2014 International CES

2014 International CES®
Las Vegas Convention Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
January 7-10, 2014

Attendees: 150,000+
Exhibitors/Sponsors: 3,200+
Media/Analysts: 5,000+

Calysto Overview

For some, the sheer size of CES is exhilarating, but for most, it’s nothing short of exhausting. “It’s easy to get bogged down by the size of CES: Its show floor spans miles, it crams far too many people into a city without the infrastructure to support them, and it’s often overflowing with industry hype rather than true innovation” Devindra Hardawar, VentureBeat.

Owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the 2014 International CES was the largest in show history with two million net square feet of exhibit space, breaking last year’s previously set record of 1.92 million net square feet. The show welcomed more than 150,000 attendees, including 35,000 from outside the U.S. In total, CES featured 25 market-specific TechZones and 15 major product categories representing all aspects of the technology ecosystem and bringing together leaders from major global industries, as well as policy makers and government officials.

The most dominant theme at this year’s event was wearable tech, “which will give brands an opportunity to dive even deeper into our everyday lives (providing said brands can restrain themselves enough to develop applications that are genuinely useful and not overly obtrusive)” Karl Woolley commented. While products like curved televisions, 3-D printers and driverless cars garnered the most attention at the show.

More than 3,200 exhibitors showcased their latest technologies and major tech breakthroughs, launching some 20,000 new products in an effort to capture the world’s attention. However, Tested.com writer Will Smith was unimpressed, “the vast majority of products being shown here are absolute garbage. I’m talking about products that no one in their right mind could want. Things like ridiculously oversized phone watches or electric scooters that cost more than a used car.”

Hotwire/33Digital reported that the top brands being talked about on Twitter were Samsung (19,858 mentions), Sony (16,497 mentions), LG (12,159 mentions), Logitech (10,798 mentions), and PlayStation (8,828 mentions).

The top five trends being talked about were 4K TV resolution (15,667 mentions), wearables (11,873 mentions), smart gadgets (11,302 mentions), 3D printing (9,632 mentions), and the Internet of Things (9,082 mentions).

Keynotes/Conference Program

What do you get when you bring together vampires, Big Bird, Desmond Tutu, Star Trek, a Rolls Royce and Maroon 5? Quite possibly the most bizarre keynote speech in CES history, courtesy of Qualcomm.

This was the first time in many years that Microsoft didn’t host the opening keynote at CES. Instead, the show relied on Qualcomm and its CEO, Dr. Paul Jacobs. It’s hard to tell if this decision resulted in an epic fail or a huge win, in an any press is good press kind of way. The unconventional keynote elicited a slew of hilarious tweets that somewhat tell the story of what went down:

CEO Marisa Mayer also delivered a compelling, albeit less peculiar keynote that brought to life Yahoo’s vision for curating entertaining digital content across its sites. She even brought Katie Couric to the stage to discuss her interview partnership with Yahoo Media. Mayer stressed Yahoo’s “mobile first” approach throughout the keynote, which included the launch of two new digital magazines, Yahoo Food and Yahoo Tech. Other highlights, included an SNL “Weekend Update” sketch, where host Cecily Strong performed a skit with Kenan Thompson and a “Yahoo on the Road” performance by John Legend.

Cisco Chairman and CEO, John Chambers, shared his vision for the Internet of Everything (IoE), computers talking to other computers without the help of people, during Tuesday afternoon’s keynote address. Chambers estimates the economic impact of IoE at $19 trillion (yes, TRILLION) by 2020. However, some analysts think that number is greatly overstated. To put it into context, $19 trillion is about the size of the U.S. debt ceiling, or of America’s annual gross domestic product.

R.W. Baird & Co. analyst Jayson Noland said he was surprised to hear that Chambers had signed up to deliver a keynote address, “given Cisco’s de-emphasized consumer electronics over the last couple of years.”

