ARLINGTON, Va. — The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) is creating a more touchless attendee experience for CES® 2023 January 5-8, 2023 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Steps the association is taking include increasing fresh air flow and filtration systems and hand sanitizing stations and adding touchless registration and payment systems.
CES® is the most influential tech event in the world, and is expecting 2,000 exhibitors from 158 countries and 100,000 attendees, which would make it the largest independently audited post-pandemic tech event.
Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of CTA, believes the touchless initiative makes perfect sense in today’s environment. “I would ban handshakes if I could. I try to model good behavior with fist or elbow bumps, or with some people, hugs,” he said. “But even I find it difficult to refuse a well-intentioned offered hand.
“This is about our obligation as show organizers to take steps to reduce disease transmission,” he added. “Infectious diseases are spread by contact or air. By focusing on fresh air and ventilation and reducing the need for people to touch door handles, we should reduce the likelihood that people going to events get sick.”
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The many initiatives include increasing airflow in ventilation systems across venues, including the Las Vegas Convention Center, Venetian Expo and ARIA, and opening exterior doors to allow fresh air flow; including touchless hand-sanitizing units throughout all facilities; using touchless badge printing and touchless payment systems for on-site registration, food outlets and business centers; and making sure sinks, toilets and paper towel dispensers are touchless. In addition, there will be cleaning protocols in place including sanitizing all microphones and shared AV equipment between use and cleaning all restrooms, handrails and doors throughout the day.
“This is common sense for event organizers,” Shapiro said. “We all had a tough couple of years and my takeaway looking forward is we can keep our doors open for industry success by keeping our show doors open. We appreciate all the support and pro-health actions taken by Las Vegas venues but we must all do our part.”
A full list of implementation measures can be found at CES 2023 Health Protocols.
Reach Gary Shapiro at (703) 907-7600 or gshapiro@cta.tech
