One of my favorite areas at CES is Eureka park. It’s the place where startups and small companies show off their ambitions before they are fully developed for mass-market.

Why I love Eureka Park

I love seeing the regular Joe’s / Jane’s that have come up with something that they are proud off and came to CES to show it off in attempts to “get it out in the world” that it and they exist. My own father is an inventor of small renown in the fishing community / industry so it’s a personal experience for me when I see fellow inventors displaying their “brain-child” or “children”.

Some of my favorites in the past have been smart boxing gloves that gave you feedback of speed, pressure your punches, give suggestions etc. so you can be a better boxer or hurt yourself less when shadow boxing lol. Then there was Kazoolo AR an Augmented Reality game for your smart devices where you point your camera at a circle that has a chip in it, then you will see a legendary monster come out of the circle that you or friends can battle; legendary monsters like a Red Dragon, or the Phoenix, later they added the Death Robot!  By shooting at it and dodging its fire balls! this one I ended up purchasing when it came out.

Where else can you see silly inventions like the “Smart Potato” dongle?

Yes, you can also get the endless rows of cookie cutter smartphone and tablet peripheral, but every year I come away with a couple of techy devices from eureka part that make me say “that’s cool!” and was a little kid again geeking out next to my dad while we used his lures to catch fish while others where not because they didn’t have the “special tech” that we did.

But as I asked in the heading did the Covid 19 virus kill that… are we going to see the mom and pop inventors showing up in Eureka part in CES 2022?

The impact of COVID on Startups

Covid 19 has affected all humans and all nations, the economy has suffered. Yes gofundmes still exist but they are not hitting their goals as much as they did pre covid; there is just less discretionary income now days everywhere.

Well, the CES 2022 website has Eureka part listed, they plan on having people pay to “show their wares” but they have Eureka park under Start Ups now… I fear that when I attend CES 2022 this year and I step into the Eureka part there will be less wonder and magic….