The UK government has been lambasted for the lack of homegrown tech companies it’s supporting during CES 2017, with the event’s organiser branding it an “embarrassment.”
Consumer Technology Association CEO Gary Shapiro has spoken out against the UK’s ambivalence towards the annual tech event, with the UK’s Department for International Trade (DIT) having reportedly spent little money and effort on making their presence felt during the Las Vegas expo. With only 55 UK start-ups attending CES 2017, the region barely manages to beat out the likes of Israel and the Netherlands, who have supported 37 and 21 companies respectively. This is despite the UK often being billed as one of the Western world’s leading technology hubs, and CES being one of the leading global tech events with nearly 180,000 attendees.
According to Shapiro a minister from Britain is attending the event, but “there’s not a lot of activity” from the region. “Britain’s been a little slow to the game honestly,” Shapiro told the BBC. “I think it’s a source of embarrassment. When I was in London recently, I raised it with one of the ministers, and they said: ‘Yeah, it’s amazing. I can get approval to go to [Texas festival] South by Southwest, but because it’s Las Vegas, for some reason it’s frowned upon. And that’s a pretty short-sighted attitude.”
UK start-ups have expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s unwillingness to represent them at CES, with them even having removed their usual UK Trade & Investment stand. This lack of support inevitably leads to tech companies experiencing greater difficulty in obtaining funding, though the DIT has stated that it looks to instead focus upon providing “targeted support and bespoke business matching” rather than widespread support to hundreds of separate companies. Judging by Shapiro’s comments, this may not be the wisest move.
“Government support is just not funding, I want to make that very clear,” Shapiro continued. “It’s political leadership. It’s showing up. It’s a matter of attention. We’re having the prince of the Netherlands show up, for example. I don’t know why the UK is not responding, because there is a tremendous amount of innovation there. I think there’s a great opportunity for the UK, which is untapped.”
While UK start-ups will be underrepresented at the event, plenty of UK-based retailers have travelled over to Las Vegas in order to check out the wares and bring exciting new tech products to Britain. However, with the ramifications of the UK’s exit from the EU leading to great instability in the region’s tech sector, it would have arguably been beneficial for the government to put greater effort into promoting more of its homegrown companies as the country’s position as a big player in the tech industry is seemingly under threat.
