While most Haasies were spread out across the globe, a handful of us who were in Berkeley after the New Year, took the short flight down to Vegas to check out the world’s largest gathering of consumer electronics companies.
Tablets and 3D were clearly all the rage at this year’s CES. Nearly every major consumer electronics company had dozens of their version of the iPad available for attendees to test drive. Sony and Samsung wowed us with massive jumbo screens showcasing their 3D TV experience. Connected cars and smart appliances were also big showcase items at this year’s show; with Ford and GE unveiling some impressive products.
At the show, we had a chance to hear from the CEOs at Microsoft, Ford, Audi, Verizon, Cisco, Netflix, Xerox, and GE. We also met up with Haas alumni, including Mickey Kim, Strategic Partnership Development Manager for Google TV (and 2007 HTC President). I was particularly excited to see the emphasis many companies were putting on cloud computing and talk with a number of engineers and C-level execs about their experience working with various public cloud computing providers (particularly Amazon Web Services – where I interned this past summer). One of the trekkers who founded his company while at Haas used our trek to network with potential partners and investors. Another who previously worked for Samsung, used the opportunity to reconnect with old colleagues.
In addition to the formal show, the parties at night were rather classy as well. We were given complimentary passes to parties at some of Vegas’ hottest night clubs hosted by Sony and the Consumer Electronics Association.
All in all, it was exciting to be amongst the 140,000+ industry professionals in attendance (30,000 of whom were from outside the US). Here’s to hoping we can put together an even bigger group of HTC members for next year’s Consumer Electronics Show.