AllThingsD » Gary Shapiro

Can We Finally Say: Bye-Bye Booth Babes?

Joshua Weinberg — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:37:25 +0000

Isn’t it time for our industry to stop using “booth babes,” once and for all?

There used to be an annual tradition around Comdex — every year, a week or two after Comdex (and then later CES), InfoWorld or Computerworld would write an editorial complaining about the use of “booth babes” at the show.

These editorials and the maturing of our industry seemed to have had a great effect. Each year, there seem to be fewer and fewer booth babes at major tech shows. They are still there, just in smaller numbers.

Attitudes also continue to change. More and more companies are realizing that booth babes are out of place at tech shows. These companies have also begun to realize that booth babes may be a bad business move.

In writing this article, I Googled to find the gadget- and gamer blogs’ annual roundups of trade show booth babes, and was pleasantly surprised to find a comment from Daniel Cooper, an Engadget contributing editor, that said:

Oh, and regarding ‘booth babes:’ scantily clad women trying to tease the über-geeks at CES: if your product needs a semi-nude woman to sell it to nerds, you don’t have faith in your product.

As a launch consultant, I couldn’t agree more. Nowadays, to break through the noise, companies need an innovative product, a great user experience and clear communications. Booth babes provide none of these, and can even distract from the stories that companies are trying to tell. I have typically found that the companies using booth babes do not have much of substance to show, or are trying to mask other problems. And in the unusual case when it is a great product being promoted by a booth babe, many people miss it, because they make an assumption that it couldn’t be a great product if it is being promoted by a booth babe.

As we move into an era where we are no longer just selling technologies to enthusiasts but are selling to mainstream consumers, our industry’s collective attitude and image are important. This year, it was not an industry pub that was covering the issue, but the very mainstream BBC. Not only does this piece highlight the problem, but it tries to send the message that the industry can’t see what’s right in front of its face. If we don’t reform as an industry, we can expect more of the same. Every bit of negative attention focused on our industry is a moment when the media and customers are not focused on our industry’s products. And let’s not forget how many technology purchasing decisions are made by women. Is this the image we want to send these customers?

The industry has done a good job of encouraging women to move into science, math and technology, and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) did a good thing in “divorcing” CES from the adult video show, but for the industry to not try to do something about booth babes sends a very mixed message.

For whatever reason, be it business, social or other, as an industry, we should actively encourage a move away from booth babes at tech trade shows, once and for all.

Unfortunately, the industry does not currently take a strong stand against booth babes and one prominent press event organizer, Pepcom, uses them at virtually all its events.

Gary Shapiro, CEO of the CEA, owners of CES, said “As long as they don’t violate show rules, I can’t do anything about it.” While creating rules banning booth babes will probably never work, that does not mean that organizations like the CEA and Pepcom and others should do nothing.

But Gary also says “… and if some companies think it works, they are going to use models in their booths.” And I think that is where the challenge is for our industry: Educate companies that booth babes do not work, and are not welcome.

As an industry, we should endeavor to teach companies that best practices for launching products, exhibiting at shows and sponsoring events is more about great products and clear messages than sexy women. These shows should begin to include text to this effect in their exhibitor and sponsorship manuals, and should work on other ways to discourage this practice. In addition, industry publications and blogs should stop publishing booth-babe roundups, and should not use pictures of scantily clad women showing off tech products.

Lets get together as an industry and, once and for all, say, “Bye-bye booth babes.”

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue.

Verizon CEO Talks Up Faster Networks at CES

Ina Fried — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:22:54 +0000

Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is taking his turn on the Consumer Electronics Show stage on Thursday morning. His speech will follow an electronics-industry state of the union speech from trade organization head Gary Shapiro.

Mobilized will have live coverage starting in a few minutes at 8:30 am PT. Verizon Wireless will have a separate press conference later on Thursday, and I’ll trek over from the Hilton to the Venetian for that as well.

8:29 am: FYI, Consumer Electronics Show Association head Gary Shapiro is up first, so he may talk for a bit. Verizon CEO may not start until 9:00.

8:32 am: They are still letting folks in. Mobilized suspects she could have gotten an extra 10 minutes sleep and is moderately bitter.

