Web Summit’s software powers CES 2022 virtual event

This week, Web Summit is powering digital connections at CES 2022 in Las Vegas.

In a unique partnership, Web Summit will license its proprietary software, Summit Engine, to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), owner and producer of CES. The software will be deployed across mobile and web apps for both the physical and the digital  event. 

Summit Engine is designed to power meaningful connections between exhibitors, brands and participants at CES.. Exhibitors can use the platform to set up bespoke company profiles, connect, schedule and meet fellow participants through chat and video features.

To recreate the serendipitous connections made at in-person events for those participating digitally, Web Summit’s unique Mingle feature allows attendees to network in a roulette-style chat room. Mingle places attendees in a new room every three minutes, with someone chosen through Summit Engine’s recommender system if they have opted into the feature.

Keynotes and select conference sessions will be live-streamed on the platform for digital attendees across the globe. The world’s leading tech brands will host live press conferences on the platform as they break company news and launch products before CES 2022 opens.“We’re delighted to be chosen by CTA as their digital platform provider for CES, and we understand what large-scale, complex events like these demand,” – said Paddy Cosgrave, co-founder and CEO at Web Summit.

“We’ve been quietly building our software, Summit Engine, for nearly a decade to augment our physical events, so moving them fully online during the pandemic was easy for us. Now we can use this software to run every element of an event, whether it’s for 100 or 100,000 people, in-person, online or both.” 

Exhibitors with a physical presence in Las Vegas, Jan 5-7, 2022, can expand their reach to CES digital participants to showcase their product launches and thought leadership. For all attendees, networking and on-demand content will be available through the end of January. 

“For CES 2022, we sought a platform that would benefit both in-person and digital attendees,” said Jean Foster, senior vice president of marketing and communications, CTA. “Working with an innovative and unique company like Web Summit allows CES to, once again, reimagine how we convene and collaborate as an industry.”

Summit Engine has been built by Web Summit’s in-house team of engineers. It has been used by hundreds of thousands of attendees at Web Summit’s physical and online events for nearly half a decade. 

CES is now the second global organisation to license Summit Engine, after the United Nations hosted a UN Development Programme event on the platform in March 2021. Summit Engine was used at Web Summit’s first in-person event in two years, in Lisbon November 1-4, 2021. Founders of the world’s most successful tech companies will join the 1,000+ speakers, 1,250+ startups, 1,500 journalists and 700+ investors set to discuss technology, society and more. 

Notes to the editor 

Owned and produced by CTA, CES 2022 will convene the tech industry in-person and digitally, Jan. 5-8, 2022, with Media Days taking place Jan. 3-4, 2022. The digital event will run in parallel with what is happening in Las Vegas and be open until Jan. 31, 2022. 

About Web Summit
Forbes says Web Summit is “the best tech conference on the planet”; Bloomberg calls it “Davos for geeks”; Politico “the Olympics of tech”; the Guardian “Glastonbury for geeks”. In the words of Sky News, Web Summit is “the world’s most influential tech event”, and the Telegraph calls it the “planet’s best tech conference”. 

Following the outbreak of Covid-19, Web Summit moved all of its events onto its proprietary online software platform,​​ which has been developed in-house for over a decade. In 2020, the company hosted 140,000 attendees on the platform across multiple worldwide events, with 104,000 attending Web Summit online in December 2020.About CES
CES® is the most influential tech event in the world — the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators. This is where the world’s biggest brands do business and meet new partners, and the sharpest innovators hit the stage. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA)®, CES features every aspect of the tech sector.