Every year during CES, we expose a little bit of inside baseball about how our show or the industry works. This year, we got the opportunity to speak with Steve Winter, president and founder of Brotman-Winter-Fried Consulting. Steve has been a long-time friend of the Tech Podcasts Network team, and we feature several of his clients annually. This year, Steve brought us 5 companies: Cutii, Domalys, Publidata, GoSun, and Clean Air Zone.

But, as we have worked together for years, the conversation naturally went to the future of trade shows. With CES going virtual, we experienced new problems. Depending on the length of the lockdowns, there is a possibility of a lot more like this. Different events are planning to address them in different ways. Some are looking to follow CES's lead. Others are looking for virtual equivalents of physical shows. Both have their ups and downs, and only time will tell which works best. Fortunately for us, the way CES decided to handle virtualization worked well. However, exhibitors might have preferred a closer to traditional representation.

One thing we noticed was that there was a lot less news during CES 2021. Steve pointed out that, under a normal CES there are around 4200 exhibitors. This year, the number was just under 2000. With fewer exhibitors, you can expect less news. But, we saw more than a 50% decrease. This suggested to Todd that those who were participating were not taking it as seriously as in years past. Steve points out that, with so many unknowns, companies spent extra time preparing their presentations. Todd and Steve present an inside view of the future of conferences, with decades of experience between them.

To learn more about Steve's work or to engage his PR services, head over to the Brotman-Winter-Fried Consulting website.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.