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Consumer Electronics Show 2023

If you love technology and new gadgets, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the place to be. CES is one of the largest and most influential showcases in the world for introducing innovative technology products from around the globe.

This year the Las Vegas-based show brought in 115,000 industry professionals, making it the largest audited global tech event since 2020.  With more than 3,200 exhibitors, including 1,000 start-up companies, CES 2023 gave us new innovations in mobility, health, transportation, sustainability, and more.

A diverse group of companies from around the globe showcased the latest innovations in the technology industries to attendees from more than 140 countries. In all, 60% of the Fortune 500 companies were represented.

The show also provided looks at products in the marketplace as well as products-yet-to-be-launched highlighting key trends such as:

  • Human security for all
  • Automotive and mobility
  • Electric vehicles
  • Digital health
  • Sustainability
  • Web 3 and Metaverse

New products demonstrated how technology can conserve energy, increase power generation, address food shortages, create sustainable agricultural systems, power smart cities, support access to clean water, and improve life for people with physical challenges.

The last category – physical challenges – may be one of the most innovative as companies worked on technology to improve lives of people who may often be overlooked. Some of the highlights include power wheelchairs, augmented listening, new earbuds, speech amplifiers and more. It’s one of my favorite categories.

What’s your favorite innovation from CES?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:  

  1. Discuss the purpose of CES show and how innovation fits into it.
  2. View the CES Web site: https://www.ces.tech/
  3. Also discuss the use of trade shows and exhibits as part of a marketing plan.
  4. Show a video overview of CES 2023: https://youtu.be/fAJ1LCO4cV4
  5. Show a summary video covering new innovations for accessibility: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/dalvin-brown/ces-2023s-most-innovative-assistive-tech-jabra-whispp-and-more/F7DEC067-2116-4C51-A173-E0A071E28EEA
  6. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a product featured at CES.
  1. Scewo Bro: https://www.scewo.com/en/  (Power wheelchair)
  2. L’Oreal Hapta: https://www.loreal.com/en/articles/science-and-technology/hapta-ces-2023-lancome-innovation/  (For beauty lovers with limited hand and arm mobility)
  3. Xander Glasses: https://www.xander.tech/  (Augmented listening for people who are hard of hearing)
  4. Jabra Enhance Plus: https://www.jabra.com/hearing/enhance-plus?gclid=Cj0KCQiAiJSeBhCCARIsAHnAzT_SGnooIY_nEW554M23GwsvGWKrIKnazpnbsvmc1Rh1Gi87YUm8kQsaAhwGEALw_wcB##21879090  (Earbuds for enhancing your hearing)
  5. Whispp: https://whispp.com/?lang=en  (Speech amplifier for people with a voice disorder)
  6. Instruct students to research the products online, and define a target market for the product?
  7. Which ones do they think will be winners in the marketplace? What products miss the mark?
  8. Discuss the use of trade shows and exhibits as part of a marketing plan.

Source:  C/NET; TechRadar; The Verge; Wall Street Journal; other news sources

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Contagions Apply to Both Sickness and Health

Trends are contagious, both when they are growing as well as when they are declining. Think about it. We see new trends nearly every day, adopt them, but then just as often we quit those trends. This is not just a lone event of one person though. Social networks are strong components in helping us decide what to adopt.

According to research, many health behaviors are fundamentally contagious ideas. Basically, your social network can predict health, weight, and exercise (even stock prices). A timely case that illustrates this movement is Peloton, which reached a high during the pandemic, only to plummet a year later as the pandemic waned.

How do we get ‘infected’ with the contagion? Social networks lead consumers to catch the trend, live with it, and then move on to new trends. During the pandemic, it was all about fitness at home, online training, and connected exercise equipment. We couldn’t go to the gym and many sports were suspended, leading to more investment in home-based fitness. However, now that pandemic restrictions have been removed, we’ve gone back to the gym and sports teams.

Research conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine shows us how trends move in cycles: Pilates, Zumba, Cross Fit, spinning, and boot camps are all examples. Even exercises with staying power, such as yoga and running, move into new variants and practices to survive. Some of the top fitness trends for 2022 include:

  • Wearable technology
  • Home exercise gyms
  • Outdoor activities
  • Strength training with free weights

What trends do you think will stick around?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Divide students into teams. Have each team list past fitness trends they have tried?
  2. What helps a trend stick around?
  3. What leads trends to quickly fade out?
  4. Using Peloton as an example of trends, show video about Peloton’s life cycle: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wsj-explains/why-peloton-spun-out-what-happened-to-the-bike-and-treadmill-firm/30FEB49E-85EE-4719-9B6D-F7E44D195CE5
  5. View ACSM report on fitness trends: https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltext/2022/01000/Worldwide_Survey_of_Fitness_Trends_for_2022.6.aspx
  6. Discuss the stages in the product life cycle. What are the marketing objectives in each stage?
  7. Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a product life cycle and place various fitness and health trends into each stage.
  8. Next, have students brainstorm on how to reposition or revise products/services to that they can move into an earlier stage of the life cycle.
  9. Have teams draw a product life cycle. Place different fitness and health trends on the PLC.

Source: American College of Sports Medicine (30 December 2021). Wearable tech named top fitness trend for 2022.; Zumbrun, J. (9 September 2022). Both sickness and health, it turns out, are contagious. Wall Street Journal.

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Consumer Electronics Show 2022 Tackles the Future of Tech

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is one of the largest and most influential showcases in the world for introducing innovative technology products from around the globe. Even during the ongoing pandemic, the Las Vegas-based show brought in nearly 45,000 attendees to the show floor. Plenty of people also ‘attended’ online with companies showing both concepts and real-life products. Attendees arrived from 119 countries to engage with emerging technologies and products across 11 different indoor and outdoor venues.

A diverse group of 2,300 companies (including 800 start-ups from 19 countries) showcased the latest innovations in the metaverse, NFTs, cryptocurrency, sustainability, wellness, transportation, entertainment, robotics, automotive, consumer goods, and more. And while the metaverse may be mostly just a concept today, CES illustrated how the building blocks it needs are already around, including blockchain, cloud, AR, VR, 5G, and more.

The show also provided looks at products in the marketplace as well as products-yet-to-be-launched in categories including:

  • Wellness and beauty
  • Smart devices for the home
  • Content creation
  • NFTs and crypto
  • Healthcare
  • Shopping and ecommerce
  • Artificial intelligence
  • eSports and sports tech
  • FinTech
  • Food tech
  • Pet tech
  • Workplaces
  • And of course – robots!

One of my personal favorites – BMW’s color-changing car!

What’s your favorite innovation from CES?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:  

  1. Discuss the purpose of CES show and how innovation fits into it.
  2. Also discuss the use of trade shows and exhibits as part of a marketing plan.
  3. Show a summary video about COVID-19 products at CES from the Wall Street Journal – CES in photos: https://www.wsj.com/story/ces-2022-in-photos-a-strange-time-for-the-worlds-biggest-tech-show-a247b630?mod=djemfoe
  4. Additional summary videos can be found on YouTube, such as: https://youtu.be/GAzygeV_AsM
  5. View the CES Web site: https://www.ces.tech/
  6. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a product featured at CES.
  7. Instruct students to research the products online, and define a target market for the product?
  8. Which ones do they think will be winners in the marketplace? What products miss the mark?

Source:  C/NET; TechRadar; The Verge; Wall Street Journal; other news sources

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