The Variety CES Entertainment Summit will no longer take place next month in-person in Las Vegas, given the recent increase in COVID cases. The event is being adapted as an online-only series of keynote conversations and panel discussions with industry leaders set for Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022.
The Variety Winter Entertainment Summit: Innovations in Technology will be headlined by Wayne Brady, comedian, TV host, writer and producer, and George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS and chief content officer of news and sports at Paramount Plus. Brady, a multiple Emmy-winner who has hosted CBS’s “Let’s Make a Deal” and Fox’s “Game of Talents,” will talk about the intersection of storytelling, tech and entrepreneurship. Cheeks will speak to the challenges of producing content for multiple platforms.
The Jan. 27 summit also will feature a lineup of senior execs and creators discussing how TV, film, digital, music and consumer brands are connecting with modern audiences. Registration for the event will open in early January.
“Variety is pivoting our annual summit at CES to a virtual event due to the recent surge in COVID-19 out of caution to ensure the health of our speakers and employees,” Dea Lawrence, chief marketing officer, Variety, said in a statement. “We value our longstanding partnership with CES and intend to be back in person next year.”
Partners for the Variety Winter Entertainment Summit are NAGRA, The Trade Desk, Audible, Vevo and Innovid.
Variety‘s decision to move from an in-person CES event to a streaming-only presentation comes as multiple companies have canceled events and opted out of attending the Las Vegas confab, including T-Mobile, Amazon, Facebook parent Meta, iHeartRadio and consulting firm MediaLink.
Topics on the agenda for the Variety Winter Entertainment Summit are expected to include predictions for the future of the entertainment business; fan-forward storytelling; trends in TV and over-the-top video advertising; how the industry is dealing with the ongoing pandemic; and what bleeding-edge technologies like NFTs and the metaverse mean for Hollywood.