Are You Ready to Pivot or Die?

Host Jason Michael Perry sits down with Gary Shapiro, Executive Chair of the Consumer Technology Association and the man who led CES for more than 35 years, for a conversation about what it really takes to pivot when everything around you is changing. Recorded on site at CTA’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, this episode traces the arc of pivoting through Gary’s career: from the forced pivot of taking CES fully virtual during COVID, to the slow-burn evolution of technologies like AI and robotics on the show floor, to the policy fights shaping what technology actually reaches consumers.

Gary shares the framework from his book *Pivot or Die* — the startup pivot, the forced pivot, the failure pivot, and the success pivot — and explains why even the smartest leaders struggle with change. They dig into AI adoption, the Trump administration’s new AI policy framework, autonomous vehicles stalling in Maryland, the intensifying tech race with China, and what 35 years of walking the CES floor teaches you about separating the breakthroughs from the flameouts. The conversation closes with Gary’s own pivot — stepping from CEO to Executive Chair — and with the question of whether Kinsey Fabrizio will let him get a ticket to next year’s show.

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Podcast Notes & Links

• Gary’s latest book, laying out his four-type pivot framework, is drawn from decades of leading CTA and watching companies rise and fall at CES
• The trade association representing more than 2,200 consumer technology companies, the owner and producer of CES
• Waymo’s push to bring autonomous ride-hailing to Baltimore stalls as the Maryland legislature ends its session without passing the bill
• A deeper look at the regulatory gap keeping driverless cars parked in Maryland while Waymo expands to Dallas, Nashville, and other cities
• CTA’s overview of CES 2026, where robotics and physical AI dominated the show floor
• A humanoid robot named Lightning finished the Beijing half-marathon in 50 minutes, beating the human world record by nearly seven minutes — then crashed into a barricade at the finish line

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Credits

Thanks to the team at WYPR, our producer Shanya Mapson, and Myrna Martinez, Head of Operations and Marketing at PerryLabs.