CES Event Launches New Year For Las Vegas, Attracting 130,000 (And LVCVA Did Not Even Pay Sponsorship Fee To CES)
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By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher-Writer
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Those yellow Nikon bags are everywhere.
And when you see those Nikon bags you know the annual Consumer Electronics Show has hit Las Vegas for the week.
CES folks believe this year’s crowd is comparable to a year ago when 130,000 people, including many from Europe and Asia, attended this Woodstock of Technology.
Lines are everywhere, whether it’s to get a ticket to the Delta show at the Sphere or a seat in a cab or a free skateboard from an exhibitor.
The media likes to do stories on their “Top 50 gadgets at CES” or the celebrities like Tom Brady at the Delta show from the many CES venues in Las Vegas.
I like to saunter through what seems like miles and miles of exhibitors and displays and talk to people at the sites.
Their conversations are revealing.
Like, what is construction and mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar, Inc. doing at CES?
“Recruiting,” said a friendly Caterpillar rep at the company’s lavish display at the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
He explained Caterpillar likes to recruit the best tech and analysis minds and they’re here at the CES event.
Caterpillar came through with the freebie ballcap.
Unlike John Deere.
The West Hall, which the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) spent $1 billion of your public money to build in 2021 (it opened without even a single bike rack), hosted lots of super high-tech cars and wizardry like autonomous riding lawn mowers and single-person helicopters.
CES is kind of like several big trade shows in one — it has the snazzy vehicles of the SEMA car show, the electronics of the G2E gambling show, the media equipment of broadcasting shows and even sports presentations like sports marketing and gaming shows.
The beauty of CES for the public in Las Vegas is that the local public tourism agency, the LVCVA, does not pay a sponsorship fee to CES to be here in Sin City. In contrast, the LVCVA approved $20 million (plus another $14 million or so in raised contributions) for the Super Bowl, nearly $20 million for a three-year deal for the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix and millions of dollars for events like the WWE, NBA Summer League, college basketball tournaments and the NASCAR races at the Speedway.
CES is auditing its attendee numbers, so their numbers are more credible than the promotional numbers the LVCVA and sports promoters put out for its sports events in Las Vegas.
In fact, the LVCVA hires Jeremy Aguero’s Applied Analysis for tourism numbers and Aguero also happened to work for the F1 Las Vegas road race, the Raiders and, now, the A’s on stadium projects so LVCVA’s attendee and impact numbers are far from unbiased.
The CES event is legit. It’s a week of activities spread around the market, from car race competitions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to Delta shows at the Sphere to convention centers and meeting halls up and down the Strip.
The companies focus on tech and have all kinds of names.
Even grammar references can be a company name.
Las Vegas has to compete against the likes of Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, Phoenix, Los Angeles and the Bay area to host a Super Bowl.
But the CES event kicks off the New Year for Las Vegas with this market’s biggest annual trade show.
And the LVCVA is not even paying the event promoter to sponsor the event. How about that?
