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Live from CES
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.
Undetermined commented:
Wordwoman, Unfortunately, I haven't bumped into too many furniture people, although I have been told that buyers from Nebraska Furniture Mart, RC Willey and a few other Top 100 heavyweights are here. Most of the furniture exhibitors here sell almost exclusively to consumer electronics stores, and relatively few furniture stores also sell consumer electronics. As for your MP3 problem, I suggest you contact my 17-year-old daughter. I bought her a used iPod in November, and she's already put more than 1,000 songs on it!
Undetermined commented:
Concerned, you raise some excellent points. There is a buzz and excitement at this show that is hard to describe in words. It's also a very fun show for a journalist to cover. When was the last time anybody said a furniture market was fun?
Undetermined commented:
Manufacturers should adjust their priorities and shift some line items on their balance sheets. Much more money, or any money at all, should be devoted to National Advertising. Spend some to make some. Get some courage and market your product. Some of the more successful mattress manufacturers put their money where their mouth is. Those are the ones with a real future. The electronics industry does this expertly. The furniture industry as a whole should folow their suit.
Undetermined commented:
I'm a lowly rep but an independent thinker. I'm also going broke because I represent companies that have poor product, can't ship what they do introduce, and when it does get to the retailer it's damaged. If on the off chance the product gets on the floor undamaged, there is nobody to sell it to. I think I'm going to give up my lines and join a monastery to pledge a life of silence and poverty.
Undetermined commented:
Concerned's comments ring true. I'd be interested to learn why. Are they a transplant from an outside industry?
Undetermined commented:
Larry - I hope you spot a lot of furniture industry folks at CES - our industry could learn a lot from that industry if we would get our heads out from "between the cushions." Also, if you stumble across a spare geek, please bring him/her back with you. I can't figure out how to download songs to the $30 MP3 player I got myself for Christmas.
Undetermined commented:
CES embodies everything that's wrong with the furniture industry, and you happily admit your ignorance. We hardly ever market directly to consumers, we create little excitement in our products, we're slow to innovate, our retailers on the whole do a poor job of selling, we haven't kept up with technology, corporate management is a continual revolving door, and the "young rising executive" in this industry is in their early 40's. No wonder electronics are stealing the big dollar purchases.
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