In brief: Several tech leaders including Amazon, Meta and Twitter have already bailed on the in-person aspect of next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas over concerns surrounding the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Now, we can add Lenovo to the growing list of companies that won't have a physical presence at CES.
A Lenovo spokesperson told TechCrunch that after closely monitoring trends surrounding Covid, they believe it is in the best interest of the health and safety of employees, customers, partners and the community in general to suspend all on-site activity planned for Las Vegas.
Lenovo's new technology is still scheduled to launch as originally planned on January 4 and January 5, the spokesperson added.
CES 2022 will be in person on January 5-8 in Las Vegas with strong safety measures in place, and our digital access is also available for people that don't wish to, or can't travel to Las Vegas. https://t.co/NT0OcJzGW1 pic.twitter.com/dWrhhY8F8P
--- CES (@CES) December 22, 2021
The Consumer Tech Association, the organizing body of CES, reiterated on Tuesday that CES 2022 will be in person in Las Vegas from January 5 through January 8. There will be "strong safety measures" in place, we're told, which includes showing proof of Covid-19 vaccination to attend the in-person gathering.
CES 2022 will also have a virtual component for those that can't / aren't willing to make the trip out to the desert.
With the holidays upon us and New Year's celebrations coming a week later, the virus situation is likely only to get worse before it improves. If we had to guess, Lenovo won't be the last major player to pull out of in-person activities at CES. What we don't yet know is when or if the CTA will shut down the entire physical event.