Excerpt:
Exhibitor Mitch Goldstone, president and CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com, says he’s been to CES every year since 1998 and is well aware of the potential for traffic hassles.”Oh man, what a mess,” Goldstone said when first asked about traffic during the event.
Goldstone remembered attempting to drive from Mandalay Bay to The Venetian during a past CES. He said he spent an hour on Las Vegas Boulevard making the trek.
Since then, Goldstone says he avoids rental cars and cabs and sticks to the monorail or simply walks between venues. “It is a lot of fun, not just people-watching, but watching all the people fighting for taxis,” he said.
But he said fighting crowds is better than having a slow show. He was also able to secure front row tickets to shows such as “O” and “Love” on Friday and Saturday nights just within the past few weeks.
Another foreboding sign, he recently landed a room at Encore for $159 per night — an unheard of price for luxury accommodations during CES in recent years. With the economy in the tank and no signs of recovery on the horizon, Goldstone is worried the show could suffer long-term damage.
The advent of online social networking and communication services such as Twitter threatens to undermine the “show and tell” aspect that is a big part of CES’s appeal. Goldstone worries that technology that enables people to experience the gadgetry of CES without the headaches could make it more difficult for the show to regain customers even after the economy recovers.
From the several interviews at CES profiling ScanMyPhotos.com and our super fast and affordable photo scanning services, a tech radio interview will be broadcast nationwide next week. Check back for a link to that program.
Among our favorite customers is Jeff Graham, who was at the show, reporting for USA Today. ScanMyPhotos.com had previously scanned about 5,000 photos of Jeff and his wife, Ruth’s photo memories during their visit to our Irvine, Calif. headquarters. I was surprised when seeing Jeff at the show because he had his “USA Today” name badge dangling from his neck. Think of the swarming publicists who wou
ld give anything to get their client’s products reviewed by Jeff. I mentioned the visibility of the name badge, and with an instant reflex, he hid and reversed the name identification. Jeff invited us to live on his USA Today “Live From CES” program.
