My friends and I headed out to Las Vegas for the weekend to attend the 2009 International CES at the Las Vegas Convention Center. CES stands for Consumer Electronics Show and is the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow. It is hosted by the CEA, which is the Consumer Electronics Association. In order to get in, you have to be affiliated with the consumer electronics industry. It is not open to the general public.
Oh, and yes, that is me posing with a free can of Coke Zero 
I’ve been waiting for this to come around since I registered back in October. The tradeshow is so massive that it spans all of the convention center and trickles over to the Sands Expo and the Venetian. I don’t even know if it’s possible to go through every single portion of the tradeshow since it took my friends and I two days to get through the Central and South Halls of the convention center. Even though we didn’t get to go to everything, it was an amazing experience.
Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera the first day because I didn’t know what the camera policies were for the tradeshow. On their Web site, it said that it was only for certain media personnel with credentials, but once I got into the show, everyone had their cameras 
Sad face! I did manage to take some pictures of South Halls on our second day there. I must say, to the security guard that joked with me about no photography at the show and chuckling 10 seconds after that, I hope karma gets you. That wasn’t funny
This place is like a technology wonderland! So many shinies everywhere. For the first day, we went around the Gaming and Digital Imaging markets. I was totally excited over the Digital Imaging market hall since their was a huge Wacom booth there! Playing around with the Cintiq and an interactive pen display mod for a MacBok was so fun. Some highlights from the first day: I won an 8 GB iPod Nano from Intersil D2Audio for winning a match of Guitar Hero. Sweet! Also, Lester placed in a Mirror’s Edge competition at NVIDIA. Another thing to add: free coffee at Qualcomm was a lifesaver. It sure beats having to go to Starbucks for your coffee break.
And now, some pictures from our second day:
Nathan trying out the 3rd Space Gaming Vest for FPS games: when you get shot or hit, the impact hits you right back!
Would anyone want that in their room?
A view of the lower level of South Halls.
We are here!
Making our way over to the Central Halls.
After slightly perusing back over to the South Halls to get some coffee, we finally made our way over to the Central Halls. When I got in, I was totally overwhelmed because of the first things I see:
Giant Intel display of doom!
Giant Microsoft display of doom!
And as if that wasn’t overwhelming enough, I walked down even further and saw the following:
A really huge display of LCD monitors from Samsung!
Up close with the giant display.
One really thin LED TV. I don’t remember how thin it was, but it was pretty darn thin.
Getting a Coke from a touch screen vending machine.
At Toshiba. They had a really pretty Mirror’s Edge custom skinned laptop. Do want.
Eco-friendly TVs! And I’m not paying attention to the camera ;x
Giant Canon booth full of their latest cameras and camcorders. I felt like a little kid running around and grabbing their pamphlets.
Sony’s enormous booth. From laptops to PS3s to camcorders to just about anything. They even showed some new VAIOs in the works!
Sony VAIO Lifestyle PC. It’s only 8″!
Sharp’s 108″ LCD Monitor. It makes the Bravia at home look so tiny ;_; What would you do with 108″ of LCD goodness?
LG’s Mobile Phone Watch. I’d feel like Dick Tracy if I had one of these for myself.
Windows 7! Are any of you trying out the beta for it right now? If so, are you liking it so far?
Leaving the convention center. Until next time!
I’m hoping to come back to it next year and map out where I want to head off to better. This year, I went in blind and perused whatever I saw was interesting. Now that I know what to expect, I’ll come back more prepared. Heck, I still have tons of literature and freebies I need to sort through! Maybe it’ll help me make some decisions on what to get for myself in the future (like that Lumix LX3 I spied at the Panasonic booth and intuos 3 at the Wacom booth).
Tags: consumer electronics, Convention, international ces, Las Vegas, Technology, tradeshow
@999hp
Images! Yay images.Oh and I actually stayed at the Venetian. What was it? The year before last year?
