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Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

M.I.A. at CES: Electronics

Like Michael Willner, the CEO of Insight Communications, I was in awe last week as I walked around CES. And walked. And walked.

In fact, I am so tired of walking at CES that I have pledged not to attend again.

Unless the Consumer Electronics Association figures out how to cut down on that walking in a meaningful way.

How does the trade group with “electronics” as its middle name manage that? Guess.

Here’s the crux of the problem, for those of you who weren’t there. And, of course, for those thousands of you who were.

If you wanted to see Sharp’s 108-inch LCD screen, Panasonic’s competing 103-incher and most of the other video, computing and mobile communications exhibits that mattered, you spent the core of your days at the South and Central halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center on Paradise Road. If you wanted to attend topical panel sessions, you spent your time in the North Hall.

But if you wanted to hear keynote speakers such as chief executives Bob Iger of The Walt Disney Co., Les Moonves of CBS Corp. and Ed Zander of Motorola, you had to trudge over to the Sands Convention Center and its meet point with the Venetian Hotel, on Las Vegas Boulevard.

Sounds simple, but it isn’t. If you wanted to catch either of the 4:30 p.m. keynotes (Iger or Moonves), you had to drop what you were doing at the Las Vegas Convention Center and begin your hunt for transportation. The taxi line would be a couple of hundred people, easily. The line for the shuttle buses would be the equivalent of two Manhattan blocks long, or more.

And if you survived that waste of your time, it very well could be for naught, anyway. Streets were in gridlock. The buses and taxis moved grudgingly at that time of day.

The only thing moving with any speed was Sin City’s monorail, overhead. But it didn’t actually go to the Venetian or the Sands. You had to get off at Harrah’s and walk. And walk. Easily 20 minutes before you were getting your voucher on the escalators on the way up to see a keynote. Even if you only went through two hotels. These overgrown lodging and gambling pantheons are mini-cities themselves, at this point.

I calculated that I wasted 2.5-3 hours a day merely in transit between these two locales — hours I could have really used spending time in exhibits or talking with industry executives.

What’s ultimately galling, though, is that once you get to a keynote, it doesn’t really matter that you’re there.

There’s no question-and-answer session, no interaction with the audience. A keynote is strictly a one-way communication, with well-choreographed slices of video and repartee with guest speakers. You don’t even watch the live human being on stage. He or she is too small, even if you’re sitting in the first row.

You watch the large-screen TV on one flank or the other. Then, you get the detail you need to understand the speaker’s facial and body language; or examine screen shots and demonstrations that are part of the presentation.

Hmmm. Large screen TVs. Where have I already seen them? Back at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

CEA: Can you spell v-i-d-e-o-c-o-n-f-e-r-e-n-c-e?

You’ve got 100,000 of the world’s most wired people in town … and you make them walk everywhere to see what’s going on, on a screen?

They’re already carrying screens: Treos, Blackberries, laptops. They’re passing by scores of screens in your exhibits. Open up the feed. Transmit it by cable (I bet you have a system operator there in town that would help you), to Las Vegas Convention Center. Transmit by air (bet AT&T or Verizon or Sprint Nextel could assist). Use Internet protocol for a Webcast. Go to where your audience is instead of making the audience come to you.

If nothing else, just do a simulcast. Find the biggest auditorium in the Las Vegas Convention Center complex, put up two large screens the same size as those in the Venetian and let people sit down – without high-tailing it across town – and watch the same pixels in the same size doing the same exact thing that is happening anyway.

I’ll bet the worst case is this: You double or triple the people who hear and see Iger, Moonves, Michael Dell or Zander. And the auditorium they’re in will still be full.

You talk the talk of electronics. Now, walk the walk. So attendees don’t have to.