8:32 am: With no appreciation for irony whatsoever, they have just asked their “friends in the press” to cease using wireless in 10 minutes.

8:40 am: The giant video screens just changed to a big Verizon logo. “Our program will begin shortly,” comes the voice from above, asking participants to silence their mobile devices and us press to kindly refrain from doing the job we are expected to do–I mean turn off our wireless cards.

8:43 am: I think it’s okay for me though, because I am on 4G and I keep hearing how robust and capable it is.

8:46 am: Lights dim. Music peppier. Still no Gary Shapiro, but I think we’re moments away from the man before the man we’ve all been waiting for.

8:47 am: Shapiro delivering the expected announcements on how the world is full of innovation and possibility.

“Each year I await the CES like a kid awaiting Santa Claus,” Shapiro says.

8:48 am: Interesting pitch on how the CEA is trying to keep the show affordable for attendees and exhibitors.

Economy slowly improving after years of trouble, Shapiro says.

8:51 am: Innovation is our secret sauce. It’s on our jeans. Oh, wait. No. It’s in our genes.

8:54 am: Faint applause as Shapiro makes a pitch for freeing up more of the wireless spectrum for broadband and other uses.

He notes that only 10 percent of TV is now consumed over the public airwaves, as opposed to 100 percent some years ago.

“They are squatting now on our broadband future,” Shapiro says of the TV industry.

8:56 am: Now showing a propoganda video on how some in Washington are threatening innovation.

Images of burning money and cute little kids as the announcer offers up more scary talk.

8:59 am: It’s a pitch for the CEA’s Innovation Movement.

Shapiro now back and pitching his new book: “The Comeback.” He’ll be signing books after the keynote. Um, Mobilized would, but we have to do our hair.

9:01 am: Interesting stat: By 2014, CEA says 70 percent of consumer electronics will connect to the Internet.

9:04 am: CEA is planning some sort of tech week event next summer in New York.

9:04 am: Las Vegas Convention Center will now also be known as the Las Vegas World Trade Center. (I guess that sounds better than the O.J. Simpson Coliseum.)

9:07 am: Shapiro finally introducing Verizon’s Seidenberg.

Seidenberg began his career as cable splitter’s assistant at New York Telephone.

9:08 am: Another video, this one with stars, and voiceovers of people talking about technology.

9:10 am: Seidenberg takes the stage.

9:11 am: Seidenberg begins by telling crowd to ignore ban on wireless.

“When Verizon’s on, turn ‘em on,” he says. “Ping all you want.” Loud applause

9:13 am: Ten years ago only one in three Americans had a cellphone. Now it is 90 percent, Seidenberg says.

Ten years ago, few people had broadband–now 85 million American households have broadband.

Ten years ago, video accounted for less than 10 percent of Internet traffic. Now it’s more than half and could go to 90 percent, Seidenberg says.

Now it’s time to turn the wheel again, he says. “What will consumers want in 10 years?”

9:15 am: Seidenberg is joined on the stage by president and COO Lowell McAdam.

9:16 am: Talk shifts to Verizon’s new LTE (Long Term Evolution) higher-speed 4G network. Verizon announced its commitment to LTE in 2007. Network launched last month.

“As people are discovering, not all 4G is created equally,” McAdam says, touting the advantages of Verizon’s network, such as the fact it operates on a contiguous area of spectrum.

McAdam talks about how Verizon is expanding its LTE lineup beyond laptop cards. He mentions the Motorola Droid Bionic smartphone and Xoom tablet that were announced on Wednesday. But, he says, people will have to go to Verizon Wireless’s press conference to see the other devices coming this year,

Now McAdam is talking about FiOS, which covers 15.4 million homes and will cover 18 million when finished over the next year.

“We didn’t do all this for bragging rights,” McAdam says. “We did it to transform the (broadband) experience.”

9:25 am: Oooh, Time for special guests.

Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner CEO is the first guest.

9:26 am: Bewkes says this is the second golden era of television. “Everything is up,” he says, pointing to ratings, advertising and more.

All of the great TV content, he says, is going on demand, on every device. Quality is going up from HD to 3-D.

9:31 am: Getting ready for the product announcement.

