Reviewing CES reports is an unnerving affair.  At first you believe that your Competitors have the steal on you and that certain technologies that you are involved in are being taken over but not by your Company…Its a stressful thing to imagine that the commercial world that you are in,  is no longer interested in your stuff,  only the new stuff that CES showcases;  however a deep breath and a realistic assessment tells you one thing and one thing only:  It’s all a lot of hot air.

I loved the Twitter post by someone I know very well at Sun Microsystems who said that Sharp had lost credibility by manning their booth with “models” not TV models that is ladies and gentlemen; beautiful people.  Perhaps you have to be beautiful to work at Sharp, who knows,  but it does turn it all into a bit of a circus for a few TV screens and bit of software doesn’t it?

CES is a Carbon Footprint away from hypocricy as is Las Vegas actually.  All the “Save the Planet” doogooders want me to do a “triage” on my house waste and offset my CF by buying credits at the airline I choose to fly to Vegas on, and then you enter the cauldron of the North and South Halls, Sands et al…How many Megawatts does the Sharp stand use just by itself…and what about the booths that get “trashed” the carpet that gets “binned” and the waste, waste and more waste produced to look at a few gadgets and gizmos that are in general not even market-ready half the time?

CEBIT is the same in Europe as is IBC…There is never a deal done at these events that has not already been legally scrutinised and pre-prepared as if we could all be fooled.  Some of us it seems are as we immediately sign up for next year to “secure the space”,  hoping that our badly spent trade-show cash will bring more deals that we didn’t get this year or last year or the years before.

Nokia announced that it is out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as it has all become hugely packed, noisy and expensive….I remember when British Telecom quit the Telcom 1999 show in Geneva to hire a boat on the lake – more cost effective and no tyre kickers asking you for freebies…better business sense for their top clients and potential new clients by sexy invitation only – respectful, classy and correct when the likes of a stand cost millions of swissies for 10 days.

When will the Carbon Footprint of  Tradeshows be calculated and criticised – soon I imagine or is it sooooo important that we will ignore it and plant a tree or two in an attempt to hide our guilt.

And guess what.  I wasn’t even there this year – due to cost, a Nigerian idiot who spoiled the USA travel (already nightmare) experience and the fact that there is nothing a meeting in our offices or at a client who knows what we do could not achieve…Then again I did miss out on all those Gadgets, Gizmos, BoothBabes, The Cocktails, The Razzamatazz and Gambling, Jetlag and liver damage – Damn!