Consumer Electronics Show or CES as its more commonly known is the worlds largest and most intense technology show. The event is held annually in Las Vegas in Nevada and has been in existence since 1967. This posting is really aimed at anyone attending for the first time and some words of wisdom having done the show several times.
The basics
The first thing to try and grasp is how vast the show is. There are 3000+ stands/exhibitors on around 2.6 million square feet of floor space. There will be 5000+ journalists covering the event and the show regularly attracts 150,000 attendees. Its just huge and often overwhelming for the first time visitor. Because of the size its hard to get the most out of it without research and planning. Its not the kind of show you can just roll up and wing it.
Microsoft and Apple do not attend the event (they have done in the past), these days they have their own bespoke events to evangelise their tech - but every other tech company on the planet seems to be there so its a very good barometer of the whole tech space and what is hot/not.
Survival Advice
You need to be comfortable with crowds. The sheer number of people means that you wont be able to find or protect much in the way of personal space.
Learn to love queues. You're going to be queuing for everything! Cabs, coffee, food - nothing is going to come quick.
Organise rendevouz points with colleagues so you can coordinate meeting up in the crowds.
Choose your shoes carefully. You're going to be standing and walking a lot. Avoid new shoes. Go for worn in shoes ideally with thick rubber soles. Typically you can end up walking 5-6 miles a day.
Think about what you really need and try and travel light. My normally heavy backpack gets stripped right back so I'm carrying bare minimum.
If you're hoping to attend some of the parties, they're mainly invite only but if you're interested check out this list.
Any internet connection available will be running completely at max so don't be surprised if you can't connect to what's provided. If you have a MiFi then take it. SMS is going to be the best way of getting hold of anyone at short notice or in the event of an emergency.
There is a lot of "free stuff" so leave some space in your case so you can lug it home. Alternatively shipping it in the post can make sense (you don't have to carry it) but check the costs as it could be expensive.
Las Vegas is in the middle of the desert and therefore dry, take lip balm if your prone to dry skin. Likewise make sure you have bottled water in your bag.
My CES Week
Sunday: Arrive and try and manage the jet-lag
Monday: Collect badge and do a test run of walking between various locations to see how long it takes and to make sure I can get between appointments in plenty of time.
Tuesday: Show floor opens - walk the show floor to make notes on things to come back to, where they are and how to get to them - ready for Friday.
Wednesday: Back to back meetings
Thursday: Back to back meetings
Friday: Take the notes from Tuesday and go and look in more detail at the things I'm specifically interested in. The crowd is significantly less on the Friday which makes it easier.
