Arlington, VA—The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the owner and producer of the International CES, announced that verified attendance at the 2015 CES reached a record 176,676 industry professionals. CEA is establishing procedures to cap attendance at the 2016 International CES at about 176,000 to ensure that attendees continue to have a quality experience.
The 2015 CES also set a number of other records, including: 3,600+ exhibitors; more than 2.23 million net square feet of exhibit space; 6,952 media and analyst attendees; 703,602 mentions of #CES2015 during the show with 7.51 billion total potential Twitter impressions; and 153 countries represented. The full CES audit summary report, performed by Veris Consulting, will be available online at the end of June.
“We are thrilled to have produced such a phenomenal, record-setting International CES,” said Gary Shapiro, CEA president and CEO. “Our event offers a one of a kind, ‘can’t miss’ experience that allows our global attendees to see how different technologies from a range of industries impact each other. The International CES remains the single best place to experience the products, services and trends that will be driving the global industry in the months and years to come.”
As CES and the consumer technology industry continue to grow, CEA is focused on maintaining a quality CES experience. To that end, it is instituting tighter, enhanced credentialing procedures for the 2016 CES.
“With the growth of the consumer technology industry and the parallel growth of the International CES comes an increase in the qualified registrant base for our show. While these individuals are qualified industry professionals, we are reaching space capacity and simply can’t accommodate every qualified individual to our show,” said Karen Chupka, CEA senior vice president, International CES and corporate business strategy. “We take seriously our efforts to make sure CES attendees have a positive experience. Enhanced credentialing procedures will enable us to ensure that qualified attendees can participate in our show and conduct business while providing a high-quality experience for all.”
CES remains a trade-only event and is not open to the general public. For the 2016 CES, new registrants or previous registrants who did not attend the 2014 or 2015 CES will be subject to tighter qualification criteria. This means that although individuals may have qualified for registration in previous years, they must resubmit credentials to qualify for the 2016 CES.
To qualify, all registrants must provide a brief description of their industry affiliation along with links to their company website with an employee roster, a description of their business engagement at CES, or a link to a current publication or article the registrant authored or in which they were quoted or cited as an industry professional. Registrants may also provide a business card, health insurance card or other proof of employment verification.
CEA also will ask registrants to include a business e–mail address. However, those who attended one of the past two shows will be allowed to register without providing additional industry qualifications, given their loyalty to CES.
In addition, CEA is implementing a $100 advanced fee for all registrants beginning July 8 when registration launches. CEA will provide loyal alumni who attended the 2014 or 2015 CES with a 30-day window of complimentary registration before the $100 fee goes into effect.
While registration for qualified media will remain free of charge, registration fees will increase to $300 beginning December 21 through the 2016 CES. This move is to encourage more registrants to sign up prior to December 21 to allow CEA ample time to verify credentials for those who register after that date.
“Our new procedures will help us cap the overall growth in CES attendance, promoting a quality business experience for our guests while focusing show and consumer technology industry growth in key areas, including new markets and trends,” added Chupka. “We won’t, however, turn qualified attendees away at the door! We will refine our new processes as necessary during registration in an effort to stay within our target attendance.”
Registration for the 2016 CES will open on July 8. cesweb.org
