CEA will implement stricter credential requirements for CES 2016.
The Consumer Electronics Association has released a statistically impressive figure about the uptick in attendance at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show, the annual goliath catch-all technology show they produce. In a nutshell, Veris Consulting validated a record 176,676 attendees for CES 2015. This number, roughly equal to the California city of Santa Clarita, is a bump of 10 percent from the 2014 CES.
CES has become more international, too, with more than 48,000 attendees from 153 countries in Las Vegas for its 2015 CES sojourn, which is a nearly 20 percent change from 2014.
On the media side, almost 7,000 representatives of different outlets attended the 2015 CES, kicking up a lot of dust on the Web and through social media. There were about 950 million media impressions and 750,000 mentions of #CES2015 over the course of the four days of the expo, serving up more than 7.5 billion Twitter impressions.
Because of the rapid growth of the CES show, organizers noted via email that “CEA is implementing stricter credential requirements aimed to keep CES 2016 attendance at 176,000 or close to a level comparable to the 2015 CES to ensure the highest quality experience for all in attendance.”
It is highly likely that the Consumer Electronics Association won’t be touting its numbers nearly so chest-thumpingly next year, if they are limiting the growth of CES in the near future.
How will organizers restrict attendance? No more free industry passes or fewer of them? Stricter verification of industry associations? Capping attendance until “sold out”? We’ll have to see, as registration for CES 2016 opens July 8, 2015.
