Las Vegas’ Luck: CES 2009

For all the negative buzz about this year’s Consumer Electronics Show – mostly in terms of down attendance and down spending on consumer electronics purchases – from first-hand experience, I can report that it was a bustling event with positive feedback, energy and enthusiasm and cutting-edge technologies. Last week, I joined our partner and client Cernium in Las Vegas to debut its consumer-facing mobile video intelligence product, Archerfish. An innovations award winner in the integrated home systems category, Archerfish was heralded by a flurry of press conversations during CES Unveiled on Tuesday night, then spent the four days during the 2009 show passing out “Phish Food” to prospects, partners and press in exchange for time spent on a product demo. The product reaction was great and floor traffic busy. Interestingly, Twitter was this year’s communications method of choice, outranking phone, email or text messaging. Using Twitter kept everyone up to speed on meeting times, places and timely developments.

As a side note, as long as I was in Vegas, I had to try my luck at the casino at least once. I sat down at one slot machine at the Wynn, inserted $20 bucks and walked away one hundred dollars richer just five minutes later. Luck or strategy? Either way, Cernium and I are both pleased with the last week’s events at CES 2009.

-Julie Buckley
(Photo by Douglas Cole)