I started off the year with a week-long trip to Las Vegas to attend CES! It had been about 10 years since the last time I had been to the show and I was excited for many reasons. I love checking out new tech and this is the place for that. From a work perspective we are launching a new product in late January and this was going to be a good chance to show off the new device to media and get some feedback. And poker - there’s always poker when in Vegas!
My new job is a bit of a shift, from what was a focus on B2B and industrial customers to much more of a consumer focus. It’s an interesting change for me, and one that will take some getting used to. One of the benefits is that I was scheduled to attend CES in Las Vegas! CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) is a massive annual event that kicks off the year and showcases the very best in consumer electronics.
CES 2026 marked the event's largest edition since before the pandemic. The scale of the show reflected a significant rebound in both international travel and corporate investment in emerging tech like Physical AI and robotics. Here is the breakdown of the show by the numbers (thanks Gemini):
📊 Attendance & Demographics
Total Attendees: Over 148,000 (up from approximately 141,000 in 2025).
International Reach: Roughly 55,000 attendees traveled from outside the U.S., representing more than 150 countries.
🏢 Show Floor & Scale
Exhibitors: More than 4,100 companies showcased products.
Startups: Within that total, 1,200+ startups were featured in Eureka Park (the designated startup zone).
Net Square Footage: The event spanned 2.6 million net square feet of exhibit space.
Venues: The show was spread across 13 official venues in Las Vegas, anchored by the newly renovated Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC)!!!!
I arrived in Las Vegas on Sunday night January 4th. The event opened to the media on the 5th, and we had an event Monday night for the media. With the way the flight schedules worked, I needed to fly down Sunday afternoon, otherwise I risked not making it for the events set-up starting at 5:30 p.m. The team had booked us a block of rooms at Caesar’s Palace on the strip. It had been years since i had stayed at that property. My flight down was pretty straight forward, and I was into the hotel by about 7:30 p.m. I was in the “Octavius” Tower, as the person doing the check in apparently decided to “upgrade” my room.
After checking in, I got myself settled and and set-up for work. I did a few things ahead of what was going to be a busy week, trying to avoid getting too far behind. I should have worked all night, but as this is Vegas, the Caesars Poker Room was calling. It was pretty quiet, but I got on a table right away and played for a few hours. I booked a small win and called it a night fairly early.
Monday was the start of CES. Technically it was a still a set-up day for vendors, but as we were technically an exhibitor, we were able to get onto the show floor. I slept in a little bit, then did some work. As the media event was scheduled to start at 7:00 (we had to go over and set-up around 5:30), I had the day to go check out the event.
The front entrance to one of the halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center. One of 4…
I took a taxi over to the Convention Center to check it out! I was pretty early - many of the exhibitors were still in the the process of setting up their booths - and some of them were massive. I wandered around a bit, but then decided it wasn’t really worth it. I did grab some lunch since I was there, which was a bit of a mistake.
Before the event, I had identified a number of sessions that I wanted to go listen in on. So I went up to where the sessions were held, and tried to access a couple of them. Sadly that didn’t work out, as many of the sessions I had picked you needed to pay extra to attend. That had not been made clear in the app. So that was a bust as well. So I hopped in a cab and headed back to the hotel to get a bit more work done.
The Mirage, one of the legends of the strip, has been sold to the Hard Rock Hotel chain and is in the process of being remodeled. The famous volcano is gone, and they are starting to build the new “guitar” hotel. Yes, the hotel itself will be in the shape of a guitar. It’s going up fast…
About 5:30 I was meeting the rest of the team in the lobby to head over to Paris for our media event. The rest of the team work in marketing, with Val from PR being our main contact for the evening. I had not met any of them before (still being quite new to the company), so it was nice to spend some time with the team. We walked over to the hotel, which in Vegas is always a long way. The event was in one of the conference ballrooms at the hotel, and we spent about 1/2 an hour getting our table set-up.
Every vendor just had a standard table, and we had lots to show.
After getting set-up, we still had about an hour before things started, so Val and I headed off and grabbed something to eat and a drink at one of the bars in the hotel. After that, it was time to talk! This event was for media, and our team had been doing a great job getting the word out about our new product that was launching at the end of January. We had lots of people come by to talk, and I think I must have spent 3 of the 3 1/2 hours doing demos, answering questions and generally talking with people. It was a lot, but it was a super successful evening.
