It’s like the old days at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which got under way Wednesday.
That hit me as I waited half an hour for a cab at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport to get me to my hotel.
The airport’s baggage area was full of ads for everything from Wi-Fi chips from Intel Corp. to the latest and greatest gadgetry from Hewlett-Packard Co.
The Consumer Electronics Show, or CES for short, has become something that Las Vegas loves. The show has supplanted Comdex, which used to be technology’s premier Vegas confab before hitting hard times a few years back.
This year’s CES is set to draw more than the 125,000 people who came last year. And many of the people going aren’t the same old corporate technology buyers that used to go to the old Comdex, which ended in 2003.
On the flight out from John Wayne Airport, there were all types of people, young and old, who go to CES to see what kinds of stuff will be sitting on the shelves of Best Buy and Circuit City in the next year.
One guy who sat next to me,a retired salesman from General Electric Co.,said he goes every year, saying it’s like his big candy shop.
Of course, there are plenty of working stiffs here, too. A couple of women in the cab line weren’t looking forward to their duties as exhibitors on the massive show floor.
For the uninitiated, exhibitors get up at the crack of dawn, go to bed well past midnight and have to wear a smile the entire day.
Then there were the others: salesman looking for different gadgets they may be able to use; kids who want to be the first on their block to have the newest electronics; and executives, who get a chance to see their customers in one place at one time.
This year’s show will be a busy one for Orange County companies. Toshiba Corp., Kingston Technology Co. and others have booths on the floor and are taking part in a side show Wednesday night called digital experience.
Broadcom Corp.’s new chief executive, Scott McGregor, likely will make an appearance at a company party inside the new Club Ice on the Strip. Conexant Systems Inc. has taken out five rooms at The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino to entertain customers.
Welcome to CES 2005.
