buzzbishop
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Sure there is the big show floor of the Consumer Electronics Show that is packed with booths, demos, celebs and official announcements, but there are other ways to get your gadget on at CES. Just wander and you'll see new ideas everywhere.
OUTSIDE
Why are these not everywhere? Bus stops, city libraries, public parks, etc. Anywhere that is outside and has a high traffic flow could easily have a solar charging station to help people top up.
Still others wander the floor and plaza looking for influential nametags to shove a product in their pocket and get their story told. That's how one of my colleagues met
SIDESHOWS
Then there are the unofficial CES shows that happen in hotel ballrooms. A few dozen companies are gathered together by PR companies to hold demos for the press. It's a much more intimate convention experience. The booths are smaller, the demos more readily available and no appointments are necessary. (Oh, did I mention it's open bar?)
The two big events are Pepcom's Digital Experience and Showstoppers.
The big stories there were the likes of Aurasma, an augmented reality app that adds user generated content into the mix. Think QR codes that people can do. In London alone there are more than 2000 tagged buildings that, when viewed through the app, have additional video content added.
Aurasma's demo included video highlights of a sports team playing just by scanning a logo, a movie trailer popping off a magazine cover, and a business card that can come to life with personal messages. It's a truly groundbreaking application of augmented reality that was a Best in CES finalist.
Yurbuds got the ballroom's attention by having their demo athlete perform capoeira moves with these athletic buds perfectly in place. If you like to listen to music when you work out, you know that the little white earbuds tend to hurt after a while and can constantly slip out when you sweat. Not the Yurbuds. Just put them in, make a quarter turn and they're locked in place.
These headphones are endorsed by Ironman and saw throngs of people coming to the booth for demos. Our camera guys wore them for 3 days straight on the show floor and never complained of discomfort. Because they rest just on the inner part of your ear, but not inside your ear, you can actually here more of the ambient noise around you - making them perfect for cycling and running.
It was also at Showstoppers where Lenovo unveiled it's new Intel powered phone and showed off Windows 8, even the official booth Microsoft booth wouldn't let you play with it, but these guys did. They had it running on their new Yogabook, a laptop that flips all the way around and turns into tablet.
ESPIONAGE
After one company unveiled a new screen display, engineers from another company tried to get up to the screen with a loop to view the pixel structure.
Still others were caught with calipers measuring the thickness (or thinness) of a competitor's panel. That's why you have the velvet rope and the engineers who invent the new products are never far away from their baby.
Toss that into the more than 200 Apple execs that were walking around the LVCC and you see that it's all about keeping an eye on the other guy.
CELEBS
Then there are the celebrities wandering the halls and other events. While I saw Seth Green stroll in to set up shop at Showdogg, and walked the red carpet at the Monster event just behind Akon, I missed the likes of Bieber, Snooki, 50 Cent, Ludacris and Urkel.
Still, I'm glad I got to chat with Xzibit and grab a photo op with Flava Flav. Yeaaaaah boyyyyy.
See you at CES 2013, where I promise I'll brush up on my french in case I have to do one of these again:
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