Cisco Systems stock has seen a consistent downtrend in recent quarters. Analysts have predicted that revenue will decline by almost 5 percent in 2014. In December, Cisco cut its sales growth outlook for the next three to five years. Despite this, Chambers believes IOE will propel Cisco to the No. 1 IT provider. Following CES, Cisco stock did lead the tech industry with a modest 1.1 percent bump.

In true CES fashion, Chambers also welcomed a celebrity guest onto the stage, “Hi I’m Sarah Silverman, comedian, actor and writer — though I didn’t write this shit,” she says. “I’m here to talk to you about the new Internet of everything. It will cook your food for you, drive your car and make you more interesting…And if you order it now, you will get a free set of Ginsu knives.”

But some wonder if we’ve heard it all before. At the 2014 CES, Cisco demonstrated an Internet-connected refrigerator. “Each time you finish a carton of juice or deplete the frozen dinners, it builds a shopping list for your next order to the e-grocer.” The 2000 CES also featured a Cisco/Whirlpool smart ‘fridge with the ability to “know” what’s inside, as reported by Multichannel News 14 years ago. It’s unclear whether 2014 consumers will have greater receptivity than 2000’s, but Chambers is betting the farm on it.

The 2014 CES featured more than 250 conference sessions and 850 speakers including founders, presidents and CEOs from: AT&T, Cisco, Ericsson, Facebook, Intel,

Microsoft, Pandora, Qualcomm, Redbox Instant by Verizon, Salesforce ExactTarget, Sony, Twitter, Xbox, Yahoo and Zuckerberg Media.

The “Technology as Muse” – Inspiring Innovation Brand Matters SuperSession highlighted technology’s impact on creativity. The SuperSession opened with a discussion from Michael Kassan of Media Link and Keith Weed of Unilever on technology’s role in fueling change for brands.

CNET’s Next Big Thing: The New Hardware SuperSession focused on the future of sensor driven technology. Panelists included speakers from: Intel, Ford, Microsoft and Misfit Wearables. The discussion was moderated by Brian Cooley and Tim Stevens, both editors at large at CNET. Panelists agreed that companies have yet to take full advantage of the sensors that are housed in current devices. The future of CE will be shaped by innovative thinkers who can bring out the full potential of sensor driven technology.

Celebrity Sightings

Hollywood stars, musicians, sports legends and TV personalities also took time out of their glamorous lives to attend the 2014 CES in an effort to promote their latest tech related projects. Television host Maria Menounos served as the ambassador for the Entertainment Matters at CES program. Variety’s Breakthrough of the Year Awards celebrated a diverse range of talent from the fields of film, television, music, comedy and more at a premiere red carpet event. TV personality Nick Cannon hosted the awards where Olivia Munn was honored as Breakthrough Actress, Janelle Monae was honored as Breakthrough Music Artist, Amy Schumer was honored for Breakthrough Comedy, and actress Kristen Bell accepted the Breakthrough Film honor on behalf of the film “Veronica Mars.” Other celebrity sightings included: Pharrel Williams, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Tebow and more.

The event that garnered coverage from every media outlet from The New York Times to TMZ was Samsung’s CES press event featuring “Transformers” director Michael Bay to discuss the company’s new curved HDTVs. Unfortunately for Bay, Samsung appeared to have issues with the teleprompters being used to cue onstage presenters. This caused the director to have a mini-meltdown and walk off stage, leaving the audience and the moderator dumbfounded. Bay later posted a message on his website explaining the fail, “Wow! I just embarrassed myself at CES … I got so excited to talk, that I skipped over the Exec VP’s intro line and then the teleprompter got lost.” Then he added the obvious, “I guess live shows aren’t my thing.”

Awards

The Compass Intelligence Mobility Awards 2014 luncheon took place on January 8, 2014 during CES to announce the winners of this year’s awards. The event was attended by 150 to 170 media, award recipients, and sponsors.The Compass Intelligence Awards includes Mobility, A-List in M2M and Bamboo Mobile Green Technology Awards, and recognizes the best in mobile computing, wireless data communications, Machine-to-Machine, and eco-friendly products and services offered in the market during the past year. The winners of the awards were selected by 60+ industry-leading press and analysts who cover the mobile and wireless market. Click here for a listing of all the winners.

