CES 2009 was my first CES and my first convention of 2009!
Well, I’m sure you all are saying.. where the heck has Jinxie been?! I took a semester long hiatus last fall from GEN as I went back to school but now I’m a little freed up so here I am.
I’m sure for those CES vets, this little report will seem like old news, but nonetheless! I arrived a day late on Friday, driving up from Palm Springs after taking the first day to visit Kannaya on vacation (hi love!). So I had plenty to catch up on. Taking the monorail was pretty convenient, minus the whole part about walking what seemed like miles across the street and through the MGM casino just to get to it, but it did drop us off nicely in front of the south hall. Now, the conventions I’m used to usually involve costumed fans running wild, not business suited Asians. So this was definitely a change for me.
GENgirls invade CES!!
The first booth we wandered into was the Skullcandy booth. They were promoting their new line of headphones, 2XL. There were different styles and sizes, catering to different groups of popular culture.
The booths, mostly those manned by larger and recognizeable brands, were large and spanned throughout sections of the halls, and contained several familiar and new toys making the techies go wild. One most noteably memorable was Samsung, who greeted attendees with a multiscreen header making any of us wishing we could cover a whole wall with it.
In addition to the paper thin TVs and lots of other goodies, one of the highlights of the Samsung booth was the touch screen vending machine spitting out free Coke - but NOT the line of people waiting to try it that wrapped and weaved around the booth!
I was surprised to see a fair amount of booth babes. I really had imagined CES to be on a lot more of an industry/professional scale, but I guess they’re right - sex sells! Although I did hear through the grapevine that some of the boothbabes are actual employees of the company who happen to be goodlooking and are made into boothbabes. A few I spoke to seemed quite knowledgeable on the product, so it seems pretty realistic.
Friday night, I hit the Capcom Resident Evil 5 party hosted at Planet Hollywood. We arrived a bit late - and lucky for us! The demo party was being held poolside, and YES it was chilly! The upside was RE5 being projected 7 stories, YES 7 STORIES of the Planet Hollywood walls and I got to check it out before they wrapped it up!
Afterwards, everyone moved to the mezzanine indoors for from drinks and dancing. I was impressed that this party kept a nice balance between gaming geek and Las Vegas party atmosphere.
Saturday brought me to central hall, trying to run around and see as much as I can. I noticed that one of the hottest hippest accessories has become to USB card. Several booths offered fashionable, stylish and even customizable jump drives.
They even came blinged out on keychains and necklaces!
Sunday we tried to covered some of the big names we missed. Toshiba was definitely a contender for the biggest booth.
The booth was not only large, but simple, streamlined, and staffed with lots of people to help you out. They certainly were leading innovation - they opened a presentation with a classical violin trio.
They teased us with new gadgets such as gaming specific laptops and waterproof laptops!
And you know, us GENgirls ALWAYS find the RockBand set up.. even if it’s tucked away in a hidden alcove at the giant Toshiba booth!
Sunday felt rather rushed, and unfortunately I had to skim a lot of stuff while we ran through south and central halls on the last day to get as much in as we could. But I know for sure that next CES better watch out… because we’ll be back!
Wanna see more? Click to see my CES album on Flickr!
January 16th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Jinxie, where the heck have you been?!!
January 16th, 2009 at 8:00 am
I think that British blogger needs to join you next year, Ive heard shes pretty cool.
Glad you had an awesome time,looking great girls!
January 16th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Lol look at Traycee, being a rebel in her Street Fighter t-shirt and jeans.
Was the RE5 preview on those seven stories actually good visual-wise? I mean, by the picture it looks like it would be difficult to tell what’s going on.
January 16th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
It was great seeing some of you girls at the event! I just wish I could’ve run into Becky somewhere.
January 16th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Damn, I so should have been there that weekend. But I will see you all at the other events this year.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I wish I had been there! You guys looked like you had fun! I am up for next year! Glad the shirt fits Traycee!!!
January 17th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
WITA - they had a flat screen TV for the game - I did try to watch the projection while I played but it was pretty difficult.
January 18th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
@ WITA: That’s right! Everyone dressed up except for me *lol*!!
@ VirtualGirl: Everyone loved the shirt! Thank you sooooo much! It fits so well. Especially in the boobie area!