Starts with a video of Conan and other Time Warner stars watching clips of themselves and others on various devices. Charles Barkley is looking at hoops video on an iPad.

Ellen DeGeneres is watching clips of herself on a cellphone while ignoring a guest.

9:34 am: Bewkes talking about TV Everywhere.

Idea, introduced about 18 months ago, is that once you pay for a piece of content, you should have it anywhere, on any device.

“You shouldn’t have to have a PhD as a consumer to figure out how to get all this,” Bewkes says.

9:38 am: Bewkes says that to replicate TV everywhere without that approach you would have to cobble together dozens of services. He shows a chart with logos including Netflix, iTunes, ESPN 3 and a whole bunch more.

9:40 am: Exit Bewkes. Welcome Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha. (So I guess we’re not getting anything new really on TV everywhere–Support for Live TV is a key missing component.)

9:42 am: Jha is talking about the origins of the original Droid and its successors, and the growth of Android.

Jha holds up the just-introduced Droid Bionic phone, which supports Verizon.

I call this device the end of waiting,” Jha says, noting it can offer video conferencing without jitters, and fast sound downloads.

9:44 am: Next Jha holds up the Motorola Xoom, the tablet that Motorola showed off yesterday. They are playing the same Android 3.0 video shown at Motorola’s press conference yesterday.

9:47 am: Jha says that Xoom will ship as a 3G device in February and will be upgradeable to 4G in the second quarter.

Now Google is onstage giving an overview of Honeycomb. Google executive (whose name I didn’t catch) says that the company spent a year trying to adapt Android for tablets.

“We wanted our tablet experience to be better and not just bigger,” says the Google guy,

All the controls in Honeycomb are virtual buttons on screen–pixels rather than paint, he quips.

The benefit is such buttons can reconfigure themselves and shift depending on how the tablet is being held.

9:51 am: Now Google demos tabbed browsing in Honeycomb. “It’s really like a desktop experience,” he says.

Gmail has been redesigned for tablets, resembling the iOS version of Yahoo mail, with various panes.

Maps turn to 3-D once you zoom in close enough and can be rotated and the perspective changed with the swipe of a finger.

Notifications now include a photo of the person. Demo guy gets a message from Andy Rubin reminding him to show the improved task manager feature.

9:56 am: Honeycomb version of YouTube shows a 3-D wall of different videos to watch.

Books presented in a similar 3-D carousel.

9:57 am: Video chat part of Google Chat. Sometimes you want face-to-face communication, Google guy says. Now Honeycomb supports that.

10:03 am: Things are starting to wrap up, with McAdam giving an overview of what Verizon has at its booth, including a Cisco enterprise tablet, health care monitoring tools, as well as its crop of phones and laptop cards.

Trade Show Chief Touts Many Gadgets, But Not 3D TV

Don Clark — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:52:42 +0000

Gary Shapiro promises more cool stuff than ever at the giant Consumer Electronics Show in early January. But the trade group leader sounds less than enthusiastic about one of the most talked-about topics, 3D television.

In an interview Thursday, Shapiro argued that the technology has been over-hyped compared with more fundamental developments like high-definition TV, a huge driver of industry sales for much of the past decade. Giving those digital TVs the capability to simulate 3D images, by comparison, is more of an enhancement than something altogether new, he says.

“3D is not a category, it is not a product, it is a feature,” says Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association. “The truth is that every high-end TV will be 3D.”

But there are plenty of other important new categories, Shapiro says, including tablet computers and Internet-connected TVs. An avalanche of announcements about those and other products are expected at the show, whose exhibit floors are open January 6 through 9 in Las Vegas. “I’ve never been as excited,” he adds. CES this year will be “huge by any measure.”

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Ballmer to Keynote CES Again; Bidding Soars for NoDoz Concession

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:19:47 +0000

Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer will return to the Consumer Electronics Show next January, kicking it off with another presumably lackluster keynote.

This will be Ballmer’s third time headlining CES, and after his first two appearances, I don’t think anyone’s expecting too much. The highlight of his 2009 keynote: The widely expected announcement of the Windows 7 beta. The highlights of his 2010 address: An ill-starred Windows-based tablet and Project Natal, a controllerless game interface system the company debuted at E3 months earlier.

