Sex for sale in Las Vegas
During
a two-week period in the middle of January, Las Vegas - sets aside its
otherwise upstanding morals to the selling of porn. And, what's more -
it's completely legal!
Hundreds
of thousands of people descended upon this desert oasis, which has more
than a bit of a reputation for being a party town, and perhaps none
more so than at this time. This high profile period also attracted
thousands of the world's Press who waited patiently in breathless
anticipation to unravel what's new and hopefully captures the money shot.
And
in case I have confused you with my introduction and the blog's title, I
was referring to two events that ran back to back this month in Las
Vegas -- the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and
Adult Entertainment Convention (ADULTCON). What is hot and what is not
depends on your perspective. Both events attracted massive crowds but my
attention was transfixed on the former.
There
were lots on offer @CES, and I have to tell you, that as much as I
enjoy eating candy, there is only just so much you can take! Some of the
CES attendees I met post-event claimed to be suffering from 'SOS' -
Sensor Overload Syndrome, and with this being my first CES, I was pretty
blown away by the excessive consumerism.
Parts
of my body were thankful that the 2012 International Consumer
Electronics Show (CES) ended after four days (you can also see this from
some of my photos of people resting in massage chairs) - and perhaps
not a moment too soon - for me. Although the show ran through this time
frame, officially four days long (TUE-FRI), it felt a lot longer. There
were numerous early morning and late night activities surrounding it and
wanting to make the most of it, to see, absorb and experience
everything. Actually, the event spanned six days for me, as I attended
some pre-show events. Quite honestly, I now feel like a used AA battery -
drained of all energy.
Often
positioned as the world's largest tradeshow, Las Vegas would definitely
experience more than a blip on their revenue radar should they ever
lose it. The sheer scale of this behemoth is such that it literally
envelops everything, with huge revenues to all manner of establishments.
One such beneficiary are those involved in the people moving business.
Everything from stretched limos to the monorail, to buses and taxis were
working flat out with all leave and sick days apparently being
cancelled. I was chuffed that on one of the occasions I ordered a car to
transport me from my place of lodging to an event, a stretched Hummer
turned up. And when I got out at my destination - the venue for an HTNG Board Meeting, people standing outside of the off-strip Platinum Hotel, seemed intrigued who I was. It was a great Kodak moment
for me. On the flip side, I was also pleased that on the penultimate
evening of the show, I was not one of the estimated 500 people waiting
for a cab at the Las Vegas Convention Centre.
The importance of the Chinese customer in Las Vegas - Lunar New Year decorations to welcome in the Year of the Dragon
The
sheer volume of human traffic must have generated some additional heat.
Even though this is wintertime in Vegas, the area immediately around
the Convention Center seemed to be a couple of degrees warmer than the
rest of the town when aggregating all the hundreds of thousands of
sweaty bodies. Of course the amount of BS and hot air originating from
the mouths of some of the attendees may have also been a contributing
factor to this local phenomenon.
Here are some interesting facts about CES:
- The Show is in its 44th year
- There were 3,100 exhibitors showing over 20,000 new products
- The show covered 1.861 million square feet of exhibit space and used three primary venues: The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), Venetian Hotel and Las Vegas Hotel (formerly The Las Vegas Hilton). Other locations were enrolled as hospitality suites and for Press Events - such as Showstopper at The Wynn, and Keynotes at the Venetian.
- More than 153,000 Attendees showed up, of which over 34,000 (22%) were International, and 17,000 Press.
Normally one has to pay big bucks to attend CES, but I was fortunate to be accredited with Industry Analyst status
classifying me as Press, and granted an all areas access pass. This was
extremely helpful since it permitted me preferential queuing for
Keynotes like Steve Ballmer's where I was number 9 in line, even though
this meant I had to arrive three hours early and then wait to get in.
Coincidentally it's worth noting that up until a few months ago the two
most powerful people in the Computer industry were both called Steve.
Now there's just one - but I'm very sure the memory of the other lived
on in spirit...
