CES 2009

Well I’m all packed up and ready to go to Vegas to cover the largest show about technology and gadgets on the planet – CES 2009, happening next week! I’m going hardcore “backpack journalist” style, a let’s double check my list: iPhone, CHECK! MacBookPro, CHECK! Livescribe Pulse Pen, CHECK! Flip Mino HD, CHECK! Verizon evdo and new 4g/3g Sprint wireless broadband cards, CHECK, CHECK! Xantrex backup power device, CHECK! Comfortable Adidas shoes, CHECK! Oh yeah clothes, CHECK! Okay I’m all set.

The Consumer Electronics Show is the World Cup of tech shows it brings in about 140,000 people representing 110 different countries. The show is from Jan. 8-11th in Las Vegas. The conference halls are packed with people and the city is pretty much on lock while techies take over the Vegas strip. I mean, when you think about it the massive size of the show is overwhelming. The exhibit space that is used is equivalent to the size of 11 football fields – now that’s just crazy! To have all that tech in one place! This year I’m looking to see if my prediction of internet in the vehicle will be realized by Ford or someone else (albeit they have other major issues) but they are keynoting at CES. I’m also on the lookout to see if the Microsoft Zune phone will become a reality. There are soooo many areas to cover from home entertainment to wireless to automotive to business to consumer it’s a 1-stop spot to see all the new technogies & devices that will me released throughout ‘09. This year we have interviews lined up with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Intel CEO Craig Barrett & some others we are locking down as I type.

I’ll also make sure to spend a large amount of time at the Sands hotel conference center, this is the place where all the young, emerging & pretty innovative companies are showcased. I’ll be on the lookout for Black attendees, buyers, analysts & entrepreneurs to gather their observations of their CES experience. I have been going to CES for the last 8 years & I feel there still needs to be more involvement from our community.
We will be shooting lots of video for the Official YouTube channel for the CES 2009 show  http://www.youtube.com/cesonthetube — go ahead and subscribe to the channel and to Twitter feed http://twitter.com/2009CES or http://twitter.com/marioarmstrong for up to sec updates.

Do you have any CES 09 predictions? What would you want mecto cover at the show – tell us in the comments & I’ll hop right to it!
Ohh & just in case you see photos of me at the craps table – remember it could be photoshop’d. I hope the motto holds true “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”