CES and the future of virtual tech events

With CES 2021 opening virtually this year, we spoke with BBC Click and tech TV presenter, Lara Lewington, about the impacts of such tech events going online and how TV news production has adapted to remote working.

Being a CES regular, Lara shares her experience of attending the tech event from the comfort of her home studio instead of travelling to Las Vegas. She explains how different it is, but highlights the ease of accessibility allowing attendees to explore the latest on all things innovation, technology and gadgets.

Lara gives insights of how the BBC’s flagship technology programme, Click, has adapted during the pandemic given restrictions and remote working. With elements such as the importance of good lighting, sound and background setting, as well as how material is gathered and how interviews are recorded having had to fit to a new way of working. Lara highlights that one of the benefits that has arisen from this period is that the show has been able to interview more people than they would have otherwise due to increased accessibility and nature of working from home.

Finally, we asked Lara what gadgets would reign supreme in 2021 and she shared with us some notable gadgets from CES that would make home lives better during the pandemic, for instance anti-bacterial devices and smart masks.

The full episode, hosted by Kaizo Associate Director Allan Edwards, can be viewed here. Browse our previous episodes here.