CES Day 2 - We survived the blackout!

So Day 2 of CES was abuzz with talk of the big 'blackout' at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. A power failure... at the World's biggest tech show... irony really does know no bounds! Luckily we were at Eureka Park the startup area over at the Sands Convention Centre, so we missed the excitement but the news did travel in fairly epic fashion and we knew all about how the power was out.

So why was this making such a stir? Well apart from the fact that it's so easy to get lost in the LVCC with full-on lighting, I would care to wager that the power outage was such big news because, quite frankly, there's not a lot of other big news here at CES. Nothing I have seen has really shocked or surprised me. We have seen TVs get bigger and thinner, laptops get thinner, and 5G become the new 4G. But those things are all just minimal and somewhat predictable advances to where we are now. Call me jaded, but I expected the new and the bold, not the slightly thinner and slightly faster?

Anyway, enough of my underwhelmed chit-chat, what have I done with my day and what has really interested me? Firstly I went to meet with Verbatim to talk product at their promo suite at the MGM Grand, then I went to the Sands Convention Centre and visited all the halls including Eureka Park, the startup zone. The startup zone was incredibly hectic with a huge French presence and a large portion of the hall taken up by Business France and La France Tech; a testament to the large investment the French government have made in emerging technologies in recent years. An area of interest to me was the Energie IP stand who specialise in smart building management using PoE & DC power; a great example of how the much feted IOT can actually be implemented by businesses.

Another simple yet brilliant stand from the 'French Quarter' of CES was 'Yes It Is', a connected labelling concept that can both optimise supply chain efficiency and improve the customer experience. Learn more here: www.yesitis.fr

So another, hectic (tiring) and informative day at CES rounded off by a 40-minute wait to get a cab then another 25 minutes sitting in traffic. Hopefully tomorrow I'll discover a drone pick-up & drop-off taxi service that may make the CES transport nightmare a little easier :)