The Consumer Electronics Show was great. I liked Bill Gates keynote address about his vision of a business office with off the shelf products in five years. He offered a reasonable model for educators to use in presenting visions of learning and schools in five years.
Met many talented, innovative and productive people on the floor and at the Tablet PC and bloggers gathering Friday evening. Ages ranged almost 60 years, from teens to 70! Wow! It was good to hear such enthusiasm among software developers, evangelists, business executives, and bloggers/press. Wish my body had allowed me to participate more. From my sometimes view from the corner of the room, it looked as though everyone had a good time. Hope I can attend again next year.
Rob Bushway, James Kendrick, Robert Scoble, Lora, Loren, Layne, Sarah and Elizabeth and many others offer interesting samples of life at CES 2006. Here are a few additional observations.
Saw Bill Gates leaning against the Microsoft Video kiosk early Thursday AM, maybe 10 minutes after the doors to the floor opened for general admission. I looked once at him, kept walking, then looked again this time into each other’s eyes, kept walking, and looked a third time to make sure that it was Bill. I nodded once to him (that’s a country boy slight dropping of my head and chin). He chucked up his head and chin to me in acknowledgment (that’s an urban boy acknowledgment). It was a guy thing with both of us smiling slightly. I kept walking to the Lonovo kiosk. When I looked back a third time, I did not see him. So I’ll say now, Hello, Bill. Good to see you surveying the MS domain. Hope you saw the swarms around the Tablet PC kiosk across the empty spaces around Windows Live and MS Video spaces.
Saw an interesting variety of ways companies presented their products on the CES grounds. Next Generation offered an intriguing display of a smart house using existing off the shelf products. I wonder who’s assembling a similar display for a smart school using off the shelf products.
Within five minutes after seeing Bill Gates, I saw Guy Kawasaki at a Tablet PC kiosk tapping keys, stroking a digital pen, and talking with Emily from MS and others at that swamped station.
The Intel display on the main floor appeared open and inviting to me. Next to it, the Motorola area appeared conjested. Between the two, the Microsoft area appeared dark, crowded with stuff (not people), and uninviting from the moment I stepped onto the floor from the front entrance.
Saw more people throughout the 28 football fields of display floor over the age of 60 than I remember seeing last year and at other tech conferences this year. That is probably the fastest demographic growth cohort and the wealthist cohort in the country. I did not see any memorable products addressing that older age cohort at CES.
Saw more dark business suits on Wednesday and Thursday AM than the rest of the time with most attendees wearing casual business attire. Saw very few caps and hats worn anywhere. Noticed only one person wearing a skirt anytime on the floor. By Friday late in the afternoon, more street casual attire with males wearing droopy pants and knee length T Shirts.
I did not see any memorable new products. What did I miss that was memorable to you?