Ed’s Projects

CES 2008: Here We Come


It’s almost time for the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. This will be the 3rd year in a row that Technology Evangelist will be on site covering the latest gadgets and gear.

Going into our 3rd year, I’ve decided to reflect on a few things I’ve learned after two shots at show.

1. The Sands Convention Center has the coolest, cutting edge stuff. The booths are as small as a card table, and you get to meet the people who actually invented and build the stuff on display.

2. It’s worth checking out the Panasonic HDTV displays. They weren’t the largest at the show last year, but they do a tremendous job with merchandising.

3. Be sure to bring a GPS to the Samsung booth. You can get lost in that thing. It’s the size of a small city.

4. Be prepared to be disappointed when you see tons of cool cell phones that won’t be available on your carrier, with features that will be turned off by the carrier. Perhaps this will be the year this changes?

5. Bring your own water or bring an extra credit card. On-site food prices are ridiculous.

6. EVDO is a no-go. Relying on an EVDO connection for bandwidth during CES would be a major challenge. iJustine would grind to a halt.

7. Shuttle Jam: Free shuttles are provided between convention centers, but relying on them will cost you hours and hours of time.

8. BlogHaus: The Seagate CES BlogHaus was a huge hit last year. Finding upstream bandwidth capable of pushing HD video to the web was no easy task, but the Bloghaus came through.

9. iPod Accessories Galore. This isn’t MacWorld, so you won’t see any new Apple products. But you’ll still see plenty of accessories for iPods and iPhones. A dizzying array of speaker systems and headphones.

10. The AVN Show. The Adult Video News tradeshow just happens to take place in the Sands Convention Center at the same time as CES. Picking out who’s a tech nut and who’s a pornstar in the hallway is a fun side game.

What would you add to this list?

And what would you like to see covered at this year’s show?

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