纽约 (CNN Business) 作为最受关注的年度科技大会之一，CES 计划在两周内举办一场面对面的活动，尽管越来越多的知名科技公司正在取消他们的活动。在 Covid-19 案件激增的情况下，计划亲自出席。
亚马逊 (AMZN)、Meta (FB)、T-Mobile (TMUS)、Twitter (TWTR) 和 Pinterest (PINS) 本周证实，他们不再计划参加下月初在拉斯维加斯举行的 CES，理由是健康问题和不确定性最近 Covid-19 病例激增。
“我们员工的健康和安全是我们的首要任务。由于 Omicron 变体的快速变化和不确定性，我们将不再在 CES 上提供现场服务，”亚马逊发言人 Sarah Sobolewski 在一份声明中说。该公司仍计划建立虚拟存在。
Meta 的发言人 Kamran Mumtaz 表示：“出于对员工的谨慎和关怀，由于与 COVID-19 相关的公共卫生问题不断演变，我们将不会亲自参加 CES。 Facebook 在一份声明中表示。 “我们将尽可能多地参与，并继续围绕 CES 与 CTA 合作，这仍然是 Meta、我们的客户和行业合作伙伴的重要活动，”Mumtaz 补充说，指的是主办此次活动的消费者技术协会。
包括 Verge 和 CNN 在内的一些媒体也开始取消他们亲自报道 CES 的计划，因为许多媒体已经计划派遣比平时更小的团队。
甚至在公司今年开始退出之前，预计 CES 的规模将比往常要小，但 CTA 周三证实，它没有计划完全取消亲自出席的计划。相反，它计划实施安全措施，包括疫苗规定以及口罩和测试要求。 CES 还将为不会亲自参加的公司和与会者提供在线组件。
“CES 仍将在 1 月 5 日至 8 日在拉斯维加斯举行，并采取了强有力的安全措施，”该会议的媒体团队在给 CNN Business 的一份声明中表示。 “成千上万的企业家、企业、媒体和买家计划来到拉斯维加斯。来自联邦、州和外国政府的高层领导人正在参加。而且，自上周晚些时候以来，我们已经收到了数千名新注册人。”
但本周公司的公告对组织者来说是一个潜在的挫折。即将举行的活动将是 CES 自 2020 年以来第一次欢迎现场观众参加其年度展会，该展会发生在 Covid-19 爆发成为全面流行病的几周前。 （该活动实际上是去年举行的。）
这种情况让人想起 2020 年 2 月的另一项重大科技盛会——世界移动通信大会——的瓦解，该大会通常在西班牙巴塞罗那举行，但随着 Covid-19 的蔓延，十多家大公司退出后被取消。
CES 的情况还表明，即使在大流行发生近两年的情况下，举办大型国际活动也面临着持续的挑战。本周早些时候，世界经济论坛表示，其在瑞士达沃斯举行的年会将从下个月推迟到初夏。
CES——通常是科技行业最引人注目的年度会议之一，为今年最大的趋势定下基调——去年以全数字形式举办了一场更加安静的活动，与亲自参加的 4,000 家参展商相比，只有 1,800 家参展商前一年。
除了行业面临的挑战，参加者退出 CES 对拉斯维加斯市来说可能是个坏消息——在正常年份，展会给该市带来的经济效益约为 2.91 亿美元。
CES 赞助商电信巨头 T-Mobile 周四发布声明，宣布将退出亲自参加展会，其首席执行官迈克·西弗特 (Mike Sievert) 将不再亲自或以虚拟方式发表主题演讲。该公司表示：“T-Mobile 的整个团队期待面对面的 CES 2023，我们希望其中包括在现场观众面前的舞台主题演讲。”
Major tech companies pull out of attending CES in person. Organizers say event still on
New York (CNN Business)One of the most closely-watched annual tech conferences, CES, is going ahead with plans to hold an in-person event in two weeks, even as a growing number of prominent technology companies are pulling the plug on their plans to attend in person amid a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Amazon (AMZN), Meta (FB), T-Mobile (TMUS), Twitter (TWTR) and Pinterest (PINS) confirmed this week that they no longer plan to attend CES in Las Vegas early next month, citing health concerns and uncertainty from the recent spike in Covid-19 cases.
"The health and safety of our employees is our top priority. Due to the quickly shifting situation and uncertainty around the Omicron variant, we will no longer have an on-site presence at CES," Amazon spokesperson Sarah Sobolewski said in a statement. The company still plans to have a virtual presence.
"Out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees, we won't be attending CES in-person due to the evolving public health concerns related to COVID-19," Kamran Mumtaz, a spokesperson for Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, said in a statement. "We will participate virtually as much as possible and continue to collaborate with the CTA around CES, which remains an important event for Meta, our clients and industry partners," Mumtaz added, referring to the Consumer Technology Association, which hosts the event.
Some media outlets, including the Verge and CNN, have also begun to cancel their plans to cover CES in person, after many were already planning to send smaller teams than usual.
Even before companies started pulling out this year, CES was expected to be a smaller-than-usual affair, but CTA confirmed Wednesday it has no plans to pull the plug on in-person attendance altogether. Instead, it plans to implement safety measures including vaccine mandates and mask and testing requirements. CES will also have online components for companies and attendees who won't be going in person.
"CES will still take place Jan 5-8 in Las Vegas with strong safety measures in place," the conference's media team said in a statement to CNN Business. "Thousands of entrepreneurs, businesses, media and buyers are planning to come to Las Vegas. Top leaders from federal and state and foreign governments are attending. And, we have received several thousand new registrants since late last week."
But the company announcements this week are a potential setback for organizers. The upcoming event is set to be the first time CES welcomes back in-person attendees to its annual show since 2020, which took place weeks before the Covid-19 outbreak became a full-blown pandemic. (The event was held virtually last year.)
The situation is reminiscent of the unraveling of another major tech event in February 2020, the Mobile World Congress, which is usually held in Barcelona, Spain but was canceled after more than a dozen big companies pulled out as Covid-19 spread.
The CES situation also points to the ongoing challenges of putting on large, international events, even nearly two years into the pandemic. Earlier this week, the World Economic Forum said its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland would be postponed from next month until early summer.
CES — normally one of the tech industry's splashiest annual conferences that sets the tone for the biggest trends of the year — was a more muted event last year in an all-digital format, with just 1,800 exhibitors compared to the 4,000 exhibitors who attended in person the year before.
In addition to challenges for the industry, participants withdrawing from CES may be bad news for the city of Las Vegas — in a normal year, the economic benefit of the show to the city amounts to around $291 million.
Telecom giant T-Mobile, a CES sponsor, on Thursday released a statement announcing that it would withdraw from attending the show in person and that its CEO Mike Sievert would no longer give a keynote speech, either in person or virtually. "T-Mobile's entire team looks forward to an in-person CES 2023, which we hope includes an on-stage keynote in front of a live audience," the company said.