Exciting stuff.

Said Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro, “As leader of one of the world’s most innovative technology companies, a keynote address from Steve Ballmer is the perfect way to kick off the 2011 International CES.”

Wonder what we have to look forward to this year? A new Windows 7 service pack?

CES Attendance Up

John Paczkowski — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:02:35 +0000

The International Consumer Electronics Show didn’t break any attendance records this year, but it did post a slight increase in visitors–which is something in a down economy.

Preliminary registration figures from the Consumer Electronics Association reveal a headcount of over 120,000 attendees. That’s up roughly six percent from 113,085 last year and far more than 110,000 the CEA predicted.

A small, but not inconsequential bump, and one that suggests the industry is indeed beginning to turn the corner.

“The innovations unveiled this week at the 2010 International CES brought new optimism and opportunity to our industry and the global economy,” said CEA president and CEO Gary Shapiro. “This show exceeded expectations with its innovation, optimism and excitement. What a great way to kick off the new decade.”

Behind the Scenes at D@CES Event and Party (Including a Geek Chat With Punky Brewster!)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:25:39 +0000

Here’s a lovely video BoomTown did behind the scenes at our interview event and after-party at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last Friday.

While there, the crack All Things Digital team interviewed and reported on sessions with Palm (PALM) CEO Jon Rubinstein, Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings and Google (GOOG) Android guru Andy Rubin.

But we also prepared and then partied. Here is video proof, including interviews with Cisco (CSCO) Flip unit head Jonathan Kaplan, BillShrink’s Peter Pham, Consumer Electronics Association head Gary Shapiro and–drum roll–former child star Soleil Moon Frye, who was there for Kodak (EK).

Frye has actually gone the digital mom route, although she remains well known for her role as cute-as-a-button Punky Brewster on the 1980s television series.

Yippie! Grossaroo! Holy Macanoli! Punky Power!

She uttered none of these classic lines, of course, but here’s the video anyway:

[ See post to watch video ]

(You can see all our full CES coverage here.)

CES: Steve Ballmer Keynote

John Paczkowski — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:00:01 +0000

Steve Ballmer is delivering his annual state-of-Microsoft address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas tonight–his second since assuming the duties of former CEO Bill Gates.

If anything like last year’s, Ballmer’s address will offer a broad overview of Microsoft’s (MSFT) consumer strategy for the year, touching on everything from the company’s hardware-software ecosystem to its home entertainment offerings.

Likely to figure prominently in tonight’s address: Windows 7 and the new touch-enabled PC form factors it has evidently inspired; Bing; and Natal, Microsoft’s controller-less game control system, which will launch in time for the 2010 holidays.

The keynote begins with, what else, some introductory remarks from Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro: “Happy New Year and welcome to 2010 CES, the World Cup of innovation. The past year has been a challenge. The global recession has affected all companies. Fortunately, signs are pointing upward, and I believe CES will be remembered as a turning point.”

Let’s hope so.
Shapiro welcomes Steve Ballmer to the stage, and the Microsoft chief begins by noting that 2009, in case you hadn’t noticed, was a year of profound economic turbulence. But innovation persisted. And with that, he rolls a first video designed to demonstrate his point. It features “one random guy’s” experiences with technology this past year, namely Seth Meyers of “Saturday Night Live.” Seth talks to his grandmother on a Web cam. He plays videogames with a kid and loses. “Before texting existed, I never sent the wrong person a letter telling them they’re a jackass. Thanks, technology….Before Twitter, if I knew what someone’s cat was thinking, I would have had to be an idiot.”
Ballmer: “We’re going to focus on three things tonight. The [first is the] increasing importance of the small screen, the ever-evolving PC and the future of TV. The second is the cloud. Third is natural user interface–NUI technology. The last few decades have been absolutely stunning in the changes they’ve brought.”
And here’s the sound byte of the evening: “We Bing. And we Bing. And we Bing Bing Bing. At least in my world.” Ballmer says 2009 is a year in which the company has made incredible progress with Bing. “We added 11 million new users….We redefined what search should do for users–we work to understand user intent and anticipate what users are really looking for. We know we’re at the beginning of a long journey, but we think we’re off to a good start.”

