CES is next week
So CES is next week and I haven’t done any of the posts I did last December. Sorry about that; I honestly didn’t know that I could afford to go until the 23rd. I’m not going to go into the same level of detail as last year; there’s not enough time left and I’m too busy getting ready.
Parties & Events
Last year I got invited to 4 parties; this year I don’t have any invites, at least, not any that interest me. I don’t think I’ve pissed off that many people (I’m good but not that good) so my guess is that no one had the budget this year.
On the upside I did get credentials for the Pepcom event Wednesday night. This isn’t a party; it’s a trade show run separately from CES. I’m really glad I’m going because I’ve seen the exhibitor list and I found a number of companies that won’t be exhibiting at CES. They’re only going to be at the Pepcom event.
News Coverage
I’ve touched bases with my competition and it turns out that neither TeleRead nor EbookNewser will be sending anyone.This is great because it means I won’t have any direct competition, but on the other hand there are far too many stories for me to cover on my own. I’m going to run myself into the ground again.
On the gripping hand, my list of booths to visit is only a third the size of last year’s. Even factoring in the many tablets I’m expecting to appear out of nowhere I’m still going to have fewer things to see.
Schedule
My flight leaves on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I will likely attend a couple of the press conferences. Last year I only went to the tail end of one press conference and that was only because Samsung had an ereader on hand. Wednesday night I will be at the Pepcom event.
I only have a tentative plan for Thursday and Friday. On Thursday I plan to work in South Hall and on Friday I’ll be in North and Hilton Halls. I’m leaving the weekend open in anticipation of something interesting happening.
Gear Bag
This year I’ll be carrying around my 9″ Novel tablet, paper, pens, and a camera. I was planning to go laptop free this year but I I’m just not comfortable with leaving it in a hotel room.
P.S. If you’re going to be at CES keep an eye out for me.
Comments
Mike Cane January 2, 2011 um 2:08 pm
Make sure to sweep by HP and grill them about webOS. If they’re not showing a tablet publicly, twist their arm HARD for the private showing they’re no doubt doing of some alpha state tablet. Also ask them about their partnership with B&N and why they did that and what they expect to do with it.
Nate the great January 2, 2011 um 2:12 pm
That was on my list, yes.
Rob Brown January 2, 2011 um 7:34 pm
Has anyone done stats on CES, like "average time from CES to customer availability" and "number of products never actually shipped"?
I have to say that I find CES quite dull: we *know* that there will tablets, phones and other toys with better CPUs, screens, and battery life; we just don’t know *when* and CES doesn’t tell us.
The number of truly interesting revelations seems to be minimal. Or am I missing something?
Zigwalski January 2, 2011 um 11:10 pm
My brother works for HP and they are supposedly working on new and exciting things with webOS. Figure that if they say no then it really means yes!