CES is Big

By Aaron Broder, Scholastic Kid Reporter

Hi! My name is Aaron Broder, and I am a 14-year-old Scholastic Kid Reporter from Nashville, TN here in Las Vegas to report on the Consumer Electronics Show for the second year running. I mostly write about products that appeal to Scholastic’s demographic (the teens and tweens) but I also look at anything that grabs my attention. Now, back to the point.

CES is big. Really big. The first thing that hits you when you walk into really any of the convention space is how many people there are surrounding you. You get used to it pretty quickly, but then it hits you about half an hour later – this is only a small part of it. On the another part the Strip, there is another convention area that is also filled wall-to-wall with people.

Now, I am no stranger to that sensation. At my school, it is near impossible to walk from class to class without being shoved into at least one wall, and without running into at least two or three people. But when you take into account the fact that these hallways are about four or five times wider than my school’s hallways, it is a frightening prospect.

The Las Vegas Convention Center is particularly big. Probably one of the areas there is equal to or bigger than the Sands, and there are three of them – the South Hall, the North Hall, and here in the Central Hall, where NBC Universal is. And no matter where you look, there is always something to see. If I look in one direction, I see a display that informs me of how fantastic Blu-ray is. In another direction, Toshiba says how HD-DVD is the best kind of HD media.

I think I’m getting mixed signals here...

Aaron Broder (Scholastic) & Jon Accarrino (NBC Universal)

So far, I have been really lucky in terms of finding interesting things by complete flukes. Take yesterday for example. My mom and I were having trouble finding where the Sandbox Summit was (a conference about the way that technology is altering kids and teens lives). We thought it was going to be in the Sands, but we were directed to somewhere on the 4th floor of the Venetian. We didn’t see it there, so we ran back down to the Sands, and were told to go back up. When we finally did make it, there were no seats left, so we stood against the wall. We ended up standing next to someone from Sesame Workshop, and I got a chance to interview Elmo. Speaking with him was definitely one of the many highlights of this trip, and I couldn’t stop cracking up whenever he spoke. Or tried to eat my microphone.

Anyway, it’s about time that I hit the show floor again. Thanks for reading the blog!

Bye.