There’s some news about Bing today, a distribution deal that makes it the default search engine on HP PCs in 32 countries.
Also figuring prominently in 2009: Xbox. Microsoft first launched it at CES in 2001. Today, there are over 39 million Xbox 360s around the world. And more than 500 million games. The console has generated $20 billion in total game revenue.
Ballmer is moving on to the mobile space now. Windows Phone–technically Windows Mobile 6.5, a necessary stopgap on the path to 7.0–which debuted last fall in a nimbus of disappointment. Ballmer notes that Microsoft is announcing a new Windows Phone partnership today with T-Mobile, which is bringing HTC’s HD2 phone to the U.S. He says little about Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft’s “modern” mobile operating system, which at last check was scheduled to arrive at market sometime in late 2010.
Ballmer is talking up Windows 7 now. PC sales jumped 50 percent the week the OS debuted, he says. And according to research outfit NPD, sales of Windows PCs grew 50 percent over the 2009 holidays and retailers sold 63 percent more PCs than they did this time last year. Gartner (IT) now sees three percent PC unit growth in 2009–nearly 300 million PCs shipped in 2009. For 2010, Gartner sees a jump of more than 12 percent.

“Windows 7 is by far the fastest-selling OS in history,” says Ballmer. “Clearly, consumers are saying there’s never been a better time to be a Windows 7 PC….Windows 7 is a rising tide that’s lifting all boats in the PC business.”
Ballmer calls Ryan Asdourian, senior product manager for Windows, to the stage. “We’re going to see some of Ryan’s favorite hardware and software,” he says. Among them the Sony (SNE) Vaio L–an all-in-one built for high-definition entertainment–and the Asus NX90, a slick-looking laptop designed with help from legendary audio firm Bang & Olufsen.

“Being in Vegas, you’ve got to look sexy,” says Asdourian. Ballmer: “Good thing we brought some PCs.”
Next, some software demos–Ray Kurzweil’s Blio Ereader App?, then a new Skydrive collaboration in Windows Live. Ballmer: “Developers baby! Developers! I love the people who’ve built this stuff.”
Ballmer moves on to Windows Media Center and Mediaroom 2.0, which will now deliver live and on-demand TV through set-top boxes, PCs, and Windows Mobile devices like the HD2. It is coming to AT&T’s (T) U-verse. Streaming video on the HD2 looks pretty slick.
“The world of entertainment and content will come in different forms and flavors. But no matter what the source, Windows PCs will offer the greatest entertainment experiences in the world,” says Ballmer. And with that, he shows offs some new slate PCs. Sadly, the Courier–the dual-screen multitouch device that many had been hoping to see–is not among them, as BoomTown reported earlier today. There are, however, some cool-looking offerings from Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Archos.
Ballmer rolls another Seth Myers video, “Milestones in Technology.” Not funny. Yeah, I don’t really miss “Saturday Night Live” at all anymore.
Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, takes the stage. “Computer science is the only science bounded solely by our imaginations,” he says, referring to Xbox. “2010 is going to be a landmark year for Xbox customers. We’ll be offering the best line of Xbox 360 games.” Examples: Mass Effect 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction. Also an episodic “psychological action thriller” called Alan Wake. “Imagine ‘Lost’ written by Stephen King, filmed by David Lynch,” implores Bach.
Bach: “What ‘Star Wars’ is to film, what Harry Potter is to fantasy books, Halo is to videogames.” And with that, he rolls some video of Halo Reach that I can’t see because I’m watching the event remotely. The game is coming in the fall of 2010, but will be available as a multiplayer beta on Xbox Live this spring.
Bach announces Game Room for Xbox Live! More precisely, a vintage gaming service that offers 30 classics from Atari, Intellivision, etc. The company plans to add over 1,000 games to Game Room over the next three years.
And here comes the pitch for Project Natal: “We’re at an exciting inflection point in tech, where we can create an experience that is more intuitive. With Natal we’re freeing you from the last barrier, the game controller.” Bach rolls a video of the folks behind the Xbox’s new natural user interface, or NUI, which is due out later this year. “Project Natal will be available this holiday 2010….It will work with your existing Xbox 360.”
“When I said 2010 was going to be a big year for Xbox 360, I was lying: 2010 is going to be the biggest year in Xbox history!”
Bach wraps things up with some big-picture remarks and–well, I guess that’s it. He leaves the stage and the house lights come back up.

