Kurt Shintaku's Blog

I’m here at Las Vegas at CES, attending this conference for the first time as an attendee and not as a exhibitor.

Registering as an attendee sucks
First of all, DAMN.  Not having exhibitor ‘powers’ sucks.  You’re blocked from going everywhere I’d normally be going.  The booth setup areas.  The technology review areas.  The Microsoft information booth.  Our exhibitor stash of water and snacks.

Second of all, let me say that if you’re an attendee and your hotel doesn’t have registration onsite, you’re basically up %$#@ creek.  CES attendee registration is somewhere past Tijuana near as I can tell:  I had to walk nearly a mile (I’m not joking… I walked clear around the entire convention center, which if you’ve ever done that at the Las Vegas Convention Center, it’s like taking the EcoChallenge through dirt, concrete, puddles of water, and GES Union Contractors) to get from the front Central Hall entrance to registration.  Y’see while Exhibitor Registration is up in front where the taxis let people off, Attendee Registration for some asinine reason is in the back end of South Hall was is directly opposite from the Central Hall entrance.  I had to walk past the loading docks for all the incoming cargo, which incidentally was really interesting to see who’s gear was being loaded up. 

In any case, CES’s planners really screwed up the placement of the attendee registration location and meanwhile, no one at CES’s information booths knew where attendee registration was.  I asked 6 different people and I got 6 different answers.  It was awful.  Most people got their materials in the mail.  Meanwhile, of course I didn’t receive anything so I had to go get them myself on site. 

[Edit:  I later concluded after a little investigating that that the attendee registration location that used to be out in front appears to have been sold to vendors as highly valued & coveted exhibitor space, hence the reason they moved attendee registration, a necessary yet non-revenue generating facility to outer Mongolia.]

…then I later found out that my hotel had a small registration booth for CES back in the corner but because I never got any registration materials, I didn’t know that.  How’s that for a catch 22?  GRRR.

Observations
Couple observations about CES so far.

1. Supposedly over 120,000 attendees are here.  Wait until you see my report on the Bill Gates keynote.
2. It’s a little chilly!  Should have brought warmer clothes but I like the cold in general so it sort of works out for me. 
3. Arriving early was SMART.  I flew in at 7:30AM and that was a stroke of genius because it was cool and there wasn’t sun beating down on you while you’re lugging your luggage around the airport taxi area, and also the taxi lines were no more than 3 minute waits.
4. The event is getting too big.  I’m sorry but it’s like Comdex was except with lots of stuff thrown in from every nook and cranny of the consumer electronics industry.  You find that in your planning, if you have a field of interest, you’ll probably have to jump from hall to hall and it’s really inconvenient.  It really should be two separate conventions – how you divide it up, I don’t know but it’s massive and judging by the overlapping areas (games and mobility, console gaming and online services, etc.) it’s going to continue to get out of control.
   (Nonetheless, it’s still a geek’s paradise.)
5. This is a trade show.  I never actually knew that but apparently, you have to be "affiliated with the industry" just like E3.  Fortunately, I fall into that category.
6. Bloggers get special privileges here at keynote functions and stuff.  Too bad I didn’t register as a blogger.
7. There are a lot of… well… non-technical folk here.  I mean a LOT.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that of course but let’s just say that I’ve run into my fair share of of people that are either complete noobs to the electronics/computer convention scene who just want to take the time to bitch about "how they hate Vegas" or they "wish their boss didn’t make them come"… or otherwise don’t seem to "get" what CES is supposed to be all about and how it can be a great opportunity for discovery and sales if you let it.

More later on Bill Gates’ keynote, which was apparently his last before he "retires".