Saturday, January 21, 2006
Pip rips CES
Pip Coburn thinks the world's largest trade show is missing its mark. He writes:
Disclosure: I'm a Research Fellow at Coburn Ventures.
. . . [CES] is a gathering of 150,000 Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives—think a gigantic Star Trek convention—most of whom are looking to sell something or other to someone else. This is the definition of an industry trade show. The problem is that the six billion people they really really really want to sell to aren't in Vegas . . . they have other things to do, like search for their remote controls.and
So why does CES not work? CES doesn't work because—unlike the telco execs exhibiting to each other at CeBit—the actual consumers of consumer electronics, that is most Earthlings, don't care if the digerati are gathering in Vegas to tell them their theories of what to do next—since those Earthlings aren't observing the digerati watching each other.My experience this year: CES is a fine place to do business. If you know who you want to talk to, all you need to do is make an appointment -- beforehand. But it is way too big for serendipity. I only saw two people I wanted to see but hadn't planned on seeing. I missed several others who I learned were there after the event. I'm afraid that CES is getting so big that nobody goes there anymore. And the "consumers" -- the C of CES -- as Pip points out, they're not there.
Disclosure: I'm a Research Fellow at Coburn Ventures.
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