The Best Laid Plans
By Aaron Broder, Scholastic
Hey, everyone, it's Aaron Broder, the Scholastic reporter, blogging for NBC Universal again. It's great to be back!
So, this year, my goal was to have the whole CES thing down-pat. This is my fourth year writing about it, so by now I should know how it works, right? Avoid scheduling appointments - it's stressful and detracts from show floor time. Don't have anything at the Las Vegas Convention Center immediately following something at the Venetian - you can't get between one and the other quickly enough. And whatever you do, try not to schedule anything offsite - it's never as easy to get there as they tell you it is. This year, I was going to stick to these rules, and nothing was going to go wrong.
That was the plan, anyway. The first day of CES ruined that.
I'm not entirely sure what the big deal about Day One is. I've been told it's because everyone is trying to grab the headlines, but there are headlines on every other day too, so I don't think that's it. But for whatever reason, Thursday is the most jam-packed day, and it's impossible to avoid it.
I nearly managed to avoid it - I really did. I was going to go to the Build Your Own PC Race for charity that day no matter what, and I was pretty sure I was headed to ShowStoppers, but those were both after the convention center closed, so I would have plenty of show floor time. I managed to have one - that's right, one(!) appointment, for the upcoming MMO, LEGO Universe. And I was going to go to Lunch@Piero's (a restaurant not far off from the LVCC), another offsite event where products were being shown, but I was going to have to eat anyway, so that was no big deal. I was confident that nothing would throw it out of whack.
Oops. I lied. See, I had e-mailed Palm about trying to get into their press conference, without realizing that it was in the Venetian, 30 minutes after my LEGO appointment started in the convention center! I also had tried to get in contact with Livescribe, the people behind the Pulse pen, and --
You know, hold on a moment. I hope you don't mind if I take a brief moment to talk about what has been the most useful gadget of the show. If you do, then go ahead and skip down to the next paragraph. The Pulse pen is this pen that, at its core, links what you are writing with what you hear. It actually can do a lot more than that, but that's what I've been using it for. And it's been incredibly helpful, because you can go back and tap something you wrote, and listen to hear what was being said exactly as you wrote that. Truly amazing - we are living in the future.
Anyway, back to my story. Where was I? Oh, right.
I also had tried to get in contact with Livescribe, the people behind the Pulse pen, and they said that they were available, on none other than Thursday morning. And they were at the Las Vegas Hilton!
I managed to work it all out - Pulse before the floor opened, then rush over to the Venetian for the press conference, and I rescheduled LEGO Universe for later in the afternoon (which made getting to the PC Race at the Wynn a bit tight, but still worked). But I stared at my calendar, dismayed, as all the white space slowly filled up with appointments and press conferences, and an attempt to get to a booth to see Stan Lee. My perfect plan, destroyed.
Something funny happened, though, on Thursday. It all went... really, really smoothly. Sure, we ran around a bit, making sure we got where we needed to be when we needed to be there, but there wasn't a dull moment where I was at a loss for what to do. It was kind of nice.
So, if I come back next year, I have three rules that I have to remember. Don't have anything at the LVCC right after something at the Venetian. Try not to schedule anything offsite. And whatever you do, schedule appointments - just don't schedule too many.