CES Honcho Is Upbeat, But So Is Macworld Chief

Don Clark — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 16:46:58 +0000

Gary Shapiro is quick to admit that last year’s Consumer Electronics Show–held during the darkest days of the recession–was pretty depressing. But his enthusiasm has recovered.

“I’m more excited about this CES than any in the 28 years I’ve been attending the show,” says Shapiro, president and chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, which organizes the event.

One reason is the contrasting activity in the months leading up to this year’s show, which is scheduled for January 7-10 in Las Vegas. Last fall, as the magnitude of the meltdown became apparent, many companies cut back on the number of employees they send to the show or pulled out entirely.

This fall, Shapiro says, the pattern reversed, as exhibitors and attendees have signed up at an accelerating rate. “We blew through all our goals for the last five months,” he says.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Bartz Bails on CES Keynote

John Paczkowski — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:14:40 +0000

“Yahoo! is a top global brand whose vision is to be the center of people’s online lives, and Carol Bartz is leading the development of Yahoo!’s approach to delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. We welcome Carol Bartz to the 2010 CES keynote stage to talk about what’s next for Yahoo! and the industry.”

– Consumer Electronics Association president and CEO Gary Shapiro, Oct. 13, 2009

Now this is odd: Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz has canceled plans to deliver a keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. This not a month after the Consumer Electronics Association boasted of her participation in a press release.

The reason for the cancellation: An alleged scheduling conflict. Said CEA spokesperson Jason Oxman: “Carol Bartz informed us late last week that her schedule has changed and she will no longer be able to deliver the speech at the 2010 International CES that Yahoo and CES had announced some weeks ago.”

It’s worth noting that prior to Oxman’s remark, which was posted to the comments of Tech Trader Daily, no official announcement of Bartz’s withdrawal was made. Indeed, the CEA press release issued yesterday announcing the addition of Qualcomm (QCOM) CEO Paul Jacobs to the CES keynote roster made no mention of Bartz at all. Moreover, her bio appears to have simply disappeared from the CES site.

As I said, odd.

CES Attendance: "The Right People"–Just Fewer of Them

John Paczkowski — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:08:41 +0000

The International Consumer Electronics Show didn’t break any attendance records this year. In fact, it didn’t even break the projected attendance figure of 130,000 that the Consumer Electronics Association offers up every year. Missed it by a pretty wide margin, actually. Amazingly, CES isn’t immune to the worst recession in 50 years.

Preliminary estimates suggest the show drew 110,000 attendees, down 22 percent from 141,150 in 2008.

A nasty little drop, although it doesn’t appear to have fazed the CEA, which is propping this year’s attendance figures with some over-the-top ALL CAPS hyperbole.

2009 INTERNATIONAL CES ELECTRIFIES AND ELICITS OPTIMISM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY, reads the CEA press release in which the group makes its peace with the massive decline in attendance.

“Our board concluded that it is essential to have the right people attend CES. Board members reported getting more business done this year than at any prior show,” said CEA CEO Gary Shapiro. “One board member reported his company scheduled 450 customer meetings prior to CES and every one of those 450 meetings took place at the show. Quality trumps quantity when it comes to exhibitors and attendees conducting business at CES.”

At least in those years when attendance is down, anyway.

[Image Credit: Flickr International's CES photostream]

CES Attendance: "The Right People"–Just Fewer of Them

John Paczkowski — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:08:41 +0000

Preliminary estimates suggest the show drew 110,000 attendees, down 22 percent from 141,150 in 2008.

A nasty little drop, although it doesn’t appear to have fazed the CEA, which is propping this year’s attendance figures with some over-the-top ALL CAPS hyperbole.

2009 INTERNATIONAL CES ELECTRIFIES AND ELICITS OPTIMISM FOR GLOBAL ECONOMY, reads the CEA press release in which the group makes its peace with the massive decline in attendance.

At least in those years when attendance is down, anyway.