Day three of CES was highlighted by the Last Gadget Standing and Mobile Apps Showdown competitions. The Last Gadget Standing competition challenged contenders to present fast-paced product demos to a live audience. Co- hosts Gary Dell’Abate and Jon Hein from SiriusXM Radio’s Howard Stern channels hosted the competition, and winners were selected through an applause-o-meter. The winner of the product “most likely to change the face of technology,” was a Bluetooth-enabled deadbolt managed through a smart phone. A separate online vote awarded the top prize to the Skulpt Aim, a body fat/muscle-quality measurement device. A full list of finalists is available here.

Media & Analysts

Pre CES media events kicked off Sunday night with CES Unveiled LAS VEGAS: The Official Press Event of CES. Ninety-nine exhibitor tabletops drew one of the largest media crowds in Unveiled history with companies such as 3M Touch Systems, Arrayent, Inc., Bell’O International, Chevrolet, DISH, Escort, Fitbug, Holi, Lenovo, LG, Liquid Image, Molami, Off-Grid Solutions, Orbotix, Parrot, Pure, Samsung, Sculpteo, Soundfreaq, Tobii Technology, Velodyne, Xdroid Inc. and Yurbuds.

With more than 5,000 media and analysts in attendance, it’s clear that nearly every publication and research firm under the sun that covers tech, covers CES. With that said, the 150K attendees, 3K exhibitors and 20K new product announcements make it terribly difficult for companies to be heard over all the noise.

Summary

CES has many faces. Here, attendees are exposed to some of the most innovative technologies on the planet, some of the weirdest talks and inventions the industry has ever seen, a celebrity sighting or two and A LOT of germs.

According to the team at VentureBeat, “We survived CES, just barely, with 50 percent of our staff leveled by convention illness.” While writer Jeff Yang concurred, “I’m lying in bed today trying to recover from my annual bout with a malady that strikes me every January around this time like clockwork. The direct and proximate cause of my illness is the Consumer Electronics Show, which draws over 150,000 attendees—each of them bringing a truly exciting array of microbes from every corner of the map.”

For those that survived CES with their immune systems uncompromised, most left with a feeling of excitement about what’s to come for the technology industry in 2014.

As for media coverage, it remains difficult to get announcements heard at CES if you are a little fish in this big pond. However, companies that have a strong strategic plan, including PR, content and social can increase press visibility by securing meetings with editors and analysts before the start of the show. Just don’t expect to garner national news attention unless you’re huge (we’re talking Samsung huge) or your announcement is truly groundbreaking.

Up Next: The 2015 International CES^® will take place from January 6 – 9, 2015 in Las Vegas, NV.

Articles of Interest

Hot gaming gadgets from CES 2014
By Marc Saltzman
USA TODAY
Jan 19, 2014‎

Why startups were more than just a sideshow at CES
By Devindra Hardawar
VentureBeat
Jan 17, 2014‎

CES shows us that marketing is about to get a whole lot more immersive
By Karl Woolley
The Guardian (blog)
Jan 17, 2014‎

The best gadgets of 2014: We walked miles through CES to bring you the future
By Dean Takahashi and Devindra Hardawar
VentureBeat
January 15, 2014

The very worst gadgets (and people) of CES
VentureBeat
By J. O’Dell
January 14, 2014

VentureBeat’s take on the top 10 trends of CES
By Dean Takahashi and Devindra Hardawar
VentureBeat
January 11, 2014

Big data analysis reveals the top trends and brands at CES at a glance
By Dean Takahashi
VentureBeat
January 11, 2014

My day-by-day journal and whirlwind visual journey through CES (photo gallery)
By Dean Takahashi
VentureBeat
January 11, 2014

CES 2014 in pictures: Robots, giant TVs, gadgets, and more
By Devindra Hardawar
VentureBeat
January 10, 2014

The problem with CES and ‘MommyTech’
By J. O’Dell
VentureBeat
January 10, 2014