Viva Las Vegas!

Regular readers will know that I have been obsessing like a Geek on Heat for weeks about the upcoming ‘Vegas trip. Even as I type this in advance, I feel my adrenal glands giving a squeeze. That warm surge of pure excitement mixed with apprehension. Apprehension at being the Fat Bloke You Don’t Want Next To You On A Long Flight. I have asked really nicely for a front row seat in coach but it’s in the lap of the Virgin Gods.
The reason is to attend the Winter Consumer Electronics Show held by the Consumer Electronics Association. Those folks who tie CE together globally from the USA and have a set of standards used by quality manufacturers for consumer reassurance for stuff like ‘real’ amplifier power and cabling and so forth. In its time, the show has had upwards of 140,000 delegates attending (only trade and press mind, no ‘public’) and it is mayhem.  A fleet of buses move you around and the whole strip is just madness.
Everything you ever saw and read about Las Vegas is true yet each time you go, one actual year means a madder skyline and another bloody HUGE building full of hotel rooms has gone up, or some road layout change that means you are a stranger in town again. The Crossroads Of The Americas where the Excalibur is placed (where I’m staying) has another resort hotel on each corner (NY NY, MGM & Tropicana) and more hotel rooms than the whole of San Francisco. On its own.
The CES show is massive and Clarion, Midbass and TDR are helping Talk Audio get there. I’m booked to go to certain tours, press events and parties and will be attempting a new thing for me – reporting from a press room computer right onto the front page from the North Halls, where the section now called In Vehicle Technology is gathered together…
Wish me luck and yes, it’s true and I do at least acknowledge it.  I may just be the luckiest Mobile Electronics fanatic in the UK.
(Not to be confused with actually earning a living at it but I can’t see myself as ‘owt but a journalist…)
Adam Rayner – Online Editor
PS Next week’s entry here will be late as It’ll be mostly flying home, unpacking, trying to work out which way is up!