Hey folks,
So after a not great holiday break (see previous post) I went back to work Jan. 3 and right into CES coverage. For those who may be unfamiliar, it’s the Consumer Electronics Show and it’s always first thing in January. It’s like having 20 Apple announcements back to back for four days in a row. Some years you get a few days before it starts, sometimes close to a week! This year, no. It started Tuesday the 3rd.
CES is fun. There’s loads of interesting tech and it’s always cool to see what’s new. I’ve been covering it since 2001 so not that much is new each year, but there’s always something. This year it was interesting to see so much more smart home tech, especially things like EcoFlow’s backup batteries. Then there’s the things that I dismiss at first and become hits of the show. That Lenovo Yoga 9i with the double screen looked pretty similar to other stuff I’ve seen in the past, even from Lenovo itself. But it must have really looked good in person because it got BUZZ.
And there’s the rub. I didn’t go in person. CES is HARD. It’s hard to get around. Hard on your feet. Hard to cover. So I don’t go in person anymore. It’s still hard to cover because there is so much. But not going means I don’t have the additional difficulty of walking around and fighting through crowds. So in the end while it really was a lot of work, I don’t feel nearly as drained as I have when I’ve been there in person.
But I feel a little bit guilty about that. This year DTNS tried a new thing. We sent two people who have never covered CES before to cover it. Rich and Amos. And they ROCKED it. You never would have known. The tech worked. The info was great. And I know they also discovered how hard it is. Didn’t matter. They prevailed. They won CES. Hopefully that won’t dissuade them from going next year. But if they do, I know they’ll have an even better idea how to cover it than this year. So hats off— no shoes off — to their aching feet! And a great job by the home team too, Roger, Joe and Sarah also had hard weeks and came through with flying colors. Go Team DTNS!
OK enough of my CES debriefing. Thanks all.
Talk to you next week. On into 2023!
Tom