In addition to my thoughts yesterday, one more thought that may be obvious to many, but perhaps not all -- i.e., CES is NOT just about walking the floors to see the gadgets (more like stumbling and bumbling around the seas of people to peak over someone's shoulder). In fact, few of the gadgets this year really blew me away.
For me, the single most important reason to attend CES, by far, is the face-to-face meeting. As I pointed out yesterday, seemingly "everyone" was at CES this year. That means we had a rare opportunity to efficiently accelerate multiple business discussions in one single 4-day stretch (rather than be forced to individually schedule and meet all of those companies throughout the globe). And, THAT alone is worth the significant investment of time to attend -- and flights, hotels, meals, etc.
Yes, we have technology to help bridge the geographical gap for business meetings (I previously ran live video communications company SightSpeed that touted the business power of that technology). But, nothing will ever replace the power of the good old-fashioned face-to-face meeting.
This year, nine of us attended CES from Sorenson Media. And, each of us essentially had a continuous string of productive face-to-face meetings. THAT is the unique power of CES. THAT is why we will continue to attend year after year. Yes, there are many conferences throughout the year -- too many! But, CES seems to be the one place that attracts everyone. Real business gets done. (The key is active and aggressive follow-up after the dust settles ...)
