TECHNOLOGY REPORT

Greetings CES Attendees.  Here’s a list from CES of several of the official events happening during the conference.  Note that in addition to these there are many private parties, blogger events, and more.  Some of those are kept secret while some are listed at CESPartylist.com and, in a and soon at  the more comprehensive list we try to maintain here at Technology Report.

Most of those blogger, press, and special parties require invitations so it’s often best to contact folks before or during the conference to make sure you can get into an event.   Also note that some of the best events are “hospitality suites” held after “pitches” by the big players.  These large business sponsors will invite everyone attending their “pitch” event to enjoy drinks and food.

Generally, even if you *should* be allowed into an event you’ll have hassles if you are not on the pre-approved lists, but note that some of the events below appear to be open to all attendees such as the Tweetup and Tao wrap up CES party on Friday.

PDF of the following events at CES 2012 is HERE

PMDA Awards Ceremony and After Party
7:30 p.m. Monday, January 9
ARIA, Haze Nightclub

The PhotoImaging Manufacturers and Distributors Association (PMDA),
For information or tickets, contact Michelle Tramantano at michelle@pmda.com.

The 2012 CES Hot Stuff Awards
5 p.m. Tuesday, January 10
Winners Announced Online at www.Stuff.tv
10 most desirable, most exciting and most innovative products to launch at 2012 CES.  Stuff at Stuff.TV
about the 2012 CES Hot Stuff Awards.

Mark of Excellence Awards Reception
5-6 p.m. Tuesday January 10
LVCC, South Hall 1, CEPro@CES
The Mark of Excellence Supplier Awards are joining the International CES
Innovations Design and Engineering Awards program! This new and exciting
announcement allows you to increase your product’s exposure, recognition
and prestige. The Innovations Awards program recognizes the most
innovative consumer electronics products in the industry’s hottest product
categories and has become a hallmark for the best designed products in
consumer technology. The Mark of Excellence System Integrator Awards will
resume in 2012 and will culminate with the announcement of the winners
at the 2013 International CES in Las Vegas, but you don’t have to wait until
2013 to celebrate! There will be a reception in honor of the 2011 Mark of
Excellence System Integrator fi nalists and winners during the 2012 CES.

SportsNation
2 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
LVCC, Central Hall, ESPN 3D Booth #13632
Watch Emmy Award-winning SportsNation live as it becomes ESPN’s first

studio program to be telecast in 3D! The show provides an off-beat look
at sports, doesn’t take itself too seriously, and weaves pop culture into a
fast-paced hour like no other.

CES Tweet Up
4-7 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
Las Vegas Hilton, SpaceQuest Lounge
Twitter followers and friends are invited to meet the CES Social Media Team
and other members of our online community at the Offi cial CES Tweet Up.
Meet social media mavens, talk tech and enjoy drink specials. Follow at @
intlCES for more information.

The 2012 What HI-FI?
Sound and Vision Stars of CES
5 p.m. Winners Announced
Wednesday, January 11
The Venetian, Tower Suite 29-326
The 2012 CES sees the launch of Stars of CES – a new Awards scheme
from the world’s leading home entertainment buyer’s guide, showcasing
the music- and movie-boosting heroes – of the world’s greatest tech show.
Centered on the audio exhibits in The Venetian, Stars of CES will highlight
the show’s most impressive debuts – from the latest high-tech streaming
solutions to the very best in traditional hi-fi and AV. Potential Stars of CES
winners don’t need a big booth to impress our expert judges – just a superb
new product launched at The Venetian Tower of the 2012 International
CES, which our global readership of enthusiasts is waiting to be excited by.
Leaders in Technology Dinner
6:30 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
Wynn Las Vegas, Lafite Ballroom
By Invitation Only
The most distinguished event at CES, the Leaders in Technology (LIT)
Dinner attracts 500 of the most influential industry leaders, including
executive-level government representatives and policy makers.

MashBash
7 p.m. Wednesday, January 11
Mirage, 1 0AK Night Club
The MashBash at CES will be celebrating the best of digital – from the
Mashable Awards winners to the trends and companies joining Mashable
at CES.The MashBash will bring together the Mashable community,
industry leaders and digital infl uencers from the biggest technology and
consumer electronic brands.
From awards programs to tweet ups and everything in between, CES has something for everyone.
Take a look at the awards

Developer University at CES

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, South Hall Connector, Room S228
Want to know what’s happening in the app world? Attend the first ever
Developer University at CES event brought to you by the Consumer Electronics
Association (CEA)®. Hear directly from product manufacturers and
developers about their platforms, developer tools, sdks, APIs and developer
programs. Sessions will be broken down topically by TV apps, device APIs,
third-party API, web apps, desktop apps, mobile apps and more. Registration
is free but you must RSVP by December 30 in order to secure your
space. Learn more about the event and presenting companies at www.
CESweb.org/events/devu.asp.
Last Gadget Standing
10:30 a.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, North Hall, Room N255
A perennial attendee favorite, Last Gadget Standing challenges contenders to
give the product demo of their lives. At stake: bragging rights as the product
“most likely to change the face of technology.” See all the winners strut their
stuff in this inventive, fast-paced competition. Guest emcees Gary Dell’Abate
and Jon Hein from the Howard Stern Show will host the event.

