Who Goes To CES?

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Posted by samzenpus on Thursday January 12, 2012 @08:18AM from the besides-timothy-that-is dept.

itwbennett writes "The Consumer Electronics Association stopped letting actual consumers attend the gadget extravaganza years ago, but even so, plenty of attendees can't exactly be described 'industry affiliates'. IDG News Service turned up a motorcycle stuntman, a restorer of 8-track tapes, and a lot of folks who were there just for fun."

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Used to go.... by Xenious · 2012-01-12 08:21 · Score: 2

I started going to CES when Comdex stopped happening, but I haven't gone in years. No travel budget.

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-Xen
Having worked at a few CES booths... by Kenja · 2012-01-12 08:29 · Score: 3, Informative

Those that go there are they with a product to hawk and the money to rent the space at the show. Nothing more really. Lots of crap-ware there from groups trying to get some quick bucks from investors or resellers.

--

"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Duh. by tekrat · 2012-01-12 08:37 · Score: 4, Insightful

I've been attending "industry-only" events for decades. All you need is a business card, which as you know, you can have made at Staples for $20 or less. You tell then you're a "buyer" or something like that, and they let you in, no questions asked.
Heck, last time I attended CES you were able to pick up your badge AT THE AIRPORT in Vegas. Hows that for convenience? I was able to have a badge handed to me before I could locate my luggage.

--
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
1. Re:Duh. by bhcompy · 2012-01-12 08:40 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Well, for E3 they're supposed to verify your company actually exists and is in the industry. Some years they try to enforce these regulations, most years they don't. In my experience, if you prepay they're check you, but if you get your ticket from a 3rd party, they don't check shit when you register.
2. Re:Duh. by benjamindees · 2012-01-12 08:55 · Score: 2
  
  Heck, last time I attended CES you were able to pick up your badge AT THE AIRPORT in Vegas. Hows that for convenience?
  Convention organizers are always looking for choke points as a place to set up shop. Ideally you want a place where everyone comes through, but not all at the same time. For a huge convention, the airport is pretty much perfect.
  
  --
  "I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
same as e3 by bhcompy · 2012-01-12 08:37 · Score: 4, Interesting

It's the same thing that E3 devolved into, really. A big dog and pony show with 50% the population of attendees made up of people that shouldn't be there, 49% made up of press and pseudopress bloggers, and 1% made up of people that should actually be there.
1. Re:same as e3 by MyFirstNameIsPaul · 2012-01-12 08:41 · Score: 2
  
  It's the same thing that E3 devolved into
  And COMDEX.
  
  --
  I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
2. Re:same as e3 by LordLucless · 2012-01-12 11:08 · Score: 2
  
  IMO - someone who publishes articles, as you'd expect press to do, but actually has no readers. In other words, the majority of the blogosphere.
  
  --
  Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
Re:CES also had some unofficial [Apple] spies... by chispito · 2012-01-12 08:47 · Score: 3, Funny

..., that's right, despite the fact that Apple did not officially attend.
Gotta get those patent suits started early.

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The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
Re:CES also had some unofficial [Apple] spies... by ravenscar · 2012-01-12 08:47 · Score: 2

Spies? Choosing not to exhibit does not mean that you can't view the other exhibits. I'd also note that it's a stretch to call viewing anything that is out in the open at CES spying.
It's been the case for years... by TaliesinWI · 2012-01-12 08:50 · Score: 3, Informative

Was able to get into the Winter CES in Chicago back in the early 90s just because I was a register drone at Babbage's (computer software and video game store for you youngn's.) I think they had me down as "buyer" even though I had nothing to do with what the company stocked. Hell a buddy of mine who built PCs in his basement got in with a "technician" badge. As long as you didn't show up with children in tow and could ask reasonably coherent questions they were mostly happy to deal with people that were a half step above "Joe Q. Public."
1. Re:It's been the case for years... by Oakey · 2012-01-12 14:03 · Score: 2
  
  There used to be an Amusement Arcade Exhibition held in Blackpool every Easter at the Winter Gardens where they demo'd all the upcoming arcade games. I went every year from the mid-80s to the mid-90s (I was going between 6yrs and 14yrs old) when they stopped holding them. Most memorable year was when Mortal Kombat was first shown, I took a friend that year and nobody believed us when we told them how violent it was. Then a few months later it was all the rage. We also got a lot of cool stuff from Capcom that year.
  
  --
  "Dre don't get as high as me.... I'm Cheech and Chong" - Snoop Dogg
Re:Who wants to go? by noh8rz2 · 2012-01-12 09:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

actually, it was more interesting when the adult entertainment expo was happening next door.
Re:Who wants to go? by uniquename72 · 2012-01-12 09:02 · Score: 2

I live in Vegas and get a free pass every year. I can either go to CES or sit in a cubicle -- either way, I get paid.

So I go to CES.
Re:Who wants to go? by elrous0 · 2012-01-12 09:09 · Score: 4, Funny

The kind who knows that I go early every year and rub my balls on everything.

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SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Re:CES also had some unofficial [Apple] spies... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-12 09:25 · Score: 2, Informative

And steal what they can before other products hit the market. So they can "revolutionize" whatever they put on the market next.
Past attendee by khellendros1984 · 2012-01-12 09:53 · Score: 3, Interesting

I went in 2007 as an unemployed student. A group of us printed business cards labelled with our Computer Science club's name, made up positions for everyone, and drove to Vegas. Most of the others got "engineering" badges. I think it was required for at least one "sales" person to go...and I ended up with that badge.

