Enhancing the CES Experience: How Eventbase and Pointr Simplified Wayfinding at the World’s Largest Tech Event

What is CES?

CES®, produced by the Consumer Technology Association®, is the world’s most powerful technology event, spanning more than 8.17 million square feet across 12 venues in Las Vegas and bringing together over 4,100 exhibitors, innovators, brands, media, and more than 148,000 attendees every January. Navigating the show can feel like moving through an entire city, with overlapping sessions, packed exhibit halls, and extensive networking opportunities—making wayfinding a critical part of the attendee experience. 

In 2025, Pointr and Eventbase debuted their partnership at CES, introducing AI-powered maps and blue dot navigation within the Eventbase app. Building on that success, they returned in 2026 for their second consecutive year, further enhancing the attendee experience and helping visitors move seamlessly across the world’s largest tech event.

The Challenge

CES spans multiple buildings, floors, and partner venues, making wayfinding a significant challenge. While Eventbase provided the core mobile app with schedules, exhibitor listings, and session information, attendees often struggled with indoor navigation, multi-floor transitions, and efficiently moving between venues. After a strong debut in 2025, Pointr and Eventbase aimed in 2026 to increase engagement, improve user satisfaction, and expand navigation adoption across the event. Together, they faced the challenge of providing real-time, reliable wayfinding at scale, ensuring attendees could confidently navigate the sprawling event without leaving the app or relying on static maps.

The Solution

In 2026, Pointr delivered a fully integrated navigation experience within the CES app powered by Eventbase. Turn-by-turn directions were available from session listings, exhibitor profiles, and amenity locations, while booth favoriting allowed users to highlight and easily revisit their top exhibitors. Attendees could:

• See their real-time location with 1–3 meter accuracy

• Move seamlessly between indoor and outdoor spaces

• Navigate across multiple floors and venues

   

“The enhanced CES app significantly improved the attendee experience, with blue dot mapping emerging as one of the most praised features. Attendees consistently highlighted how the real-time navigation helped them move through the show more efficiently and confidently, reinforcing the value of thoughtful, user-centered design.” Melissa Harrison, VP Marketing and Communications at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). 

Engagement & Insights

Navigation adoption at CES 2026 was significant, building on the success of the debut year in 2025. Attendees relied on the maps throughout the day for multi-venue journeys, session changes, and booth visits. The integration of Pointr maps also provided organizers with real-time insights into attendee behavior, enabling smarter event planning.

Key metrics included:

• 734,799 total navigation sessions

• 91% positive user feedback

• High repeat usage, indicating multi-venue navigation reliance

In addition to these metrics, analytics provided actionable insights into attendee behavior:

• Top visited Points of Interest (POIs), showing which exhibitor booths, sessions, and amenities were most popular with attendees
  

• Booth interactions and repeat visits, revealing which exhibitors captured attendee attention and drove engagement
  

• POI engagement hotspots, identifying areas where attendees spent the most time or frequently returned
  

• Search analytics, detailing the most common successful searches as well as failed searches, helping organizers optimize keywords, map labeling, and attendee guidance

These insights helped CES organizers optimize layouts, signage, and session planning, creating a more efficient and enjoyable experience while informing smarter decisions for future events.

A Faster, Smarter Deployment

At the Las Vegas Convention Center, Pointr leveraged the existing Bluetooth beacon infrastructure to enable accurate positioning with minimal operational effort. This allowed real-time navigation to be activated quickly across the sprawling venue, ensuring attendees could reliably find their way between halls, floors, and sessions. The same deployment model has been successfully implemented at other flagship venues, including the Javits Center.

Success

By integrating precise navigation into the CES app, Eventbase and Pointr transformed how attendees experienced CES 2026. Hundreds of thousands of navigation sessions, high satisfaction scores, and actionable insights demonstrate that navigation became a core part of the event experience rather than a utility feature. Attendees could confidently navigate one of the world’s largest events, moving seamlessly between venues, floors, and sessions, while organizers gained visibility into attendee behavior to guide smarter event planning. CES 2026 set a new benchmark for event navigation, showing how real-time maps and location intelligence can make even the largest shows feel smaller, smarter, and more connected.