Live from CES: Gates wows the crowd
Furniture exhibitors set to show
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 7, 2008
Business editor Larry Thomas is covering this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and will be filing daily reports on furnituretoday.com.
LAS VEGAS — Wearing his trademark v-neck sweater, Bill Gates once again wowed an audience at the annual Consumer Electronics Show with 90 minutes worth of gee-whiz demonstrations of gadgets that a furniture guy like me doesn’t pretend to understand.
But for the tens of thousands of computer geeks and electronics aficionados who come here every year to see the latest and greatest stuff, Gates is a god.
And some might not use a lowercase “g.”
People began lining up more than four hours prior to his speech — wristbands were issued this year to prevent early-arrivals from saving seats for their friends — and the line was cut off about two hours prior to the 6:30 p.m. starting time. Hundreds who couldn’t get a seat in the Venetian Hotel theater watched a closed-circuit telecast in an adjoining ballroom.
Gates, who has delivered a keynote address at CES the past 10 years, is known for getting assists from celebrities, and he didn’t disappoint this year. Slash, a guitarist with the rock band Velvet Revolver, demonstrated how to play Guitar Hero on the Xbox 360, and NBC sportscaster Bob Costas helped him announced NBC’s partnership with MSN for broadband coverage of this summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing.
“Stop calling me, Bill. Lose my number,” Costas intoned. “There’s no place for you on our broadcast team.”
The trade show, which is expected to draw 140,000 people from 140 countries, officially opens today. I’m planning to visit the booths of several of the major HDTV manufacturers, and also look at the latest and greatest entertainment furniture on display.
Many of the furniture exhibitors here sell only to consumer electronics retailers, but a growing number are trying to place products in both the CE and traditional furniture store channels.
As an added bonus, the World Market Center, home of the furniture industry’s Las Vegas Market, is welcoming CES visitors with open arms — as well as free food and shuttle service between the WMC and the Las Vegas Convention Center, where CES takes place. At last check, 20 WMC exhibitors were scheduled to be open today and Tuesday.
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