--
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Missing the obvious... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-12 09:55 · Score: 2, Insightful

If only 1% of the attendees that go to these kinds of tradeshows are the "right" attendees and the rest are a bunch of folks fibbing their way in or otherwise finding the loophole, is that not demonstrating a desire in the marketplace for the other 99% who attend (consumers?) who WANT to attend this type of show?
In my opinion, maybe they are missing an opportunity to host purely consumer facing tradeshows as contrasted with "industry only" ones.
I for one think CES' policy has been beneficial - they've gotten a lot more consumers in the door than planned but it's usually good for business.
1. Re:Missing the obvious... by Obfuscant · 2012-01-12 12:20 · Score: 2
  
  If only 1% of the attendees that go to these kinds of tradeshows are the "right" attendees and the rest are a bunch of folks fibbing their way in or otherwise finding the loophole, is that not demonstrating a desire in the marketplace for the other 99% who attend (consumers?) who WANT to attend this type of show?
  That may be true.
  
  In my opinion, maybe they are missing an opportunity to host purely consumer facing tradeshows as contrasted with "industry only" ones.
  For there to be a "purely consumer facing tradeshow", you need two things. First, consumers who want to come. You appear to have that.
  But more important, you need vendors who want to spend the time and money displaying wares TO THE CONSUMERS at such a show. That's what you don't have.
  But let's say you find a bunch of vendors who would come to such a show. Since the intended target has changed, their presentation would change, and you'd lose the interest of the consumers in attending a "special" show like that.
  People come to CES for the swag, which is fallout of the vendors sucking up to qualified buyers. If the audience changes from qualified buyers to general public, the vendors will change tactics, too. Isn't that just what happened to COMDEX?
NAB is better by soundguy · 2012-01-12 10:01 · Score: 4, Interesting

CES is mainly a bunch of useless consumer crap. The high end of that market, plus all the professional gear is at NAB. It's the same megavendors and the display spaces are almost identical for both shows, but NAB has much cooler stuff on display.

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Nothing worthwhile ever happens before noon
1. Re:NAB is better by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-12 14:46 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Mod GP up.
  That list the parent linked is a who's fucking who of the content creation and distribution industry. Players like Sony, Panasonic, JVC, Canon, RED, Avid, Christie, Grass Valley, etc. These guys make the cameras that capture and record the content. They make the post-production systems that edit and finish it. They make the high-end displays and broadcast monitors that common televisions that you see at CES are derived from.
  Without the content generation industry and the $BIG BUCKS$ behind it, simple consumer gear that you see at CES would be mostly irrelevant.
  Remember that the "customers" at NAB are people like NBC, CBS, BBC, CNN, etc, and their affiliate stations, and the gear they buy and the money they are willing to spend on quality equipment dwarves the cheap crap that ends up in a consumer's home for bargain basement prices. And by "quality equipment", I mean things like remote HD cameras with helicopter mounts for the local traffic/news channel that will broadcast live via satellite to a terrestrial broadcast station. Real expensive shit.
  Like the GP said, much cooler stuff on display.
Re:The joy of CES by Dahamma · 2012-01-12 10:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

You are clearly not doing it right, then.
Last time I went (technically as an exhibitor, but I was mostly setting up and mantaining hardware for demos) I ate for free at 4-5 ridiculously expensive restaurants. The final night we managed to spend over $200 per person at N9NE, hit two different clubs, hung out with some really interesting/bizarre "attendees" of the *other* conference (AVN) at the Venetian, and somehow managed to stumble back to the hotel room at 7am just in time to catch a cab to the airport. THAT'S how you do CES...
I went a couple years ago, just BS'd the reg form by sco_robinso · 2012-01-12 10:37 · Score: 2

I went in Jan 2007, since I was going to be in Vegas the whole week anyways on vacation... I thought it would be really cool to see something as big as CES. It was indeed impressive. It's just so big and lively that I would consider it bucket-list material for any techy type.

But I'm just a lowly ol' sysadmin - I have nothing to do with the consumer electronics industry, other than working with a lot of the stuff in my day to day IT life. I just went to the CEA's website, signed myself up as a 'product buyer', and that was it - registration was auto-accepted and got in no problem. I even skipped the $99 fee because I registered early.

When I was there, my nametag said 'Buyer', so sometimes people would ask me what kind of industry/company I was a buyer for, so I just spewed a bit of BS. Depending on the booth or gadget in question, this actually worked to my favor. I got a lot of good info on some products I was interested in. I even came right at doors-open on the first day, and entered myself into a bunch of earlybird draws. I went to the slingbox exhibit and I my business card was one of two that got drawn for the (at the time) highest-end slingbox device. Despite the 50/50 odds, I lost. True story though!

tl;dr - I BS'd and got in no problem.
Microsoft did the smart thing by Albert+Sandberg · 2012-01-12 10:58 · Score: 2

I think MicroSoft actually got more from the fuzz of not going to CES than any other company actually being there is going to get.
Proof: The only thing I know about CES this year is that MicroSoft won't be there...
Re:CES also had some unofficial [Apple] spies... by SeaFox · 2012-01-12 19:57 · Score: 2

Yes, they're being soooo secretive they had one of their most recognizable living executives go...