Every year, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas, attracts more than 170,000 attendees. Why? Because there are so many reasons to go. It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, or what you are working on at the moment, nor does it matter if you are an entrepreneur, a CTO or a CEO. There will always be many reasons to attend, catching up with the latest technologies and products.
Reasons to attend CES
Year after year, CES highlights innovation, different trends, prototypes, and products that could be part of the next tech boom. But there are some reasons for attending that persist across time. Let me tell you what I find to be the most interesting things about attending CES each year, year after year.
Source of innovation: Being in touch with the latest announcements and seeing how companies are thinking, innovating and developing products, is without a doubt a source of innovation for me. One of the game-changer products I saw this year was Hydraloop, developed by Hydraloop Systems BV. It recycles 85% of all domestic water used and allows us to save water and energy. This is proof of how companies can, through innovation, help us to protect the environment.
“It is important to keep tabs on the market and be flexible enough to evolve with the changes that happen continuously each year, according to market needs and trends.”
Staying up-to-date with the latest trends: What you see at CES could be the starting point of a new trend. You get to see the companies who are acting as game changers and impacting the industry roadmap.
But, and based on my opinion, there are many products that can catch your attention and look like the next boom, and then, they do not succeed. You can find products that at first glimpse seem interesting, but in the end don’t match with the user needs or expectations and finally go out of business. You must pay attention and see how these products gain or lose market share over the coming days, months, or years.
Beyond that, by keeping updated with the latest trends, you sense the future of the industry and what users are expecting from new products. And this is important for us because new technologies and products – such as The wall Samsung TV or new flexible displays presented by Royale – open new horizons for creating and shaping new user interfaces.
Networking: Among almost 170,000 CES attendees you can find people you’re interested in meeting with. This is a good chance to catch up with colleagues and also a good opportunity to connect with potential partners such as investors, product owners, companies founders, entrepreneurs, etc.
Test products: Nobody who attends CES wants to miss out on the chance to test products companies are launching or showing. In my opinion, CES is the best opportunity to try first-hand products that exhibit a strong sense of innovation and vision of what’s coming and to talk with those who are at the booths. Many times it’s the engineer behind the product you are testing.
What I took away from CES 2020
There is no reason to say that my expectations were not fulfilled this year. As I did in previous editions, I tried amazing products, met interesting people, and saw what big players are doing.
But, if I had to choose one of these things that caught my attention, it definitely was the SONY prototype car. Did you ever imagine SONY would be an actor in the car industry?
What is the reason for SONY to get involved in this industry and invest resources and time on creating this connected electric car? According to my opinión, it is the market – competitors, users, trends – that determines a company’s roadmap and its future. If you want to be at the top, you must innovate and this means doing things you have never done before.
CES: a final conclusion
I saw a lot of tech trends, a glimpse of the future, and some of the best examples of innovation that the world has to offer at the moment. But zooming out for a moment, I can also say something else…
In light of all the new players in the self-driving car environment, including those you might think have no business spending their resources in that area: I was not the only who knows how important it is to keep tabs on the market and be flexible enough to evolve with the changes that happen continuously each year, according to market needs and trends. Companies like Sony are evolving too – and whether their Vision-S makes it big or flops only time will tell. But at least Sony seems to understand the need to stay in “continuous change” mode and to us, that’s something that makes a lot of sense.
A final takeaway and food for thought: back at home in the Bay Area, I’m wondering what’s coming in AI and 5G, which will be, without any doubt, key players in the next few years, especially for the autonomous cars industry.