CES News: CEA Schedules More CES Keynoters

By Steve Smith -- TWICE, October 27, 2008

LAS VEGAS — — LAS VEGAS — The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), producer of International CES, announced more keynoters for the show and discussed logistics for the Jan. 8-11, 2009 event.

Gary Shapiro, CEA president/CEO, said at last week's CEA Industry Forum that Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and president, Disney-ABC Television Group; Mike Griffith, president and CEO, Activision Publishing; and Dirk Meyer, president and CEO of AMD, will deliver addresses during the CES Industry Insider Series.

Meyer will kick off the 2009 Industry Insider Series with an address at 11 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 8. Sweeney will deliver Thursday afternoon's Industry Insider address at 2:30 p.m. And Griffith will round out the series with an address at 11 a.m., Friday, Jan. 9, 2009. All Industry Insider addresses will take place at the Las Vegas Hilton theater.

Shapiro also said that Nokia President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will deliver a keynote address at the Leaders in Technology Dinner at CES. The dinner is scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 9 at The Venetian.

The Leaders in Technology Dinner is an invitation-only event; however, tickets can be purchased for $500. For more information contact Jill Wiener at (703) 907-4316.

And Karen Chupka, events and conferences senior VP for CEA, told TWICE that construction scheduling changes at the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) will not affect operations during the show, as previously expected.

Chupka told TWICE plans now call for external utilities for the LVCC to be performed starting in November and will have minimal effect on CES operations.

Originally the plan was to restructure the South Hall lobby and main entrance of the LVCC, among other changes. Rescheduling has been pushed off to 2009 and “may not affect the 2010 CES either,” Chupka said.

In discussing CES 2009, she commented on how the weakened economy may affect the show, saying economic conditions may make some not attend CES.

For those who feel CES is vital every year, CEA is continuing to “work with local hotels to lower rates during the show ... and some have helped us.”

Earlier in the year, CEA set aside $1 million in funding “for some smaller retailers, through buying groups and other retail organizations, to get them to the show.”

Through retail buying groups and retail organizations, Chupka said, independent retailers who attend for two nights will get a one-night hotel stay for free and will get $100 off on flights to Las Vegas.

“We feel that when retailers closely look at how much it costs to attend CES and how many suppliers they can see in one trip, we feel that plays in our favor,” Chupka said.

More details on CES will be released at a New York media briefing on Nov. 11.