CES stays on
Panasonic's radar screen year-round. "In fact," says
Kelsey, "we have to book our space for next year on the first day
of this show. Then we start reviewing and planning for the next one
as soon as we get home."
HEY, LOOK ME OVER
Another way companies attract attention at CES is to opt for one of
the show's special sponsoring opportunities - from the placement of
their coolest television set in the
HDTV Sports Bar ($2,500) to the
rights to have their name on concession cups ($25,000) and badge
holders ($30,000). The most unabashed media hounds will sponsor
breakfast snacks, lunches, and computer workstations for the press,
as well as put their corporate logos on the rolling luggage
supplied to journalists for hauling away the 50-pound stash of CES
press kits.
Featured speakers neither pay nor are paid to appear at CES. But
the top corporate titans often invest huge amounts in their
presentations, sometimes with surprise celebrity guests like Drew
Barrymore (for Sony) and wrestler-turned-actor The Rock (for
Microsoft). The show does foot the travel bill for some federal
government types who are invited to CES on "fact-finding missions"
so they can get a better understanding of the technology and its
implications.
SHAZAM, IT'S MAGIC
Much of the CES convention is built by GES Exposition Services, the
Vegas-based general services contractor. According to executive
vice president Daryl Clove, GES crews will handle a staggering 13
million pounds of imported materials (filling approximately 2,000
trucks), plus an additional seven million pounds of gear that GES
rents to exhibitors. The construction and load-in of the show
starts the day after Christmas, eventually requiring the services
of some 4,000 Teamsters, carpenters, electricians, and
stagehands.
GES operatives clearly have their work cut out for them, starting
with the correct placement of 200,000 square feet of show signage,
critical for pointing conventioneers in the right direction. Later
comes the immense chore of wiring the show for power and some
satellite feeds - in all, more than 50 miles of wire.
Even into the evening hours before the opening, the show floor
remains a hard-hat-only zone, with plenty of loose poles, exposed
cables, ladders to trip over, and a blaring cacophony of sounds -
from the whir of power drills and forklifts to the testing of the
public address systems.
Last in comes 1.8 million square feet of carpet. "Enough to fill
1,000 homes," says Clove. Then all the booths and public spaces,
almost three million square feet in all, are vacuumed clean.