My day at CES

My CES planning began a couple of months ago when I found out the attendance fee for access to the showroom floor was FREE. I signed up, mixed with apprehension (that things wouldn’t work out with the other expenditures and schedule) and hope (that things would work out with the other expenditures and schedule). A week before Christmas, serendipity on our side, we decided that any obstacles in our way to CES would be crushed so hotels and flights were booked. We got a steal of a deal, thanks to our friends at Orbitz, and had a little less than a month to get ourselves ready.

CES is a show that one needs to get prepared for and a phase in the preparation is getting psyched up for the massive overload that the body will go through. I checked blogs (for leaks on the latest and greatest), studied the floor plan of The Venetian, Sands and the Las Vegas Convention Center (for planning purposes), created a strategy (don’t spend time on the TVs!), and got my leg workout on (for strenuous walking and standing).

I needed the full time to prepare because I have been juggling an ongoing pitch to a major retail chain, a huge proposal for a major pharmaceutical company, not to mention the holiday break where my wife expected issues related to work be kept at a minimum. Obstacles be damned. In the words of the great Bill Murray, I came, I saw and I kicked its ass. All relatively speaking, of course. I did my best balancing act and got through the holiday break and following week mostly unscathed. The stars, continuing what was put into motion a few weeks prior, were aligning and I was ready for the big show.

Enter US Airways, who almost crushed MY grand plan and minimalized all of the effort, both man-made and from higher powers, that went into this event. Last Thursday, the morning of departure, I learn that US Airways cancelled my flight (which coincidentally is one of the only flights out of DFW to Las Vegas) and couldn’t get me to Vegas any earlier than 6 PM CST. That would be fine if the show didn’t close at 5 PM and I didn’t have 3 small children at home with my wife, who was trying to make plans to visit her dad in Houston due to an unexpected medical emergency. I couldn’t go just to spend the night in Vegas.

After spending what seemed like all day on the phone with Orbitz, I finally reserved a seat on the same early morning flight out of Dallas on Friday. The only drawback to this was that I would have to make a day trip out of it. My original plans were to fly back to Dallas on Friday night, which would have given me two full days at the show – plenty of time, especially given my rigorous preparations. But now, I would be put to the test, flying up there just for the day. There’s a whole other element of Cearley-family planning that was working against us, but I won’t go into that. Needless to say, serendipity was quickly fading away.

Early Friday morning (5 AM), I headed to the airport with bells on. Even if it were just for the day, I was going to the best technology show for non-Mac loyalists. I modified my strategy (still no TVs) on the way up there so I could see all of the halls in the same day. I would start at The Venetian and The Sands, then make my way over to the LVCC.

CES + Vegas is the only thing that compares to the constant and reverberating noise of the 3 Cearley kids. From the moment I got off the plane and heard sounds of slot machines jingling, I didn’t have a moment of faint noise until I got back on the plane that night. The noises just kept building. First it was the slots and general airport hubbub, then it was the talkative cab driver, then it was The Venetian slots and hubbub, then the noise spilling out of the breakout rooms while standing in the registration line, crescendoing into the sounds of the showroom floor. I took a deep breath, asked my legs and feet if they were ready for this, and started walking.

I had pep in my step and as I walked by each booth, quickly scanned and observed the products and offerings to see if they warranted a deeper look. At first, I was overwhelmed with the number of bags I saw. Bags, as in backpacks, messengers, totes, purses – those kinds of bags. Apparently, there is a big market in keeping your computer and all mobile devices in an ultra-tight, ultra-protected, yet ultra-sheik carrying case. I’m a simple man. I appreciate those products, but don’t see the need in spending hundreds of dollars on something Swiss Army sells for less than $50. I was just amazed at all of the bags. I want technology, not fabric.

On I went to the other booths. I think the most impressive area in The Venetian/Sands was The Innovation Center where all of the different award-winning products in each category were displayed. This sort of consolidation worked in my favor as I could see a cross-section of many different “best of” products in one, relatively small, confined area. Thin and Green were the hot items this year. From TVs to laptops to speakers to washer/dryers to cell phones. Most of the showcased items were the thinnest and most environmentally-friendly products of the show. It was the perfect pre-cursor to the Mecca half a mile away that I could only get to by vehicle. The biting wind made walking impossible; I had to sacrifice a coat on the trip for my load/weight distribution.

Once I got to the LVCC and witnessed the experience of the first booth (Microsoft), I didn’t know if I’d be able to stick to my strategy. In fact, I didn’t know if I would make it out of the 100x100 space that was Microsoft. The most notable thing in this particular booth was the Windows 7 demo. From what I saw, this OS now compares to Mac OS X. The features, specifically addressing user convenience and experience, that Mac has always been light years ahead of Windows have now caught up. The browser offers a better experience and the Live Services suite (separate from Windows 7) I found to be cool and useful, particularly when a household is using multiple machines. Windows 7 also has multi-touch capability, so coupled with a touch screen monitor, you can create quite an experience. For use in the household, this can add a whole new dimension to family time.

Speaking of touch screens, one of my favorite booth experiences involved the Microsoft Touch. The actual hardware/software that is MS Surface underwhelmed me. First of all, I needed to sit on my knees to interact with it because the table sits so low to the ground. Second of all, they didn’t have anything resembling a cool app on the surface. I could rant for another two pages, but I’ll move on. The experience, brought to you by NBC Universal, started with a matchbook-looking box that housed a code (for the Surface to read) and a 2 GB MicroSD card/USB adapter (for downloads). Each attendee was instructed to place the matchbook on the Surface and then they would see a notification of whether or not they won the tchatchki of the day. If so, good for you, if not, you were then able to interact with any of the 30 or so touch screens around the perimeter of the booth to download your favorite NBC show or Universal movie trailer. If you can use MicroSD cards in your phone, you could walk away with instant, mobile multimedia content. This experience, although not more than 3 minutes in length, was the highlight of my CES day.

In the HP booth, I was able to interact with the TouchSmart desktop & laptop PC. Man, I want one of these for my house. For me, I love the idea of interacting with the touch screen in my everyday life. Most of us have touch screen phones and they are the best thing since pocket-sized phones. The logical progression leads to interacting with our personal computers in the same way. You might ask if we will even have something as large as personal computers in the future and to that I would present to you the new line of ultra mobile PCs known as ‘netbooks.’ I can’t help but think that these are simply large phones (without the ‘phone’ capability). These received a lot of press – Dell, Sony, HP & Lenovo all had versions. I was most impressed by the Sony model.

It didn’t seem to take long for the aches and pains in my legs and feet to inform my brain that finding a place to sit might be a good idea. Looking at my watch, I realized that half of my day was already over. I knew that I didn’t have long to fulfill my goal of walking all of the floors, but I had to find a place to sit. I sat. I watched people. Wheeling and dealing. Lots and lots of activity.

After my brief break, I got my ears blasted out by the loudest speakers I’ve ever heard, watched multiple groups of ‘everyday people’ vie for the title of ‘Best Rock Band of the Day’, missed the Angels and Demons preview by 5 minutes and almost threw away my backpack. If my dogs were barking at 5 PM, my back was screaming.

I walked the entire floor(s) at all locations. Mission accomplished.

It was time to go back to the airport. The cab line was only 30 minutes long which apparently is an indication of the relatively low attendance this year (in previous years, the wait was ~1hr). At the airport, I ate, watched the 3rd season of Weeds and won $15 before hopping on the plane.

Other than the plane shaking uncontrollably for the first hour of the flight, it was fairly uneventful. I rolled into my driveway at 12:05 AM. 19 hour day. I did it. My feet didn’t forgive me until Sunday.