Event-full

CES is now over. My trip to Las Vegas isn't quite over yet, as I'm currently at the McCarran Airport here in Las Vegas (yay for free wi-fi! LAX could learn something from this place), but by tonight, I'll be home and sleeping in my own bed...I can not wait. Except I have to...for some reason, I scheduled myself on the 8:15 PM flight home, perhaps not taking into account the fact that the show ended at 4 PM today. And so I wait, impatiently. The airport is also extremely crowded, thanks to all of the CES attendees fleeing the city, their debauchery at an end. But whatever, it's good to sit. Sure, I'd much rather be sitting on a plane that's winging its way back to Los Angeles, but any sitting is better than the standing I've done for eight hours every day during this show.

Now that the show itself is over with, I guess I can say that it was relatively successful. Well, our booth was successful, and the people from my department were all very happy with the content and work I did...but the overall show, I must say, was only so-so. First of all, attendance was way down this year...last year, we were swamped pretty much all day, every day. This year, we had a surprising amount of time to stand around (unlike at Comic-Con, there is no sitting on the floor of the booth at CES). That's not to say that the show was empty...it's more like there were only around 110,000 people there instead of the 130,000 or so from last year.

But one thing that everyone was saying was that there wasn't anything amazing that really drew the crowds. From our overall company perspective, we had 3D TVs, more OLED TVs, and a tiny and really neat laptop...those were our most popular destinations. And 3D seemed to be the keyword this year for a lot of the electronics companies, along with "thin" and "wireless." But as someone on the shuttle to the airport said, the show seemed to mostly feature already-existing products that had matured as opposed to a lot of cutting-edge technology.

That was certainly true of our Blu-ray booth, I would say: last year, we were showing off BD-Live (internet connectivity for your Blu-ray player that allows for constantly updatable exclusive content) and Digital Copy as things that were coming in 2009. These demos were supported by some very cutting-edge hardware and software that was specially engineered for demonstration at CES. Blu-ray itself was also still pretty new last year, and with Warner Bros. dropping all HD DVD support three days before the show, we had a lot of questions and were seen as a still-new technology that was busting into the mainstream.

This year, we've done BD-Live on over 50 of our Blu-ray titles (and all studios have done their own version of BD-Live at this point) and Digital Copy is practically becoming a standard application. Last year, we crossed our fingers that BD-Live would work, while this year, we assumed it would. Blu-ray itself also isn't as new anymore...that's good for the format, as it's really making a lot of great strides (The Dark Knight sold 1.7 million units on Blu-ray, which is HUGE), but in terms of something like CES, it's almost old hat. This year, we weren't showing new functionality (except our chat feature), but we were showing how the format had matured and how there's so much you can do with Blu-ray. Interestingly enough, this was basically how a lot of the technology was this year, as I previously mentioned: mature. That's not bad, but it does make for a less thrilling CES all around.

That's not to say that there weren't some moments of intrigue or that there was no fun to be had. The electronics guys who were also working their sections of booth were extremely nice...I had much more time to interact with them this year, and it was surprisingly fun. It's not often that I let down my guard and be a guy: talking about and checking out women, doing strange high-fives with fist explosions at the end, talking about sports (well, I couldn't fake that part...I just listened). Now that it's almost over, I guess I can look back and say that it was fun at times (while grueling overall)....it definitely wasn't as high profile this year in terms of the press or booth visitors (no video interviews this year), but again, I think the higher-ups were happy with my work.

I won't be going in to work tomorrow, though, as my boss thankfully gave me the day off...very kind. I'll probably spend the day doing laundry, food shopping, napping...and probably sitting a lot. And then...well, like I said, CES was that wall. Now that I've scaled it, I guess I should start thinking about what's next overall. Do I try to ask my boss for a raise/promotion in this economy (pros: it's almost been two years and I currently do the work of a person at a higher level...cons: the economy and I'm lucky to have a job at all)? Do I go back on JDate for some more romantic prospects (and disappointments)? And speaking of which, when do I re-contact that second blind date girl? She said January...I was thinking I would contact her while at CES, but Jamie suggested that I should wait as long as possible, even longer than I would have thought...more like February. Crazy! But she's not wrong...I can't seem desperate. Even though I am. I might do something in between, like maybe I'll contact her after Martin Luther King Day weekend.

Okay, now that I've shaken the hands of everyone in existence and been exposed to every germ, I'm ready to go home and take a shower and go to sleep. The water here in Las Vegas just isn't right...if you've ever washed your hair here, you'll know that it just...isn't right. I've heard they chlorinate the hell out of the water. Also, how do hotels make their freshly-dried towels smell like a jelly donut? It's great! Maybe if I could get the donut-smelling towels with some better water, I'd be more amenable to visiting Las Vegas in the future....