One
of the many interesting experiences I had @CES was actually queuing up
for the Ballmer Keynote and seeing people sitting on the floor and
working around me. Some grabbed the opportunity to rest, while others
networked as a passing magician entertained them, or someone volunteered
to clean and polish your smartphone. To avoid line cutting, control was
tight, but if you needed a bathroom break, a smartly dressed individual
- usually in a Morning Suit would stand in your space until you got
back from doing your business. From time to time, folks also passed by
and gave away some premiums like a ballpoint pen, logo stickers, hand
sanitizer and breath mints, but alas, no energy drinks, water or snacks.
I guess they need a little more Hospitality Service training...
Ballmer's Keynote (the last one for a while as Microsoft also takes a break from CES) is available online:
Here you can witness his excitement over many things to include the
Windows Phone, Windows 8 and what are now termed: Metro apps.
Another
interesting Keynote I attended was that of Paul Jacobs - Chairman of
the Board and CEO of Qualcomm - who appear to power the mobile Internet.
Honestly, it's quite astounding when you are a big company and have
almost unlimited marketing funds for the type of show you can put on.
You have the chance to utilize stupendous graphics, and have guest
appearances by A-listers such as Ryan Seacrest the MC for Ballmer, and
Stephen Elop CEO of Nokia plus Kermit from Sesame Street for Qualcomm.
We were even treated to a musical rendition of Trending Tweets by The
Tweet Choir. All manner of peeps are on-hand to lend support to your
cause. It's akin to attending a rock concert with a dash of the Shopping
Channel thrown in. Qualcomm's keynote can be watched here
Traipsing
the aisles as I did for four straight days, and gratefully losing a
couple of Kg in the process - I was both surprised and upset that some
companies did not like you to take pictures of their booths or products -
after all, why are they there if not to show off and promote their
wares?
One
such company that P-d me off, was selling ear buds fashioned as jewelry
items. The man in charge was quite offensive until I told him I needed
the pics as part of my show review. He insisted on getting my name card
(I gladly gave him one) so he could receive a copy - so here you are 'my friend' -
and I hope you like what I have to say. "You have a cute and innovative
product, but I'm sorry to say - your attitude leaves a lot to be
desired!" Actually, I partly blame the CES organizers for not correctly
briefing booth holders what the different color badges represent, and
the design of them. Regardless of whether I could or could not, I shot
over 600 photos some of which I'm sharing with you here in this BLOG and
have been regularly posting onto Facebook.
As
for the badges, pure Press had red color holders, and Industry Analysts
(like me) had grey ones - others had less costly clear plastic ones.
But another issue was that our badge holders were embossed with the BestBuy
logo, so some of the booth holders mistakenly thought we were actually
from BestBuy - and you can imagine their sheer delight at the sight of
us walking onto their booth, only to have the smile quickly wiped off
their faces when told we were not - at least I did. Some others with
fewer scruples may have led them on so as to get free swag.... Anyway,
perhaps for the 45th CES, the organizers can do a better job at briefing the exhibitors. After all, these things take time to filter through...
Talking
about ear buds - headphones of all shapes and sizes were everywhere!
But I noticed a lot of men sporting oversized earrings - practically the
size of M&M chocolates, some even shiny in texture almost like
cufflinks for the ears. I wonder why the ear bud and speaker
manufacturers haven't colluded into morphing these into mini
loudspeakers and maybe using Bluetooth to beam sound to them - these
people could become a whole new generation called "Boomears"...
Foodservice
was far from great @CES - and not surprisingly there were long lines
selling overpriced junk food like hot dogs, pizza and burgers. Trying to
be smart and sensible, I circumvented this and followed the philosophy
of BYO and did so with healthy snacks and a water bottle
with built-in filter. Maybe next CES along with some buddies we should
open a noodle or dim sum stand catering to the numerous Asian
participants many of whom I saw typically eating instant noodles. Could
be a chance to get rich quick...
