CES 2011 Party UPDATES HERE

CES Party List for Technology Report’s
***   CES 2011 Coverage ***

IMPORTANT:   Almost all the parties at CES are “Invitation Only” and the procedure varies from party to party.    Bloggers and Press folks can often score invitations by contacting the party sponsors, but don’t just show up and expect to get in.

Some of the best parties are announced at the last minute or somewhat secretly to those attending press conferences or other sponsor events.    Those probably won’t make it to any of the party lists.

CES Parties on Tuesday Jan 4th

As we gear up to cover the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week over at Technology Report my email box is simply flooded with PR pitches from hundreds of the thousands of companies that will be exhibiting at the show.

The pitches vary in size and scope but most share a pretty common and I think a very uninspired format along the lines of   “You will want to check out our products”    ”We have extraordinary innovation in …  iPOD accessories (!) ”  ”Would you like to interview our product manager?”

Here are my three PR tips for the firms that … well … maybe ought to be doing something else:

1.  Personalization Matters.   I’d guess the response to personalized emails is at least twice that of a simple canned message, even when it’s just a name from the Press database but ideally where you’ve bothered to figure out where the person is writing.  This is one of the best PR opportunities of the year, so it seems you should at least target a handful of bloggers who write specifically about your stuff.     Challenge them a bit to critique the product.   Consider going for several “smaller” blogs rather than trying to get lucky with a feature in Engadget or Gizmodo, where the whim of an angry review alone could hurt your products reputation.    If your product is great they’ll get around to it eventually, and if the smaller guys don’t like it you probably need improvements before the big time anyway.

2.  Parties matter.  It’s not fair but neither is the world.   Certainly business in general isn’t fair.   So if you want some attention and you’ve already invested tens of thousands in staff and exhibits you probably should follow the lead of the big CES *playaas* and at least throw a small party.    What would be a clever  time for this party?  Monday night before CES, when a lot of folks have come into town but generally there are *no* parties yet.     Tuesday after CES Unveiled (the big press event) and Wednesday night are also generally pretty open for many press attendees who tend to get into town a few days early for the Press events.   The *bad* night is Friday, when your little party will have to compete with  the big ticket gigs like the Monster concert and several other parties thrown that night that attract most of the bloggers and press.   I think my favorite event at all of CES was a small poker party at Hard Rock Casino, thrown by SONY to launch the game “Pirates of the Burning Sea”.  I’m sure it wasn’t cheap –  probably ran them perhaps  $100+ per person for perhaps 100 people who attended, but it was a superb venue to generate the positive buzz they needed for the game.   $10,000 is chump change by SONY standards yet they captured attention of a lot of media for the entire evening.

Getting attention early gets you pre-CES buzz in the search rankings to boot, because by Saturday your product announcement – no matter how big – is going to be drowned out by the 1000 other announcements coming out of the show.

3.  Products matter.    For some of you some product humility is more likely to win supporters than product hype.   It’s laughable when an overzealous PR person waxes poetically, capturing your attention for a moment until you realize they’ve penned an ode to a cheap plastic cartoon  iPhone case or the equivalent.   Nothing wrong with those products – they represent an extraordinarily large market –  but your time is probably better spent targeting buzzworthy folks and sending them samples or … throwing a party … rather than trying to explain why bloggers should be scrambling to do a feature about your plastic cartoon iPod case.

Louis Vuitton iPod Case:  $280

OMG I’m writing about iPod Cases!

See you at CES!

I was so happy today to see one of them signing off saying they were a proud supporter of the Room to Read Project, which is a major effort to work towards world wide literacy and education.   Readers of this blog know I’m a huge fan of that kind of project, and one of the reasons I’m very optimistic about the world’s future is that for I think the first time in history it’s become very, very “fashionable” to support global poverty reduction efforts in even the strongest bastions of capitalism (e.g. big time PR firms).

Now, cynics will suggest – correctly to some extent – that part of the motivation when capitalists support charity is to benefit from the positive buzz.    However I’m fine with that, and furthermore I’m *glad*  to see potential win-win economic relationships develop around charities like this.

We now have a good  list of  CES Parties over at Technology Report and will continue to add them as information comes in from various other lists and sources.

——————————-

Technology Report’s CES Coverage is Sponsored by:
Aria Resort and Casino and Vdara Hotel at Las Vegas CityCenter.

NOTE: Most of the CES parties are by *invitation only* and even with your CES pass you’ll want to confirm you are on the specific list for that party before walking the great distances required to get from venue to venue. Generally registered CES bloggers and CES press have the best party options at the show.

Tuesday January 5th

4-7 pm:    CES Unveiled – Venetian Hotel in the Venetian Ballroom. This is a major press event of the conference where several dozen sponsors set up booths to showcase their technologies to the press. Last year (2008) the dinner buffet was excellent and drinks were free. Registered CES Press and CES bloggers.

The CES Party list continues after the click  ….

A big thanks to the Aria Resort and Casino and Vdara Hotel.  These amazing new properties in the  Las Vegas CITYCENTER Project are sponsoring our CES 2010 coverage this year and into the show in January.

Aria will open in December and along with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel the Aria will feature the world’s most advanced guestroom technology along with CityCenter’s incredible WiFi footprint that covers the entire campus with broadband thanks to thousands of antennas and WiFi access points.

Over at Technology Report I’m going to feature a “First Timers Guide to CES” focused on people who have never been there and also some tips on how to find out the party and event schedules.   CES is one of the world’s largest conferences and even in these troubled economic times I’m sure that Las Vegas will be rockin’ with some amazing technology and events at the January 2010 CES.

For more about this please head over to Technology Report‘s CES 2010 coverage, starting …. now!

Tao at Venetian, Las Vegas

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Technology reporting is a *very* tough job, but somebody has to revive our sagging technology economy. I’m just glad it’s not … me.

I’m blogging from Tao right now, where the Isabella folks are showcasing their new wireless networked photo frame called Vizit which they’ll be launching soon.

The concept is really interesting as it will allow photo sharing across the Vizit network via buit in cellular connections as well as online capabilities, but my first reaction is that Vizit is going to intimidate non-tech folks who are the key market for digital photo frames. I’m still struggling with the static frame I got my parents for Christmas (it’s not taking an older SD card filled with family pix). Can Vizit convince folks to configure a device with this type of capabilities? Unless setup is *completely seamless* for a non-tech person it’s going to be very hard.

I’m wondering why they don’t use the Blaupunkt model of bluetooth connectivity riding off the user’s mobile plan, which would leave them without the revenue stream but make the cost of ownership more accessible. They did mention they are working with a cellular company which seems like a good idea here – allow them to monetize the photo “add on” rather than managing that function.

Samsung Bright Panel Display

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

The pic is not impressive but this huge daylight display panel was a magnificent piece of innovation by Samsung, with a 2000:1 static contrast ratio and intense white backgrounds. In person the display really slapped you in the face with color and brightness.     More at Technology Report

CES is fun so far with good tech and HUGE shrimp (holy oxymoron, batman!)
PictureMail
Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Pictured below is Noel Lee of Monster Cable, one of the music industry’s key players and host of one of CES hottest party tickets – the Monster Party.     Last year Mary J Blige gave an awesome concert after the Monster Retailer awards.

Jeopardy will be filming at CES as well, with 11 shows scheduled to be taped during the week of CES.    One of the challenges of an event this large is that you simply cannot see everything – there are thousands of exhibitors and events and sessions and the venue is so large it takes up all of the Las Vegas Convention Center and most of the Sands Convention Center.

This post “CES 2009″ has moved to Technology Report