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Give your CES visit a useful purpose
Coming home from CES with a suitcase full of tote bags is achievable. Coming home with a useful answer to the question that justified the flight takes a little more thought.
For an Australian business visitor, the best starting point is the job you want the trip to do. You might be looking for a manufacturing partner, trying to understand a technology your clients keep asking about, or hoping to meet early-stage companies. Those goals lead to different parts of the show, and they do not all share the same calendar.
CES 2027 exhibitions run from 6 to 9 January in Las Vegas, while some conference activity starts earlier and some areas finish before the final exhibition day. This guide uses the organiser’s information checked on 21 October 2026. Keep the official schedule and dates alongside your own plan as individual sessions and appointments develop.
Give the trip a question worth answering
“See what’s new” is an enjoyable ambition, but it can be difficult to turn into a useful report when you’re back at work. A more precise question gives you something to investigate without requiring every minute to be booked.
A retailer could ask which suppliers can help develop a particular product rather than simply looking for attractive samples. Someone working in construction might want to understand what a mobility demonstration actually does in a worksite setting. A marketing team could be looking for a partnership that reaches a particular audience, which calls for a different conversation again.
Write down the question, the people you would need to speak to and the evidence that would help you answer it. Then leave some room for a surprising idea. The plan should help you notice useful things, without making you march past them because a spreadsheet says it’s time to be elsewhere.
Match the question to the right part of CES
The LVCC campus guide gives each of its four halls a different emphasis. South covers design, sourcing and accessories; Central includes major consumer brands and entertainment technology; North brings together enterprise, AI, energy, IoT and smart-city topics; West focuses on mobility, including agricultural and construction applications.
The Venetian campus combines areas such as digital health, smart home, food technology and accessibility with early-stage companies in Eureka Park. For advertising, entertainment and content relationships, C Space at ARIA and its wider campus has a different purpose from a hardware exhibition hall. Foundry at Fontainebleau focuses on AI and quantum.
Use those published themes as a starting map, then locate the actual exhibitors and sessions you want:
| Question to investigate | Starting area | Useful result to bring home |
|---|---|---|
| Who could help us design or source a physical product? | LVCC South | A description of the supplier’s role, the sample’s development stage and the information needed for a follow-up enquiry. |
| Could this technology address a workplace or infrastructure problem? | LVCC North | The task demonstrated, its stated requirements and the integration questions still unanswered. |
| How is mobility changing in our industry? | LVCC West | The intended user and operating environment, with questions about the conditions the demonstration does not cover. |
| How might a new product change everyday life? | Venetian, including Eureka Park | The user problem, what was shown and what the company says still needs development. |
| Which content or advertising partnership would serve our audience? | C Space | A relevant contact and a specific next conversation, rather than a general request to “stay in touch”. |
| Which AI or quantum discussion would help us understand an emerging issue? | Foundry | A clear account of the idea, the evidence presented and the questions to take back to the team. |
Use the final column to decide what to ask and record. A convincing demonstration can justify a follow-up, but you still need to check whether the product and supplier meet your own requirements.
Leave time for the conversation after the demonstration
Once a demonstration has caught your attention, use the conversation afterwards to find out how it relates to your own circumstances. Something can be impressive on a stand while leaving the practical questions for your business unanswered.
For a sourcing enquiry, distinguish the company that designs a product from the company that manufactures or distributes it. Ask what information they need before they can discuss your requirements. For a new software application, record the problem it addresses and what would have to connect to it. These are practical prompts, not a technical assessment of any product at the show.
Eureka Park and Foundry also deserve different expectations. Eureka Park’s early-stage-company setting can help you explore what businesses are trying to build. Foundry’s AI and quantum focus may be useful for a more concentrated discussion. Its website also carries 2026 recordings and sponsors, so use the actual 2027 programme when choosing who to hear rather than assuming last year’s names are returning.
A useful note can be quite short: the question you asked, what you were shown, what the representative said and what remains to be checked. Keeping those separate saves a surprisingly awkward conversation later when “we saw a prototype” has somehow become “we found our next supplier”.
Put the right dates around those interests
The organiser’s current date table makes an important distinction between the wider programme and the exhibition floor. All dates below are local Las Vegas dates.
| Date in January 2027 | What it means for an attendee’s plan |
|---|---|
| Monday 4 | Published activity is media-only. This is not an opening day for general exhibition visits. |
| Tuesday 5 | Conference programming begins, including C Space programming. Exhibitions and Foundry are still closed. Check access to the particular session you want. |
| Wednesday 6 to Friday 8 | Exhibitions, conference programming, C Space and Foundry overlap. Individual sessions still have their own times. |
| Saturday 9 | Exhibitions are open from 9am to 4pm. C Space and Foundry are closed, and no conference programme is listed. |
If Foundry is the main reason for your visit, a Saturday-only plan will miss it. If a conference session matters, check whether it takes place before the exhibition opens. These differences should inform the nights you need in Las Vegas before you start comparing hotels.
Group appointments by area where you can, but use the current transport information to work out the journey. Two venues appearing close together on a show map is not a measured transfer time, especially when your destination is a particular room rather than the front door.
Choose admission around the learning you want
CES is a trade-only event for people aged 18 or older with a consumer-technology industry affiliation. It is not a public gadget show. Industry attendees need evidence of both their business affiliation and their employment connection; media and exhibitor personnel have their own registration routes. An accompanying partner’s holiday booking does not establish show eligibility. Read the official registration requirements before committing to attendance.
For an eligible industry attendee, the Standard Pass includes the exhibition floor, keynotes, Great Minds sessions and selected conference sessions. Premium adds the broader conference tracks and partner programming. You can also add individual tracks to Standard.
For an exhibition-led visit, choose Standard. The organiser currently publishes US$149 through 30 November 2026 and US$349 from 1 December to 9 January. Premium is US$1,450 and US$1,750 over those respective periods. That puts the upgrade at US$1,301 early or US$1,401 later.
If you want only selected extra tracks, total their displayed add-on prices: if those extras cost less than the relevant upgrade amount, Standard plus those tracks costs less; if the extras cost more, Premium costs less and includes all tracks. The organiser does not publish one universal add-on price, so there is no honest fixed saving for a one-track visit. For a conference-heavy trip, the timetable matters too. Access to more sessions is less valuable when the ones you care about happen simultaneously.
The organiser describes Standard access as first-come, first-served in its registration guide. A pass also does not arrange private meetings for you. Confirm the appointments that matter directly, and keep registration approval separate from submitting an application.
Keep your phone useful between the interesting bits
CES advertises complimentary basic Wi-Fi in the LVCC and Venetian exhibition halls and common areas. Its Wi-Fi guidance specifically distinguishes that service from the connection needed for exhibitor demonstrations, so a business-critical demo needs its own properly arranged internet plan.
Keep the appointment address and the question behind it saved together. If you need mobile data between venues and around Las Vegas, The SIM Shop’s USA eSIM plans are one option for a compatible, unlocked phone. A laptop introduces a separate question: check the exact plan’s hotspot terms before relying on it.
Save the essentials offline too. If you use a laptop hotspot, our background-data guide can help you avoid spending your allowance on files you did not mean to download. No mobile plan should be treated as a promise of performance inside a crowded convention hall.
The useful thing to bring home is a record of the conversations worth continuing. Give those some space in the diary, and be a little more selective about the tote bags.