As
I'm sure you've read in other articles, Apple (the tech industry's
superpower) was conspicuous by its absence, but essentially had one of
the largest virtual presences because their hardware is everywhere, and
companies are designing products and services around their IOS ecosystem
and product line.
For
example, in the North Hall of LVCC, I estimate that 50% of those
companies would not have been there if the iPhone or iPad had not been
invented. Although I'm told that in previous years this space catered to
such devices as the Palm Pilot and perhaps to a lesser extent, the
Blackberry - which incidentally did have a large booth at the show - but
sadly no one was on-hand to help fix my crapped out Blackberry BOLD
which left me with withdrawal symptoms for 10-days. Not surprising that
their top two Exec's have just stepped down.
In
fact, I have never seen or even could imagine that there so many ways
in which to cover, charge, connect, clean and polish, make water
resistant, listen to, enhance, augment, bling and otherwise accessorize
your "I" device. It was truly outrageous! Some companies just purely
focus on blinging out I-devices and had humongous booths - and one could
think disproportionate to the size of what they were selling. I know
the market must be big - but when seeing the stands I was astounded by
what must be the potential volume and residual profit.
Can't
help wonder though if there is some collusion going on between two of
the largest Korean CE (Consumer Electronics) manufacturers - Samsung and
LG. Why do I say this? Samsung have gained a very strong foothold in
the Smartphone and Tablet space, while LG are making spectacular
advances with OLED TV. Perhaps somewhere on the golf course or in a
downtown Karaoke Bar, policy makers have formed some kind of pact
whereby instead of both companies pouring billions of Korean Won into
the R&D of all products, they divide the space with one focusing on
mobility and the other on TVs... This is pure conjecture on my part, and not substantiated at all. But it does make you wonder.... Doesn't it?
One
must not lose sight of the fact that CES tries to cover a broad
spectrum of age categories from newborns to silver surfers. Newborns? I
hear you say - yes, there were even tech products specifically catering
to babies like digital weighing scales that can have various sensors
attached to them such as for monitoring heart rate and blood pressure
etc. And as for Silver Surfers (60+), I saw one system that handled
computer-less email - similar to a fax machine in design.
Late
afternoon of Day Two I walked from LVCC to the Wynn for the
Showstoppers event - an invitation-only session for Press to review in
one location a few hundred of the products on display at CES - a kind of
meet-the-press. During the walk I was attracted to an illuminated sign
saying Cigar Shop. Well, as you know I have a passion for all things
organic and in my esteemed opinion, cigars are the embodiment, so I made
a detour and stopped off at Don Pablo Cigars
on Las Vegas Boulevard. While enjoying my freshly rolled cigar (they
are rolled in-store by expert Dominican Republic rollers) and chatting
with owners Eric Boye and Marlene Moreau, in walked a celeb - John Salley - NBA Champion and TV Host.
Anyway,
John and I got talking and during the short conversation he mentioned
about being a vegan and would in fact be doing a Cooking demonstration
the following day with Allison Fishman (Cooking Teacher and Cookbook
author) at the Haier booth where he was going to be promoting healthy
eating and using their induction cooker - watch the entertaining video here: Thanks John for also remembering me during your interview.
A specific device that caught my attention @CES was the Pico projector
- these are small tabletop LCD projectors that since their first launch
a few short years ago have made leaps and bounds in regards picture
clarity and pricing. Several vendors had these on display, and one such
company had six connected together in three pairs of two with images
stitched together so that they formed a video wall - it was very kool!
Gotta get me a new one of those - mine is a 1st GEN.
More
than one company exhibited Transparent TVs - which are basically clear
glass screens which you could look through when the power was OFF, but
when ON, showed a regular TV picture. I believe they do this by sending a
signal from the sides. I have some difficulty in understanding how to
position these (in Hotels) unless you have a beautiful wall behind it,
and would allow you to see through under certain circumstances. Having
said that, this is one item that's not on my short-term wish list.