@Lene-chan: Wow, pretty sweet stuff! The electronics too! Haha. But still, seems kinda sparse compared to Tokyo’s Comiket, doesn’t it? Then again, that’s probably a good thing. And maybe I should find a new job in the (adult entertainment indus~ oops, I meant) consumer electronics industry? Any suggestions? >_<xJAYMANx’s last blog post..Blog 184 > Rewind in Anime, Myself & I
@Seija: Images yay! How was your stay at the Venetian?@Jay: I’d loooove to go to Comiket. But first, I must actually make my first trip to Japan one of these days ;xAs for suggestions… XD booth babe for gaming! How would that translate for guys, though? Booth studs? Booth hunks? Booth gods? 8D;
@Lene-chan: Yeah, me too, I’d love to visit Japan someday… But suggestions~ I think you’re being too literal, hehe. Not a job at the actual *show* or *convention*, but a job in the *field* of consumer electronics…. I dunno *where* your head’s been, hahaha… But really, booth studs? >o<xJAYMANx’s last blog post..Blog 184 > Rewind in Anime, Myself & I
But I love the idea of booth studs! ;x lolllI was just messing around hahaha. What were you looking into?
free coke zero is fine. want one as well. (‘~’)initially i thought it was a spelling mistake when u said LED TV (thought was LCD). never heard of it until now. ^^;gordon’s last blog post..gordonator.com Survived it’s First Year
@Lene: It was fun. I actually like taking showers there compared to other hotels I’ve been at. I think I told you already that I gambled in Vegas, but I did gamble at the Venetian.Whether or not I’ll go to Japan soon, I don’t know. Oh and I think the proper term would be “booth boys”. Ha ha ha!
@Gordon: It’s ok, I thought it was a spelling mistake too when I saw it, but it is, indeed an LED TV. In fact, it’s an LED LCD TV (eech, too many acronyms lol). It’s said to be more eco-friendly than regular LED TVs with its “higher contrast ratios, slimmer designs, and lower power consumption.”Soon, TVs will be as thin as paper *_*;;@Seija: Glad to know the showers were good there. The drain at the Grandview sucked
5 minutes into the shower and it’s like you’re swimming.lolll booth boys XD
@Seija: So I should work as a “booth boy”? LOL!@Lene-chan: Dohhh! Wasn’t *really* searching, but that’s the only way to get into the CES, right? Well, gimme an idea of what’s hot-and-not for technical writers/editors in that sector… Never stayed in its suites, but the Venetian is one of my faves. Love the indoor water canals!P.S. Paper thin? Yeah, eventually, TVs will come as decals you can stick on your forearm! ^o^xJAYMANx’s last blog post..Blog 184 > Rewind in Anime, Myself & I
@Gordon: I think I heard of them? Don’t think about them a lot though.@Lene-chan & Jay: They both start with the letter “B”, just like “booth babe”. So, it makes sense. Pretty catchy, na? wwwwwww
@Jay: Hmm, I actually don’t know what’s hot-or-not for technical writers/editors ;_; gomen. Only thing that comes to mind is writing up documentation for companies in the industry? I don’t even know if I’m making sense orz orzGoing to the Venetian at 10PM and coming back out distorted my internal clock ;x lol
Touch screen coke machine = best of show!
@Lene-chan: Ah, no worries, lol. Then again, anything that’s *hot* in electronics right now probably *won’t* be in 6 months. And I shouldn’t say this, but who reads those user’s guides anyway, hehe…. Distorted clock? Ah yeah, the bright blue *sky*! When did u come out? Midnight? ^o^
what the heck! haha i live in vegas and i did absolutely nothing that weekend, oh My you should have told me you went! i wanted to go there, just not alone haha crap!
What?! When did you move there?! Aww, boo. If I had known, we could've met somewhere along the weekend hahah.Dude, you should totally make it out next time. I flipped out so much in the digital imaging hall. It felt like heaven to me