I’ve Covered Tech Conventions for 30 Years — but This CES Is a First Even for Me

I’m only beginning to adjust to CES 2021, a Consumer Electronics Show unlike any other

Instead of this view of a Las Vegas hotel window, I’ll be experiencing CES 2021 exclusively through my PC. Credit: Lance Ulanoff

Almost 30 years — that’s how long I’ve been traveling to Las Vegas for major technology trade shows. First, it was COMDEX, the convention for PC technology products and the nerds who loved them, and later, in the early 2000s, I gratefully switched to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

CES, which has had its share of name changes, was always the cooler show. It was the birthplace of the VCR, HDTV, and the smart home, the place for products that mattered to the masses. Yet for all the awesome and ever-changing technology (smaller, faster, shinier, and smarter), the event itself often felt like a massive Groundhog Day.

Every year, I started mentally preparing for the gauntlet of keynotes, meetings, and hands-on opportunities weeks in advance. I thought deeply about how to physically train for the literal miles of walking I would do from one hall to another and from one side of Las Vegas to the other. I strategized spending one day at the Sands Convention Center and the other at the Las Vegas Convention Center. I knew all the best routes for avoiding the endless casino floors. Both halls are so vast that it was a…