But it was not done. We had a meeting room at the Venetian Hotel, that was being used for customer meetings, and I had to help Val and the team get that set-up. So we lugged all the gear from the media event over to the Venetian. It took us a good couple of hours to switch hotels and get the suite setup the way we wanted. I was beat by the time we wrapped it up and so just headed back to the room to call it a night.
Tuesday I had a mix of things going on. I had a couple of customer meetings, at hotels on opposite ends of the strip. So I did my meeting at the Wynn in the morning, then headed into the Venetian Expo Center to see that part of CES and walk thee trade show floor. The Venetian was all the “home” related products - robots vacuums, robot lawn mowers, robot pool cleaners (see a theme yet?), fitness equipment and a whole raft of other things. I was looking for interesting products, both for myself and for work. You never know when innovation and new ideas might strike.
I made the mistake of trying to get into the trade show floor not too long after they opened. It was a bit much.
This was probably the most concerning thing I saw at CES. These robots move way too fluidly, and those punches look like they could do some damage!
Early afternoon I was meeting another partner at the Aria, which is a ways down the Strip. I did that meeting then walked down to the far end of the Strip. I wanted to see the progress on the new baseball stadium they are building where the Tropicana used to be. I was sad to see that hotel go, but the concept for the new hotel/casino/ballpark looks amazing! I can’t wait to see a baseball game on the Strip in 2028 or 2029.
Construction is well underway.
I grabbed a late lunch at BrewDog, another favorite, before heading back to the hotel. I had a bot of time before I was meeting the team for a late dinner around 8:00. We were meeting at a restaurant in the Forum Shops attached to our hotel, which was easy. I ended up being over half an hour early, so I took advantage to try out the F1 Arcade!
F1 Arcade is this amazing restaurant/bar filled with F1 racing simulators. They are proper simulators, and you can race on simulated F1 circuits. Prices weren’t bad either - a little more than $10 a race. It’s a pretty cool environment - sounds, motion, and huge screens make you feel like you’re in the action. I started off on too high an “experience” setting and came last in the race. So I dropped it down to the beginner setting, which was a more fun expereince.
F1 Arcade was a lot of fun - I’d highly recommend it! But it was time for me to meet the team and have a late dinner. The food was good, and it was time for bed not long after. I had another busy day ahead.
Wednesday was more meetings. I didn't even make it onto the show floor today. I’m actually not sure where the day went frankly. Lots of bouncing around. That evening, one of the podcasts I listen to (The Daily Tech News Show) was having a meetup at Resorts World. I had not been to that casino since it opened, and it seemed like a good opportunity to meet some new people. It was a smallish group that grew as the evening progressed. I sat and chatted with a bunch of the people on the show, as well as many of the fans that stopped by. It’s a very fun, supportive community and they certainly made me feel welcome.
A sculpture at Resorts World. Justine was very sad to see this.
Sadly, I had to leave fairly early as I was again meeting the team for dinner. ONe of the crew had managed to book us the buffet at the Wynn at 7:30, and I had to walk over there. The buffet was pretty amazing. Lots of crab and lobster, prime rib, and other delicious treats. Once again I ate way too much and needed to walk back to the hotel to try and work it off.
Thursday was my last day at the show. The time had flown by. And I hadn’t really walked the show floor at all! So Thursday was it. But before I could do that I had one ealy meeting with a supplir at their suite in the Venetian. It had been cold while we were there, and had snowed in the mountains overnight - which you could see from their suite.
It was a cold, sunny morning in the desert.
After the meeting I headed over to the Convention Center. I ended up walking all 4 mammoth halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center and managed to (almost) see it all. I covered 23,000 steps over the course of the day. Crazy. And there was a lot to see. I saw many new suppliers, lots of interesting ideas that we might be able to use in our products, and some very cool stuff that I would like have!
It had been a while since I was in Vegas, and it was good to get to CES and see all the cool stuff that is coming. It was a busy trip, but a productive one and it was great to meet a lot of my new colleagues!