Some
of the vendors operating in the music space and there were quite a few
employed DJ's on their booths, and you could witness them at first hand
mixing and scratching - combining state-of-the-art MP3s and traditional
LPs. Perhaps in another life I could envisage myself doing that...It
looked like a lot of fun. Oh yeah and try this one for size. Imagine a
Guitar that's really an iPad case, and where you would normally pluck
the strings, an iPad has been inserted (into the Guitar) and you
actually run your fingers over the iPad screen which then simulates the
sound through the Guitars externally connected amplifier.
Gesturing
and speech control was fairly prevalent at the show - and some
companies demonstrated controlling a computer with either brainwaves or
the movement of your eyes. Whilst an interesting idea especially for the
physically challenged, I question the wisdom and practicality of these
devices as this could turn us into even more of a couch potato.
A
few of the other interesting gizmos included a small 360 degree camera
that fits onto the back of a smartphone - these could be particularly
useful if you wanted to video a Board Meeting, or perhaps both sides of
an Interview using just one camera.
Another was the 4G LTE Modem, which can create a mobile hotspot and as one vendor said to me; "very popular amongst business travellers since the user can avoid paying (exorbitant) Hotel Broadband charges".
On that note, I believe Bandwidth usage in Hotels will decrease as
(SMART) Guests BYOI (Bring Your Own Internet) with these 4G LTE Modems.
And as people increasingly tether smartphones (it is rumored Apple is
going to release a Gigabit Wi-Fi enabled device very soon) then this
will be another game changer.
Prototype
cars had a special place @CES, with models by Ford, Audi, Kia and
Mercedes-Benz. Some other companies exhibited elements of new car
designs to include head-up displays and integration with devices like
the iPhone (see what I mean about Apple being there even if they
weren't). Electric and hybrid seem to be the way of the future for cars.
Some
of the companies in the car audio section showed off such powerful
sound systems that the surrounding floor shook so violently you'd think
an earthquake just hit Las Vegas.
Another
celebrity hit the stands -Justin Bieber made a guest appearance to show
off a dancing robot that mimics his moves. This would no doubt be
popular with the teenybopper crowd. Sadly, I missed that event. Sob Sob.
Thin
is in: Meaning we saw a slew of new Notebooks akin to the MBA (MacBook
Air) - often classified as Ultrabooks, which actually is a category that
does not officially exist - more of a marketing term used by some
vendors like INTEL...
Some
of the popular Tech shows staged live broadcasts from CES to include:
TWIT, CNET, Engadget and Gizmodo.... Unfortunately, no one took up the
golden opportunity to interview me. Maybe next time... Hint Hint.
A little lightheartedness - I thought of re-classifying CES to:
- Consumer Exploitation Show
- Consumer Experience Show
- Connect Everything Show
- Capitalize Emotions Show
- Consume or Conserve Electricity Show
Some of the TECH trends you could glean from CES:
- Mobility - SMARTer Phones + Tablets
- Wireless Connectivity between devices and to the Internet + Gigabit Wi-Fi 802.11ac
- OLED TV - 2D and 3D - with 8K resolution
- Gaming on mobile devices + TV
- Surface and Touch technology
- Human interface - Voice control and Gesturing
- Home automation
- Large headphones a.k.a. Cans
- Car Automation - to include mobile connectivity and driver assistance
- Blinging your devices
- MedTech
- Collaboration via the Cloud
- 3D Printing
For me, and I also guess for a lot of
others, it was not hard to decide what was the best thing at the show -
and I subsequently found out that this was also the case for the voting
panel of CES - it was the LG 55-inch OLED TV. Quite stunning and I can
envisage this being in the homes of many people in the not to distant
future - as well as some Hotels.
Now that CES is over, and I've said my goodbyes to Las Vegas, this is one time when I hope the famous saying does not come true - "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"....
Hasta la vista!
Note: Links in this article do not support or endorse any product or service and are meant for illustration purposes only
(c) Terence Ronson ISHC
26th January 2012
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