The world’s largest and most influential tech event has become another victim of the US government shutdown.

People explore the SPACe_C Autonomous eMobility vehicle at the Panasonic exhibit during CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 8, 2019. (Photo: VCG)

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is expected to gather more than 4,500 exhibitors in Las Vegas this week. During CES 2019, organizers are expected to showcase transformative tech to more than 180,000 attendees, encompassing 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, smart cities and resilience, sports, robotics and more.

However, some government speakers have canceled their trip ahead of the CES, which opens in a few days.

“Because of the government shutdown, some of our scheduled government speakers at CES 2019 have alerted us that they must cancel their travel plans. As a result, some of our scheduled CES 2019 programming and speakers will change,” Consumer Technology Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, the organizer of CES, said in a statement.

According to CTA, more than ten speakers have canceled their trips so far. Current canceled speakers are from the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Homeland Security among other agencies.

“We urge attendees who planned to hear US federal government speakers to check the sessions on the website to ensure those individuals are still speaking,” Gary suggested.

As of Monday, the partial US government has been shut down for 17 days, making it the third longest on record.