Stateside with Stephanie
CES 2025 – five trends from the grandaddy of US trade shows
A show for the ages : CES ticks all the boxes for our trade show guru and shrewd judge of success , Stephanie Selesnick
Right : Stephanie Selesnick and Gary Shapiro ver 141,000 people
O from all over the globe convened in Las Vegas to learn , sell , invest and experience over five million square feet ( 464,000sqm ) of exhibits in January . In short , CES ( billed as the most powerful tech event in the world ) was a huge success , but not based on numbers alone . Here are my top five trends .
Trend 1 : Engagement – walking down the aisles , there were many conversations happening . The kind one wants to see – between buyers and sellers , not exhibiting personnel
Seeing is believing : buyers want to touch and use products whenever they can
The SK stand talking to each other . Trend 2 : Have your booth / stand explain what you do . My biggest ‘ Failure of a stand ’ last year was by SK , South Korea ’ s second-largest conglomerate . They literally spent millions creating an anime ‘ Wonderland ’ complete with train ride . Not only could I not remember their name , I had no idea what the company did .
This year – wow . Best booth of the show . It was another huge investment , only this time I not only remembered their name , but understood their theme , ‘ A blueprint for a future enabled by innovations in Artificial Intelligence ( AI ).’ It was chic , new and memorable .
Trend 3 : Lots of mini and maxi activations . Some exhibitors partnered on activations . For example , Kodak and HP used cameras and printers for visitors to take pics and print them at stations located on the outer perimeter of the HP booth .
Another experience was at the Nikon booth ( in partnership with FUSO trucks ) wearing VR goggles which worked with cameras mounted on trucks facilitating real time truck driving safety . The key takeaway : work with your exhibitors . Everyone still wants to ‘ kick the tyres ’. Buyers want to touch , work and use products whenever they can .
Trend 4 : Corporations sponsoring proprietary start-up pavilions within the show . In Eureka Park , CES ’ s 1,400 + company-strong start-up area , Samsung , Canon and Hyundai had start-up pavilions showcasing a variety of products . There were also a lot of country pavilions . ( If anyone says there was nothing new at CES , they ’ re lying or lazy .)
Trend 5 : Ageing is golden . AARP , the American Association of Retired People , in two large stands , featured 26 start-ups to help people age gracefully ( VR figured in quite heavily ), a pickleball court and stage with their own slate of speakers . There were several other companies with ageing products grouped around AARP ’ s double pavilion . I expect this area to continue to grow as the US and other countries ’ population age .
Quite a few exhibitors had products to help those with disabilities . One such company from the European Innovation Council had VR headsets which , when worn , enabled blind people to navigate the show ’ s crowded aisles without any assistance .
All in all , this was a CES for the books . It ticked all the boxes : community , engagement and commerce . Oh – and fun . EW
www . exhibitionworld . co . uk Issue 1 2025 21