CNET Best of CES Awards
11 a.m. Winners Announced, Thursday, January 12
LVCC, South Hall 3 Lobby
CNET hosts the official Best of CES Awards live on the show floor. A team
of expert editors scour the International CES to find the most buzz-worthy,
category-defining, innovative, and promising products at the show.

Mobile Apps Showdown
12:30 p.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, North Hall, Room N255
Are you ready for a showdown? Pit your mobile app against the competition
during the Mobile Apps Showdown at 2012 CES! Apps producers will have
two minutes to demo their app, and an applause-o-meter will measure audience
enthusiasm to determine the winners. Judges will select 10 finalists
for the apps competition, which will take place live at the 2012 CES and
online. Two winners will be selected, one based on a live vote at the 2012
CES and the other based on online voters at the site.

CES Edition of Friday Night Fights
1:30 p.m. Thursday, January 12
LVCC, Central Hall, ESPN 3D Booth #13632
Let’s get ready to rumble! Join ESPN 3D for the best seat in the house during
Top Rank boxing matches staged live on the show floor. This event will
also be telecast live on ESPN 3D.

IAWTV Awards
6-8 p.m. Thursday, January 12
The Venetian, Level 2, Venetian Showroom
The International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV) will hold its inaugural
IAWTV Awards at the 2012 International CES. The Awards will serve as an
annual event, and will be the first award show within the industry to be
presented by content creators for content creators. For its inaugural gala,
the IAWTV Awards will consist of 33 categories honoring web series and
talent, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

Technology & Engineering Emmy® Awards
6:30 p.m. Reception; 7:30 p.m. Dinner
Thursday, January 12
The Venetian, Level 4, Delfino 4101
Launched in 1948, The Technology and Engineering Emmy® Awards honor
development and innovation in broadcast technology and recognize companies,
organizations and individuals for breakthroughs in technology that
have a significant effect on television engineering. The Emmy Awards will
be presented at the International CES for the sixth year in a row. For ticket
and sponsorship information, contact Lauren Saverine at 212-484-9440 or
by email at lsaverine@emmyonline.tv.
TAO: The Official CES Closing Party
10-11 p.m. Friday, January 13
The Venetian, TAO Nightclub*
Join us at one of Vegas’ hottest nightclubs, TAO, for the Official CES Closing
Party on the last night of CES, Friday, January 13. Enjoy expedited access
into the night club and an exclusive wristband for service to their well open
bar from 10-11 p.m. For bottle service/table reservations in advance, email
Bob.Shindelar@taogroup.com.
* All guests must be 21+ w/ ID and compliant with dress code for admission.

LeVar Burton and Joe Duck (Hunkins)

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

CES 2012 – Celebrity watching!

One of the cool parts of the CES experience are the celebrities who appear at the show in both officially as representatives for companies or informally as technophiles. I’m a big fan of LeVar Burton’s work in Star Trek as well as the PBS “Reading Rainbow” series I used to watch with my kids, so it was great to meet him in person at a blogger party during CES 2010. Brent Spiner was also at the excellent “It Won’t Stay in Vegas” party thrown every year by the Parnassus Group. http://parnassusgroup.com/

This year at CES 2012 there will be

The VERY popular iPhone 5 video is a hoax, but it’s still worth watching. Although this is not a concept phone as suggested, the “laser keyboard” and “holographic screen” technologies are not necessarily out of reach in the near future.

Since 1967, the Consumer Electronics Show – CES, has been one of the key events in the world to showcase new consumer technology. CES alumni will enjoy the archive of historical photos over at Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/internationalces/sets/72157627123633017/with/6244564172/

Two extraordinary technology items this week are the identification of a new “goldilocks planet” named Kepler-22b.  Kepler-22b may have attributes so similar to earth it could harbor life that is “like us”.   This isn’t the first such planet, and researchers in this field are increasingly optimistic about finding many, many planets that could harbor life something like what evolved here on earth.  Generally they are looking for stable temperatures that allow for the presence of liquid water, thought to be a good “breeding ground” for the building blocks of evolution – increasingly complex molecular structures that change through random mutations over long periods of time into simple and then into complex organisms… like us.

SETI, the “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”, has been around for some time but thanks to new funding and tech and discovery advances it will have a better chance of success.  Many believe that other life is more than 99.99% likely (we are NOT that special!), but *finding it* with our primitive technologies is going to be difficult.

