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I used to work in the event services industry and CES no longer needs to exist. All of the major companies can hold their own press events and promote their pr

I used to work in the event services industry and CES no longer needs to exist. All of the major companies can hold their own press events and promote their products. Why buy an exhibitor booth at CES when you could take the same money and DIY. Apple , Google and Microsoft get this. Also, things like Kickstarter do the same. In a few years CES , E3 won't really exist anymore they are already dead.

kbutler 9y ago
CES and E3 exist because many people, especially the press, are willing to go. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have a big enough draw that people (the press) will pay to go see what they provide. Smaller, less-dominant companies don't inspire the same level of desire. What good is saving money by providing your own show if nobody comes?
jandrese 9y ago
CES is for brand recognition. There are thousands of products that come into existence and disappear every year. Having to find the website for all of them would never happen. Even aggregators like this site are going to miss most of them. Walking the floors of the convention is a great way to get a huge infodump on what people are planning to sell. I agree that a lot of what goes on there is a stupendous waste of money, but you are guaranteed to see dozens of products that you've never heard about when you walk the show floor. The other reason people set up booths there is that they're looking for distribution partners and investors. It's a long shot, but it's better than every distributor and every investor getting a call from every company that wants to make/sell products in the US. This is why you see a ton of Chinese companies with tiny booths with names like Shenzen Happy Fun Heavy Industries just waiting for someone with an investor badge to walk by and make an offer to sell their phone cases and USB cables.
- zitterbewegung 9y ago
  I think that Linus Tech tips could singlehandedly eliminate CES.
chrisco255 9y ago
What about the independents and the start-ups? No great options exist for them.
- bufferoverflow 9y ago
  YouTube, Reddit, HN, all kinds of tech blogs.
  - larkeith 9y ago
    Tech blogs, and internet media in general, serve a fundamentally different product than a trade show, with much lower information bandwidth.
whywhywhywhy 9y ago
My understanding is CES is a big deal for retail buyers.
patch_collector 9y ago
It's pretty handy for connecting with other companies, especially as a startup. I was there this year, helping out with someone else's booth, and I'd say the primary value was the number of manufacturing / marketing / partnership contacts that were able to be made by having a booth. I'm not sure how many people we talked to will end up being buyers, but I'm pretty sure that we met people who will help the company succeed. As a side note, I found the startup area so much more interesting than the main halls. Who cares about seeing a TV that's slightly larger than your last one, when you can learn about a treadmill that's thin and light enough to tuck between the couch and the wall, or a pet food feeder that detects which pet to feed based on their vet microchips?

kbutler 9y ago

CES and E3 exist because many people, especially the press, are willing to go. Apple, Google, and Microsoft have a big enough draw that people (the press) will pay to go see what they provide. Smaller, less-dominant companies don't inspire the same level of desire. What good is saving money by providing your own show if nobody comes?

jandrese 9y ago

CES is for brand recognition. There are thousands of products that come into existence and disappear every year. Having to find the website for all of them would never happen. Even aggregators like this site are going to miss most of them. Walking the floors of the convention is a great way to get a huge infodump on what people are planning to sell. I agree that a lot of what goes on there is a stupendous waste of money, but you are guaranteed to see dozens of products that you've never heard about when you walk the show floor. The other reason people set up booths there is that they're looking for distribution partners and investors. It's a long shot, but it's better than every distributor and every investor getting a call from every company that wants to make/sell products in the US. This is why you see a ton of Chinese companies with tiny booths with names like Shenzen Happy Fun Heavy Industries just waiting for someone with an investor badge to walk by and make an offer to sell their phone cases and USB cables.

zitterbewegung 9y ago
I think that Linus Tech tips could singlehandedly eliminate CES.

chrisco255 9y ago

What about the independents and the start-ups? No great options exist for them.

bufferoverflow 9y ago
YouTube, Reddit, HN, all kinds of tech blogs.
- larkeith 9y ago
  Tech blogs, and internet media in general, serve a fundamentally different product than a trade show, with much lower information bandwidth.

whywhywhywhy 9y ago

My understanding is CES is a big deal for retail buyers.

patch_collector 9y ago

It's pretty handy for connecting with other companies, especially as a startup. I was there this year, helping out with someone else's booth, and I'd say the primary value was the number of manufacturing / marketing / partnership contacts that were able to be made by having a booth. I'm not sure how many people we talked to will end up being buyers, but I'm pretty sure that we met people who will help the company succeed. As a side note, I found the startup area so much more interesting than the main halls. Who cares about seeing a TV that's slightly larger than your last one, when you can learn about a treadmill that's thin and light enough to tuck between the couch and the wall, or a pet food feeder that detects which pet to feed based on their vet microchips?