CES Monday – Monday Night – Tuesday Morning – They all mesh into one long day anyway…

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Where to begin…

My whole “I’m going to blog six things yesterday afternoon all got usurped by the breaking-right-the-hell-in-front-of-me Jordan Golson Valleywag news.

So let’s get to it.

First of all, I’d like you to meet the guy with the cleanest butt at CES, no doubt.

When “Fresh Elegance” shows their new “warming and cleaning” toilet at CES, you really have to ask yourself… Where is the show going? I mean, crap! er… Or… Well, you get the idea. I’ll stop before I spiral down a-hole.

It allows the signal to bypass the optimization in the television since it already assumes that the signal is optimized to begin with, since it’s coming from a high-output machine like a Wii or PS3. Smart! Gets rid of picture lag. And it’s freaking beautiful. Big props to Michael O’Connor Clark for the hookup – And for the water! Which seems like a good segue to talk about my experiment, and how it’s going.

Thanks to various companies, media centers, booths, and nice PR recruiters, I’m still at a total of $0.00 for food and alcohol at the 2008 CES show. Companies like Madcatz, Saitek, (which has some really cool new headphones for runners that they’re going to let me test) Verizon, and yes, even the generosity of someone at Edelman, (not Rubel) I haven’t spent a penny on food or alcohol. And keep in mind, I haven’t gone hungry (or thirsty!)

Which leads me into a rant on Valleywag’s overheard comment on me yesterday…

What I did NOT mean: “All journalists are fat.” I didn’t mean that, and you know damn well I didn’t say that. (Hear that, Mediabistro?)

What I DID mean, though… There are two types of journalists that cover E3 and request press credentials.

The first kind are real journalists. They schedule meetings. They walk the floor MAYBE for 30 minutes, only to get a feel of the show at the present time – They are busy on a regular basis, and spend the majority of their day in meetings and interviews, and the majority of their nights filing. This includes a lot of the Gizmodo guys, Gary Krakow, and journalists we all know, like Hiawatha Bray at the Boston Globe, and Steve Bass, both of whom I ran into since I got here.

But then, there are the other “journalists.” I put them in quotes, because quite frankly, it’s questionable whether they’re actually journalists. I call them “Comic Book Guy Journalists.”

They show up, scream that they’re journalists, usually showing a link to “Joesblog.blogspot.com” or something, get their press badges, then do two things for the week. Sit in the press center waiting for the free food, and they walk the show floor for the entire day, asking for free t-shirts and thumb drives. They’re totally comic book guy publicists – “WORST. FOOD. EVER.” they say, as they go back for third helpings of their tacos and bean dip drips down their t-shirts. It’s a mockery of the press, and it’s sad.

That second group are the people I was talking about when I said “yeah. Let’s see them revolt.” Because seriously – write something, or take your fifth helping of cake away from the working journalist table. Thanks.

OK. Onto other things… Last night’s parties were fun, including Saitek again, where I had my second “let’s watch someone turn purple moment.”

My friend Sam, who’s a buyer for a major retailer that will remain nameless, was a little pissed off that I compared her retailer to one of her biggest competitors. I wasn’t actually comparing them, but rather, saying that buyers get better options for parties than journalists, because let’s face it, they’re buyers, and they spend money. So of course companies would want to cater to them. Anyhow… So I get to the Saitek party, and as I’m getting my first beer, I hear a woman’s voice, “Yeah, this PR guy like totally compared me to <competitor> – What the hell was that? I’m totally not going to bring him to any parties with me tonight.

So I just stood there, and much like Gary Krakow to Jordan Golson, stared at her REALLY HARD.

When she realized who I was, and that I was right there… Well, it was the second time in under half a day that someone turned beet red in front of me. It was a nice moment. Especially when all the people who she buys from noticed what was going on, and started cracking up. It was lovely and enjoyable and made me smile. A lot.

She owes me a drink… Or six.

Heh.

The rest of the night… Stopped by the Showstoppers event to see if I could find anything for my Sun blog. As always, Otterbox was there with their latest offerings. They’ve got some cool stufff – waterproof casings, iPod protectors and the like. Good people with good products, those Otterboxers.

I shot my only “artsy” photo of the evening, the un-picked-up press badges from Showstoppers. Perhaps I’ll call it “Showstopped.”

Ran into Angie Kibiloski of Computer Times – Haven’t seen her since… Last year’s Saitek party. That was cool. It’s like some mini-reunion of all these people who you talk to all year, then see once for a night. Like a tech Brigadoon or something.

Off to meet with Sonic Impact, CEATEC, and then, very cool, to find my friend Regina Lynn, who writes for SexRev 2.0, and who’s here to cover the AAEs.

More soon…

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