Take a bunch of gadget freaks–about 150,000 of them–put them in Vegas for a week under the guise of work and you’ve got the Consumer Electronics Show, one of the world’s largest global conferences. I’ve heard about this for years but didn’t find a work-related reason to attend it till this year. And it was more or less as I expected: full grown adults gawking over gadgets as if it were Black Friday and Christmas all crammed into one day and reliving that day over and over in a single week.
Sure, plenty of business was done at CES 2013 and there were some very interesting panel discussions–I particularly enjoyed this one with a panel of CEO-entrepreneurs, including will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas:
I wish I had been close enough to take a picture of the studded Louboutin loafers he had on! Speaking of fashion, CES really did remind me of fashion week, where vendors would parade their latest and greatest designs and some companies spared no cost to showcase some incredible concoctions that will probably never hit the sales floor. But flash builds brand.
What did I take from this experience? I need to learn Mandarin and Korean.
What will I do differently next year? Bring only comfortable shoes. Here are my ODJs for the two days I was there; my uniform consisted of jeans, Chanel jackets (it was particularly chilly for Vegas!), flats, and a huge tote:
Even with all the freebies as seen in the first photo (and I’d stopped taking stuff after the first few hours), I wish I had gone home with these…
well, actually this:
There’s always next year! Anyway, when I got home and cleaned out my bag, I found these:
Hey, it’s no secret I do not gamble. At casinos. If I’m going to be out a lot of money I’d better have a new dress to show for it. But it was Vegas…and there are no less than three Chanel boutiques there. More on that in another entry!
Just read your article and guess what? I just bought one of the thumb drives you featured just now – before I read your blog!