria.

“This will be a great way to kick off 2023,” said Lori Nelson-Kraft, senior vice president of communications for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

January typically is one of the busiest convention months for Las Vegas with the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoors Trade Show and the National Association of Home Builders International Building Show.

More than 300 additional flights are scheduled on various airlines to transport delegates from 159 countries to Harry Reid International Airport for CES. New this year will be nonstop flights to and from Paris.

“We’re thrilled to return to Las Vegas — home to CES for more than 40 years — and look forward to seeing many new and returning faces,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which operates CES. “Excitement for CES 2023 continues, as we get closer to the moment where the world’s most influential technology innovators meet in person with customers, media, investors and policymakers.”

COVID-19 restrictions severely affected attendance the last two times the show was held.

In January 2021, it was conducted exclusively online. Earlier this year, in the wake of the outbreak of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the Consumer Technology Association opted for a hybrid model, with some participants attending in Las Vegas and others signing in online. Only about 45,000 people attended the event here.

The 100,000 attendance goal would provide some semblance of a normal CES crowd, but it is still just over half the number that have attended pre-pandemic shows during CES’s heyday. Around 180,000 attended the show in 2019.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.