• 

  NASA Discovers Earthlike Planet | NewsHour Extra: Video ClipBoard | PBS

  www.pbs.org

CES 2012 is the world’s top technology conference, and it brings over 100,000 industry insiders and about 2500 technology exhibitors from all over the world to a city that is already one of the world’s top tourism destinations, Las Vegas.     The CES conference is usually the biggest of the year in Las Vegas, and it tends to fill all of the strip hotels.   However, if you need a nice room at the last minute OR you are traveling on your own dime, OR you want to do your company a favor and stay inexpensively, consider the many excellent downtown hotels in the area known as “Fremont Street”.      Ironically, the look and feel of Freemont Street is a lot more like the Las Vegas many know from movies, even recent ones.   Unlike the strip where the hotels – several of the world’s largest – have thousands of rooms in sprawling resorts that can be as long as a city block, in downtown Las Vegas you’ll find much smaller venues.    Recent renovations of several of the properties in the Fremont Street Area as well as the addition years ago of a massive overhead canopy with a spectacular hourly light show have made the downtown area a lot more appealing.    On top of that, the wildly successful Zappos shoe empire will soon move its offices to this area in the hopes of helping to rennovate and stabilize the economy of downtown Las Vegas.

Here are some nice travel tips from the CES Official Website, CESweb.org :  CES Travel Tips

Although CES conference buses do NOT serve the downtown hotels (at least I’ve never seen that in my several years at the conference), you can catch “the deuce” bus pretty much any time which will take you down the strip to the Venetian where CES has a very regular shuttle back and forth to the Convention Center.   Taxis are more expensive but also a quick way to get to the Convention Center. I’d recommend you avoid trying to take the city bus from downtown to the Convention Center or to the Monorail station at the Sahara because the transfers can be tricky and they don’t run nearly as often as “the deuce”.

The Deuce costs $3 per ride (a bit ironic, since I believe the name originally referred to the $2 fare), or you can purchase a daily pass for $7 or a 3 day for $15.      There’s also an express strip bus that runs a similar route to the deuce.     Information about that is here and you should print out this route map to orient yourself between the strip and downtown, a distance of a few miles:  http://www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/transit/route/stripdowntown/stripdowntown(09-18-11).pdf

Ford’s Alan Mulally Talks Technology
Copyright Technology Report , use with credit.

The CES Innovation Power Panel  happens at 9am on January 11 in the Las Vegas Hilton Theater.    The panel will feature three top American CEOs who will discuss the roles that innovation has played in the success of their respective companies.

At the 2009 CES Mulally impressed the crowd with Ford’s technology and forward looking corporate world view.    I asked him then if Ford would be “needing bailout money” and he answered that he didn’t think so.    Impressively, Ford never did take any bailout money.    In fact some sources suggest that Mulally recently had pressure from no less than the President Obama to pull an advertisement that mentioned how the other car makers took bailout money.    The format was  the Ford “press conference” where a Ford buyer mentions he did not want to buy a “bailout” money car.     Here’s more on that issue:   http://www.autoblog.com/2011/09/27/ford-yanks-bailout-ad-amidst-controversy-w-video/

Biographies of the Innovation Panel CEOs at CES 2012 from CES Website.

Ursula Burns, chairman and CEO of Xerox Corporation, has been with Xerox since 1980. She began her career with the company as a mechanical engineering summer intern before working her way up to lead various organizations including Xerox’s global research as well as product development, marketing and delivery. She was named CEO in July 2009 and has since been instrumental in driving the acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services, which has transformed Xerox into the world’s leading enterprise for business process and document management. Burns has been recognized for her leadership by both Fortune and Forbes magazine’s “Most Powerful Women” lists.  Also, under Ursula’s watch Xerox has been named to Bloomberg Businessweek’s ”The World’s 25 Most Inventive Companies.”

Lowell McAdam was named president and CEO of Verizon Communications in August 2011, having previously served as the company’s president and COO. He also held key executive positions at Verizon Wireless since its inception in 2000, and built the company into the industry’s leading wireless provider, with the nation’s largest, most reliable wireless voice and 4G broadband data network. Additionally, he has served as vice president of international operations for AirTouch Communications. McAdam currently serves as chairman of the Verizon Wireless Board of Representatives, and on the board of directors of Verizon Communications.

Alan Mulally, president and CEO of Ford Motor Company, joined Ford in 2006, after serving as executive vice president of The Boeing Company and president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. He is known for his innovative and focused industry leadership, while working to transform Ford into a lean, global enterprise. He has served as a past president of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and is a former president of its Foundation. Mulally was named Chief Executive Magazine’s “CEO of the Year” in 2011, “Businessperson of the Year” by the readers of Fortune Magazine in 2010, one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2009 and “Person of the Year” in 2006 by Aviation Week magazine.