CES Asia Someday Will Rival CES Las Vegas, Says Shapiro at Inaugural Shanghai Show

In welcoming attendees, who he said were participating in “history,” Shapiro said CEA expects CEA Asia someday will “grow and rival the CES in Las Vegas.” CES 2015 Vegas totaled 176,000 attendees, 3,600 exhibitors and 2.3 million net square feet of exhibit space, or 205,000 net square meters of exhibits. CEA created CES Asia in response to requests from major companies around the world that said they wanted an event in Asia with the quality of CES Vegas to unite innovative companies and top brands, said Shapiro.

CEA chose Shanghai because it's a “city of the future” and a “world center of commerce,” said Shapiro. Returning to his familiar theme of innovation, he said Chinese companies are increasingly focusing on innovation, building on their “extraordinary strength in manufacturing” and “growing the strength of their very own brands." China is “essential to the growth worldwide of the consumer electronics industry,” Shapiro said. Last year, the Chinese technology industry sold $268 billion worth of technology to consumers and that’s expected to grow 5 percent to $281 billion this year. “That will surpass the United States next year in terms of the consumer electronics marketplace,” he said.

CES Asia had 25,000 preregistrants: 55 percent from mainland China, 18 percent from other Asian countries and 27 percent from other parts of the world, “making this a truly global event,” said Shapiro. More than 200 exhibitors set up booths, including companies from Europe and the U.S., and news media registration was “beyond expectations” at more than 1,000 members of the media, he said. Exhibitors had to be “truly innovative or have a significant brand” to exhibit at the show, he said.

High-profile exhibitors included Chinese e-commerce company JD.com, brick-and-mortar retailer Suning and top global carmakers including Audi, Cadillac, Ford, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. Top CE brands exhibiting included Gibson, Hisense, IBM, Intel, Monster and Voxx, he said.

Some high-profile CE companies didn’t attend. Samsung sponsored a media reception Monday but didn’t take a booth, nor did LG. Japanese brands didn’t make the trip west, and high-profile Chinese brands Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi didn’t sign up.

In a Q&A with journalists CEA invited to the show, Shapiro said of the lack of support from Japanese and Korean CE makers, “It is an individual company decision.” Some companies, he said, have “different growth spurts” or are cutting back. In response to a question about Chinese companies Huawei, Xiaomi and ZTE, Shapiro wouldn’t reveal who but said among the Chinese companies mentioned, "I've already talked in the last 24 hours with their CEOs, and they are so interested in being here next year.” Saying “you’re never going to get everyone,” he cited Apple as a CE company that’s never exhibited at CES in Las Vegas. "Not yet,” he added, but they’re there with a lot of people,” and they’re members of CEA. “There will come a time when the show is right for them,” he said.

Companies make decisions based on different considerations such as where they are in a product life cycle, he said. “I fully expect next year we’ll have more companies exhibiting, including well-known brands.” Everyone who exhibits in a first trade show assumes “a huge risk,” Shapiro said, and CEA is “rewarding” the companies that took that risk with CEA Asia, which have the right to sign up first for exhibit space at the 2016 CES Asia taking place May 11-13. “We have enough commitments for next year to have a show,” he said.

Answering an Italian journalist’s question about CEA’s ambitions to acquire other trade shows such as IFA or Computex, Shapiro said, “I would never say no to anything, but that is not on our radar.” CEA has relationships with other show organizers, he said. Shapiro said technology has made it possibly not necessary to have trade shows, but he remains a believer in them because the “five-sense experience” allows attendees to judge and evaluate products. “If a show does not have support, it’ll deteriorate and go down and may be acquired,” he said. “We’re not opposed to acquiring shows,” he said, noting CEA has talked to, merged with and sold shows in the past, “but we’re presently not in any serious discussions of which I’m aware.”

Shapiro called it “a shame” that the U.S. government has restricted travel to events like CES where in the past attendance “was considered part of the job.” He said CEA has had cooperation from the Chinese government that’s “very happy we’re here,” saying it wouldn’t be possible to hold CES Asia without its support because the government owns many of the companies and the media.

Shapiro noted CEA’s strong position on free trade that can fall opposite of policies of China and other countries. CEA is very good at separating its role as a trade association representing U.S. companies and U.S. subsidiaries of global companies, he said. He marveled at Shanghai's infrastructure including airports, mass transit and hotels, and said, “They’re doing something right here. The fact that they don’t allow Google and Twitter and Facebook and restrict the access of some companies is clearly their right to do as a country.” Espousing the value of an international trade show as a way to learn about other cultures, Shapiro said, “Anybody who thinks that their government has all the answers is probably wrong. I personally believe that if countries are trading,” he said, “they’re less likely to be fighting.”