This year, Katie and I went to our first CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. It has been on our bucket list and we finally took the plunge and bought tickets. I am so glad that we did. We went with a CES veteran (attended 15 years in a row) who showed us the ropes and helped us find a good place to start. When asked why we wanted to attend, our collective response was, “we want to feel the energy and be a part of the future.”
There are so many truly amazing innovations, opportunities and advancements happening every day, and we want to surround ourselves with all of this greatness. And then of course, figure out how to bring a bit of that energy back to apply to our daily lives at home and in the office.
For those who have not gone before, here is a very brief overview – CES is one of the biggest conferences in Las Vegas with over 170,000 attendees, over 3,600 exhibiting companies in over 2.2 million net square feet of exhibit space. To say that we walked miles every day is an understatement! Products showcased came from a wide variety of industries including: Automotive Electronics, Unmanned Systems, Augmented Reality, 3D Printing, Robotics, Smart Homes, Health & Wellness, Family & Technology, Sports Tech, Wearables, and more.
With so much to see, this show can be a bit overwhelming. Now that I am back and have had a week to digest everything, I wanted to write down my biggest takeaways from the show:
- IoT – The Internet of Things is taking over and the amount of data being generated by all these new products is mind boggling!! Almost every single product that we saw was in some way generating data and most likely was connected to the internet.
From a data company’s perspective, this is exciting and overwhelming. My biggest question – What is being done with all this data? For those not up to speed with the Internet of Things, click here for a quick overview.
- Smart Homes – This is a continuation from the previous point, but this is very cool. I have been researching all of this for a while and have no doubt that it is quickly coming, and is going to be a main place for us all soon enough.
- Wearables – This is a very cool space in my opinion. It is exploding like no other. Fitbit had a HUGE booth at CES, but they were only one of many showcasing their new products. Qualcomm had wearable clothes (imagine wearing a shirt that can measure your golf swing, or socks that can monitor your running stride). Fossil, Misfit and even Swarovski are trying to corner the “Fashion” wearable market, which is exploding.
- 3D Printing – This is so cool!!! I must have been living under a rock recently since I haven’t seen much of this, but it is amazing. They had an actual working motorcycle that had mainly been produced by a 3D printer.
They are making custom insoles for shoes with a 3D printer and they even had a station where you could take a picture of your face and it would create and action figure that looked just like you. I am not sure what I would do with a personalized action figure, but I am 100% sure that I want a 3D printer and at a price tag of only $2,500 for a small version, don’t be surprised if you see one at our office next time you stop by!
- Virtual Reality – This is another world that I know little about, but it is exploding. I was fortunate enough to be able to try the new Vive HTC Stream VR. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but it was amazing and quite realistic. I might have been hiding in the corner trying to avoid a VERY large whale in my simulation – all I can say is it is very cool and if given the chance, test it out.
- Kids & Technology – I am a mom of a 4 year old and a 1 year old. I am aware that my children will not know a world unsaturated with technology. There were some pretty cool things for kids and babies, but I am not necessarily convinced my kid needs an app to figure out how to brush their teeth, or a robot to remind them to take their vitamins. The jury is still out for me on these cool new gadgets for kids.
This is just scratching the surface of the amazing things found at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. If you would like a more in-depth review of top CES products, follow this link.
I would HIGHLY recommend attending this show next year so you can “feel the energy” for yourself. Let us know if you decide to check it out and hopefully we can meet up!
