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Virtual CES 1 A Technology Event So Big You Can’t See It All in One Seating By Andy Marken After years of working the floor at CES, it’s easy to summarize … dumb from the neck up, numb from the neck down. This year was worse. You couldn’t “miss” a keynote, press event, panel session – seven days of pre and CES press events, news, analysis, projections – because they were there, online waiting for you. The good stuff you revisit. The rest you hit delete. Simply put, CES 2021 was different and challenging for Shapiro’s CTA crew … everyone! As Best Buy’s CEO Corie Barry said, “There’s no going back to the normal of 2019 … ever!” There was still a lot of solid news at CES. In fact, it might have been better because companies, management and marketing had to really focus on the clarity and effectiveness of their messages as well as review them and critically hone them. The folks who did were spot on in getting attention and persuading/convincing people. Those who didn’t wasted a helluva lot of time, money, effort. So, the show, discussions were different. Verizon’s Hans Vestberg laid the groundwork for all of the CES announcements because 2020 and the global lockdown made industries, businesses and individuals immerse themselves in tomorrow’s communications technology. In a media briefing prior to his CES keynote Vestberg said, “We leapfrogged seven to 10 years in the data revolution.” Social distancing and working/learning remotely have been key in the faster adoption of areas such as telemedicine and touchless retail. According to Vestberg, 5G is now available to over 200M people in 1,800 cities and towns; but more importantly, it is becoming the backbone of business and industry around