The crowd waiting outside the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on opening day was massive. Published figures back up what was obvious from the street: roughly 4,100 exhibitors and 148,000 visitors were in attendance — the largest CES turnout since 2020. By any conventional measure, CES was a success and did exactly what it was supposed to do. And yet, something felt missing.

Beyond the absence of another handful of big players quietly leaving the show floor, booth designs felt muted. Experiences were often relegated to touch screens. Conversations I had with industry colleagues drifted toward what CES used to be. In my reflection, I realized they were expressing not nostalgia, but hiraeth — a yearning for something that doesn't exist but feels like home.

Our most recent Budget Breakdown, which explores how event managers allocate their dollars, shows that budgets are consumed by the cost of attendance long before discussions of creative design can enter the chat. Combine that with economic volatility, and the underwhelming design makes sense. But I recently revisited an article written by a colleague three years ago lamenting the lack of elevated design on show floors. If we were asking where all the good design went long before today's volatility, then today's volatility didn't cause the restraint. It arrived in an industry already playing it safe.

That caution grew alongside an industry defining value with a spreadsheet. Measurement justifies presence. It doesn't justify making people feel something. So event managers focus on what's quantifiable, and emotion becomes the casualty.

I spoke to someone whose company saved tens of thousands of dollars by leaving the CES floor in favor of an invitation-only suite in The Venetian. The result? No one RSVP'd and he was left questioning whether the cost savings were worth the loss of serendipity that comes with organic discovery.

Panasonic, which usually has a sprawling presence at CES, showed up strategically restrained this year. And as I left the booth, someone handed me a survey tablet asking, “Do you have a negative perception of brands no longer on the show floor?” The question hinted at deeper questions happening internally at Panasonic. But beneath it was a more poignant inquiry: Does this still matter?

According to my conversations with the industry's most stalwart supporters, it does. They are hungry for meaning and eager to encounter brands that make them feel something. Our industry champions experience, but CES revealed that what we value in theory doesn't necessarily make it to the show floor.

In this issue we recognize those on our annual Best of CES list. The top honor went to Waymo, a brand that showed up with whimsy and by doing so, created something memorable. It was experiential in a way that resisted easy measurement, and as a result, it stood out. If the trade show floor is to remain relevant to both brands and attendees, the industry must acknowledge the value of emotional experience, even when it's hard to quantify. E