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Friday January 11, 2008
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I must admit, part of the fun of going to Vegas for CES is, um, being in Vegas. Monorails, breakfast buffets, themed hotels, a trip to the Hooters casino, the excitement begins from the first nickel you drop into the slot machine at the Las Vegas airport and doesn't let up until the groggy five hour plane ride on the way home.
A day after getting back to New York City, it was a bit of a downer to be greeted by this MSNBC story questioning whether Vegas would continue to be the home for future consumer electronic shows. The key factors that are throwing the future setting of the world's biggest technology show up for debate are the rising costs of food, beverages, and hotel rooms. (After being forced to feed my habit with $3 bottles of Diet Pepsi, I can't say I'm qualified to offer a debate on that front.)
"We've heard from our attendees, from our exhibitors ... that the rates of hotels during the International CES are increasing out of proportion from what they think it should be," CEA spokesman, Jason Oxman said.
The question then is: What other major American city might possess the infrastructure to house future Consumer Electronic Shows? For the answer, we spoke with someone who knows a thing or two about such subjects, vice president of our Event Marketing Group, Paul O'Reilly.
Quoth Paul:
Orlando and Chicago are about the only two places in the country that could accommodate the exhibit space (including the Sands, the Venetian Towers, Hilton, etc.). Significantly higher move-in and move-out costs for show management and exhibitors would seem to rule out Chicago.
Orlando is possible, as it has nothing of consequence until the PGA show in late January, but it would take years of repeat business to build a hotel block the size of CES's in Las Vegas. So rates would go through the roof wherever it went. I don't think CES is going anywhere.
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January 14, 2008 10:07 AM
I wonder if anyone thought that maybe it's not just CES that's the cause, but the confluence of CES happening at the EXACT SAME TIME as the AEE that's bringing the people into town in droves.
At the same time, if CES leaves Vegas before I get to have the combined CES/AEE experience, I'm going to be very very sad. :(
January 30, 2008 4:51 PM
Actually, we could handle CES without a problem by 2012 in Orlando. Hilton is building a large hotel next to the Center and the Westin will open in March. Along with the three Rosen Resorts and the Peabody, I think we'd do fine. Plus, you wouldn't have to worry about Pacman Jones shooting up a strip club in Orando.
As for $3 bottles of Pepsi? Next time head to a grocery store to stock up.
January 31, 2008 8:45 AM
AEE isn't the problem. The CES chaos starts before the AEE people get into town.
If CES moves to Orlando, I might break my own leg to avoid going. Orlando is an AWFUL place to have a convention, because of its positively awful transportation scenario. Nothing's walkable, public transit is awful, cabs overcharge you and events are scattered over a huge area. When I went to Orlando for CTIA, there was a TWO HOUR taxi line at the airport and I ended up taking a public bus, which took 90 MINUTES to get from the airport to the convention center.
And CTIA is way smaller than CES. Can you imagine? CES is four times the size of CTIA. What does that make it? An eight hour taxi line? Maybe we should just have the convention in the taxi line?
Every time I went to a press event, it was way off site and we ended up trapped in 45-minute cab lines when we tried to get home. The cab drivers then tried to charge us $25 to go three miles. When we asked them why, they said, would you rather have no cab? I burned way too much time either finding or in transportation.
All the restaurants within walking distance of the Convention Center seem to be crappy low-end Red Lobster ripoffs full of overweight British tourists. I understand why the convention organizers felt they needed to go miles to find anywhere to throw a party.
Orlando is an unfit place to have conventions until they can provide a sufficient way for conventioneers to get around the damn city.