What's Wrong with CES? Plenty Discussion

[Ed Hardy]

The Consumer Electronics Show is a week-long annual celebration of technology in all its forms. It's a venue where over a hundred thousand digerati show up to see the latest and greatest from a huge number of companies. It also has some horrible flaws.

Read the full content of this Article: What's Wrong with CES? Plenty

Related Articles:

• 4G LTE Smartphones Dominated CES 2012
• CES 2012: Day Two Notes from the Tradeshow Floor
• CES 2012: Day One Notes from the Tradeshow Floor

[Varjak]

Actually, it's fairly typical for a trade show to 'counter program' nearly a year in front of the height of the selling season for those products. Thus, the New York Toy Show is about the same time as CES, with stuff for NEXT year.

[LandSurveyor]

Too big for Vegas? Hard to believe.

Maybe they should group relevant things together.

[Adama D. Brown]

Too big for Vegas? Hard to believe.

Believe it, I've been there. Put another way, 150,000 people is roughly three quarters of the population of Birmingham, Alabama. Now imagine all those people are coming to your town for one week. And they're all jamming into the same convention center. Granted, the Las Vegas Convention Center is BIG: 3.2 million square feet. But that's still a vast, vast number of people all packed into a small area. Basically, imagine having people packed shoulder to shoulder for a thousand feet in any direction. Take the crush and traffic of a sold out sporting game, then triple it, and do that constantly for a week.

[Mi An]

I don't need to be sold on how packed it really was. I grew up in a 60 square mile "city" that probably had 1,000 people when I got there as a child, and maybe 5,000 when I left for college. Frankly, I was starting to feel crowded towards the end.

But since CES brought me the 370t announcement BEFORE my Nook Tablet return window closed, I refuse to acknowledge Ed's well-made points. CES is perfect.

[Adama D. Brown]

I don't need to be sold on how packed it really was. I grew up in a 60 square mile "city" that probably had 1,000 people when I got there as a child, and maybe 5,000 when I left for college. Frankly, I was starting to feel crowded towards the end.

Now imagine even just 50,000 of the 150,000 CES attendees, packed into the 0.11 square mile area of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

[hal]

[Still OT]
Keep raising the figures WADR (With All Due Respect) you people don't know crowded. Ask jig, and not exactly about Minneapolis
[OT\]

Back OT, I think that CES timing must be something considered, in one way or another. The argument in that it bypasses the holiday season, is quite a point, but then overwhelmingly obvious. I wonder if the timing is actually intentional for the case. Cause between announcing something, and being ready to ship it, well ask Palm for instance if there's any chance for misdemeanors. Besides, the very fact of announcing something doesn't have anything to do with making it popular. People won't just buy announced, they'll buy useful, trendy, cool, updated, innovative. Not just "announced" (and if that were the case, then I'd got the formula to make myself rich with nothing more sophisticated than plastic bags filled with dog poo). Perhaps announcements work all by themselves with sequential releases, like TrendyPhone Model XXX (whatever follow up), but it won't work with kickoff models (meaning those that barely start a timeline of their own). And not uncommonly, sequential releases eventually morph so much that they turn into kickoff models (i.e. Windows Mobile --> Windows Phone models).

What if... the January scheduling allows a time baffle for the digital tech companies to solve this and that issue, ranging from performance to logistics, in order to ship them with good reassurance? Moving it to dates earlier to the holiday season would only relocate the commercial schedule of corporations to a different short order, but not actually moving their dynamics.

Regarding your personal grumps for a crowded show, Ed, I do think that all your examples support the conclusion that such a show is a victim of its own success. It's rather common that any somewhat-oriented/dedicated show is unreasonably cluttered with the very flashy part of business, like car audio in your article. You went for the smartphones and you had to meddle with exhibits that I'm totally sure were put in the middle so you had to notice them even though you happened to be deaf.

Years ago, when I worked in automotive, I had to attend the shows of this industry. Not a very different example. The whole place full of stands of corporations that sent a stand only to feel that they had a presence in the show, with nothing actually notable to say or exhibit. Tons of gorgeous girls in micro-skirts and showing cleavage, that OK make the whole thing attractive (LOL), but have nothing to do with automotive technology, just being there to reinforce an old cliché related to men and cars. Girls that BTW attract onlookers totally unrelated to the industry itself, surely assorted forms of car advocates, that only crowd the place even more. The conferences? Ah they're just for those with a ticket, or with more interest in the job than in the car audio exhibits of the main hall.

In automotive the special purpose tradeshows are a reality in assorted forms. BTW the SAE annual conference, actually a big show, is also held in Vegas. It sometimes has turned into a total disaster, but for most of it is related to industry layers not attractive enough in order to allow it to become into an oversized town fair.

[r0k]

In automotive the special purpose tradeshows are a reality in assorted forms. BTW the SAE annual conference, actually a big show, is also held in Vegas. It sometimes has turned into a total disaster, but for most of it is related to industry layers not attractive enough in order to allow it to become into an oversized town fair.

Um... No. SAE World Congress is held in Detroit, not Vegas. There is an event planned in Vegas in March, but it's listed as an inaugural event as in the first time. Perhaps you are referring to a regional or specialized event.

[hal]

Um... No. SAE World Congress is held in Detroit, not Vegas. There is an event planned in Vegas in March, but it's listed as an inaugural event as in the first time. Perhaps you are referring to a regional or specialized event.

YES! You're totally right, r0k, SAE is held in Detroit. The SEMA show has been held in Las Vegas on and off throughout the years.