Feature Article: Covering Horsepower and Technology within the Madness of CES
January 12, 2011 - Audizine
Just last week we headed off to "Sin City" in order to cover Audi's very first official appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show, known in short as CES. This trade show comes just a few months after SEMA (which stands for Specialty Equipment Market Association), also in Las Vegas, and a week before the NAIAS (North American International Auto Show) in Detroit. Unable to attend them all, I had to choose one of the three acronyms to attend. CES won out over the others both because of the sheer size of the event and how much I'd heard about the show over the years. It certainly lived up to the hype, and now I can check that massive bitch of a trade show off my "bucket list". Although, it did nearly kill me, as days later I'm still recovering. The copious levels of alcohol and meager amounts of sleep may also have something to do with it...
Day one of CES began bright and early Thursday morning (January 6th) when it was off to the Las Vegas Convention Center to obtain my badge holder then to the nearby Hilton for a keynote speech by AUDI AG Chairman Rupert Stadler. It was then that I learned just how difficult it was going to be during our entire stay to get a cab (or any mode of public transportation for that matter) anywhere in town. If I was going to wait in the hotel's taxi or shuttle line, I'd surely miss the keynote. So it was off to the street to flag down a cab. Luckily that risky move paid off, and away I went to the Thunderdome!
The next lesson I learned, is if you're registered as press then get there a day early on the actual "Press Day". Thursday was the first full-on day of CES, and since they were expecting nearly 200,000 attendees, the press registration was no longer mixed in with the other various types of attendees. It meant heading from the North Hall near where the keynote was being held, across the Central Hall, and over to the South Hall in order to simply get my badge holder! Even though I had my badge weeks in advance, a few of the "door guards" were denying entry without that piece of paper hanging from a piece of plastic around my neck! A few tries later, and several minutes late, I was finally into the conference room and in my seat. Mr. Stadler was already on stage along with a stunning red e-tron Spyder concept, but thankfully I didn't miss much. More
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Related Video: Highlights from CES Las Vegas 2011
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