Digital Wallonia was officially present at CES Las Vegas for the first time from 9 to 12 January 2018, as part of a business mission organised by AWEX bringing together 14 businesses and start-ups specialising in digital technology in Wallonia. We look back at the event.
First official presence of Digital Wallonia at CES
The stand was run by the Walloon Export Agency, a key partner of Digital Wallonia when it comes to raising the international profile of the Walloon digital sector. The Walloon businesses that made the journey learned about topics including
- the Internet of Things (IoT) & sensors,
- image (de)compression,
- home automation,
- weather sensors,
- smart cities,
- fibre optics,
- and much more.
CES
CES (the Consumer Electronics Show), held in January every year in Las Vegas, is the world’s biggest electronic event open to the public.
CES offers visitors the chance to find out about the latest innovations and identify the major technology trends. At the 2018 event, three sectors were showcased: Artificial Intelligence, self-driving cars and the “Smart Home”.
It is an important event at which to develop your business, both at the event itself with the different exhibitors, but also at all the special events and talks organised for the occasion.
In terms of visitor numbers, CES 2018 broke new records with more than 184,000 participants from around the world on the 200,000m2 of exhibition space covered by the show.
It is THE place to be for everyone involved in digital technology, bringing together more than 3,500 exhibitors(82% of whom belong to the Fortune 100). 370 start-ups were present at Eureka Park. 4,800 CEOs from 153 countries gathered in the exhibition halls.
It is also an event that attracts a lot of media coverage. Journalists from around the world flock here to check out the upcoming trends and catch a glimpse of products that have never been seen before.
Walloon participants
For Wallonia’s first visit, fourteen businesses were present on the two Digital Wallonia stands:
- 9 SMEs in Westgate Hall, dedicated to international pavilions and Smart Cities,
- 5 start-ups in Eureka Park, which is completely dedicated to them, enjoying the most media attention and attracting the most visitors at CES.
First-time presence a real success
If you compare this presence to the size of Wallonia, this delegation pretty much holds up to comparison with France or other countries enjoying a high level of representation.
The very positive feedback from Walloon exhibitors confirms that our first experience was a real success
Happy hour
A Happy Hour was also organised on the start-up stand, to which each exhibitor could invite important contacts. This too was a real hit, with more than 200 people joining us!
Press coverage
The press covered Wallonia’s first time at CES extensively: La Libre, L’Echo, Le Vif, Trends, Sud Presse, La Première, BelRTL, ... The event also enjoyed major segments on TV news on La Une and TV5 Monde.
Most of these segments can be found on Digital Wallonia’s Twitter feed.
Check out the atmosphere at CES 2018 in our photo album on Facebook.