I’ve been to more tech events and launches than I can count in my greater than a decade as a tech journalist, but Delta’s keynote at CES 2025 is the just one that captivated me, literally and figuratively. This happened since the airline combined technology and storytelling to evoke an emotional response that was surprisingly personal and deeply moving, and in doing so, cleverly alluded to one in every of the largest opportunities of the approaching 12 months.
Delta used the technology on the planet’s largest spherical facility, the Las Vegas Sphere, which is a huge sphere covered in screens, during its a centesimal anniversary. To have fun 100 years of history, the airline also invited Viola Davis, Tom Brady and Lenny Kravitz on stage to show it right into a real party. What was particularly impressive, nevertheless, was how Delta used all of the immersive power that Sphere needed to create a wow factor at CES, which was sorely lacking in standout moments that evoked real excitement about how technology can change our lives.
Viola Davis helped Delta tell her story to the audience.
In fact, by fully leveraging the facility of Sphere technology, Delta appeared to show the world how seriously it takes technology in a way that many corporations, including established tech brands, could learn from. The Sphere aircraft’s surrounding LED screen served as a canvas for epic stories in regards to the airline’s past, present and future.
Technology corporations often promise us that their innovations will make us feel more connected and supply us with more meaningful experiences. They are rarely in a position to deliver on these guarantees in a way that is satisfactory to us, the individuals who ultimately use the technology. From social media to VR to conversational AI, there is a disconnect between what we’re told we’ll feel and what we feel about it.
Watch this: The Las Vegas Sphere: Everything You Need to Know
On the opposite hand, Sfera is stuffed with technology that lives as much as expectations. This creates a way of shared wonder, which on this case helped me feel emotionally invested within the brand. Even as someone who had never flown on Delta before (I live within the UK, it isn’t that big of an airline), I had a transparent understanding of the airline’s priorities, its employees, and its announcements, which included an AI concierge and partnerships with Uber and YouTube.
Before Delta CEO Ed Bastian even took the stage, the audience was treated to a slow sunrise that unfolded across the truly massive 160,000-square-foot Sphere screen before an enormous Delta plane flew straight towards us. My seat creaked and a gust of wind hit me that made me feel like I had actually been thrown off an airport runway.
The whole thing ended with a mesmerizing fireworks display.
This was one in every of several keynote moments by which Delta used the touch technology built into each of Sphere’s 10,000 seats combined with the room’s visual and audio capabilities to create a full-body, multi-sensory experience. At one point, because the screen changed into a large cockpit and we gave the impression to be leaving the bottom, I felt my eyes glaze over and my stomach twist – a sense just like the motion sickness I’ve felt before on VR and other roller coasters.
The 3D effect of the spinning ball appeared to fill the Sphere, while the closing fireworks display filled the sky with whooshes, pops and bangs that echoed off the seats. In more intimate moments, cameras zoomed in on longtime Delta employees scattered throughout the audience as Bastian paid tribute to their contributions over his a few years of flying.
Sphere’s large screens were also used for Lenny Kravitz’s set.
Even before the keynote, which took Delta almost a 12 months to design and prepare, the event was the hit of CES – and, because it seems, rightly so. Perhaps regular Delta passengers would like if the airline invested the cash in increasing legroom, but this often-cynical journalist was impressed by the spectacle, which made me feel more hopeful in regards to the technology than I did during this moderately lackluster display of technology.
There was a stark contrast between the boring, repetitive announcements and the candid introductions from real Delta flight attendants, which, combined with the multi-sensory nature of the event, made me feel drawn into the world of a daring, iconic brand that is not afraid to steal the show.
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