[Image Credit: Flickr International's CES photostream]

Palm–Without Me

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:32:02 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

CEA CEO on Economy: We Can Rebuild It. We Have the Technology…

John Paczkowski — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:42:22 +0000

“We are the industry that will breath life into the economy.” This according to Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro, who at CES this morning proclaimed the consumer electronics sector as some sort of financial Viagra for the worst economy since the Great Depression.

“Innovation is the best medicine to end economic stagnation,” Shapiro said. Well, if that’s the case, perhaps we need to up the prescription a bit. Because for 2009, the CEA is projecting a 0.6 percent drop in revenue–if all goes well. Things should be better in 2010, which, according to Shapiro, will herald a return to growth in the industry. Again, if all goes well. Says Shapiro, “Innovation is the moon that will cause the economic tide to blossom.”

Innovation is the moon that will cause the economic tide to blossom.

And rising on that economic tide, a million little remote-control boats, each with a little corporate logo and a diminutive CEO. And all of them, to a one, sailing forth into a new dawn of profitability. A profitability brought forth by growing unit sales, which are the sun, its every ray a glorious new revenue stream refracted in the glistening waves.

Meet "Kevin the Sad PR Guy," Our 2009 Booth Babe

John Paczkowski — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:41:42 +0000

Our industry is the one that this going to get the economy through this recession.

– Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association

The International Consumer Electronics Show will kick off next week shrouded in a nimbus of recessionary gloom. Show attendance is expected to be down eight percent this year, according to Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, who expects 130,000 attendees to flood the convention–11,000 fewer than last year. The show floor itself will be slightly diminished as well. CES exhibitor booths required 1.8 million square feet in 2008. In 2009, they’ll take up 1.7 million, presumably thanks to the absence of Seagate (STX), Logitech (LOGI), Cisco (CSCO), Philips (PHG), Yahoo (YHOO) and Sanyo–all of which have abandoned plans to exhibit on the show floor. That said, the overall number of exhibitors will remain the same as last year, at about 2,700.

So the show will be a bit smaller and a bit less clamorous than in years past. Likely a bit more sober as well, given this rough retail year. Quite a change from the extravagance of years past, but not without a certain upside. “This is the bleakest CES in 30 years going in,” said Envisioneering Group analyst Richard Doherty. “[Some exhibitors] will be spending more of their time off the show floor. We may now be able to get between the Venetian and the convention in less than an hour.”

Meet "Kevin the Sad PR Guy," Our 2009 Booth Babe

John Paczkowski — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 20:41:42 +0000

Our industry is the one that this going to get the economy through this recession.

– Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association

Jerry Coming Out at CES! (Not That There's Anything Wrong With That!)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:19:48 +0000

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang emerged from his hibernation den over at Yahoo yesterday and didn’t see his shadow.

So do better-than-expected revenues mean spring is on the way for the struggling Web giant? We’ll see, but it means we might see a lot more of the shy-of-late Yang, who accepted a big keynote slot at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

On the first day of the gadgetfest, held every January and run by the Consumer Electronics Association, Yang will appear in a prime slot on Monday, Jan. 7, at 11 a.m., at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater.

Said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of CEA: “As content and technology continue to intertwine and create new ways to connect consumers with information and each other, we look forward to hearing [Jerry] Yang’s views on the evolution of Internet technology and its impact on consumer technology products.”

So does BoomTown, who will be front and center at the show to see Yang, trying to get the attention of our favorite Web CEO. (Zuckerberg’s not even close!)

It would be nicer still to have lunch with him, of course, and we would if you give early and often to our efforts to raise money for DonorsChoose.org.

So go now and click on through to our AllThingsD page on DonorsChoose.org here or use the thermometer on the left side of this page to give early and often!

Why click here?

Because it is well and good to help help BoomTown in the October Tech Blogger Challenge for DonorsChoose.org, which funds classroom projects in high-need public schools, using the Web to match teacher project requests with donors.

(AllThingsD picked tech projects in both San Francisco and Washington, D.C.)

Besides raising funds for kids who need it, we also hope to win an award Yahoo is sponsoring for the tech blogger who garners the biggest number of donors–a free lunch with Yang.

It’s either that or I will have to rush the stage at CES!

So, remember to click on through to our AllThingsD page on DonorsChoose.org here to give early and often!