It’s about 8:20 out here in the pacific time zone and the show opens in about 40 minutes. Here are some pictures of CES first thing in the
morning…

This is where the taxi line existed last night at 4:30.

The Las Vegas Police Department mustering before the show starts. Fortunately, the CSI team has not had to show up to the convention center but I DID run into David Caruso of CSI: Miami fame last night at
dinner. True Story.

He said Hi to all the TomTom fans out there. Not a true story.

Back later with more.

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Tim Flight, who writes one of our favorite blogs, GPS Review, stopped by the booth today and was kind enough to sit down for a few minutes with me and chat about the past and future of the GPS industry. Unfortunately, some technical limitations prevented me from posting that today. Sorry about that. Instead I’ve got a couple pictures and some more thoughts on CES and Vegas as a whole. As always, more tomorrow!

This doesn’t quite capture that massive event that CES actually is but it gives you the general idea of what it would look like from my POV.

OK. If you’ve never been to Vegas, there are two things that you need to learn very VERY quickly if you’re going to be traveling around. They are:
1) You don’t flag down taxis like in New York. It’s a bit more civilized than that. Here, you must wait in actual lines. This will prevent disputes and is a pretty good way of doing it. Except for the fact that…
2) That line is always insanely long.

Special thanks going out today to all of you here in Vegas who stopped by the booth today and stumped me with your technical questions. I pride myself on being pretty savvy when it comes to our products. There were some today, however, who clearly have done their research and pointed out a few things I was very unfamiliar with. So, I guess I’m saying two more things:
1) Thanks for embarassing me, and…
2) I’ll be brushing up on the TomTom product line tonight so bring it on tomorrow!

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Good morning again from CES. I was able to get some cleaner video of the booth this morning. This time I take you to the next level, so to speak. Back in a bit.

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Here are a few shots of the booth:

Here’s just a simple product shot. I finally managed to get one where no one was touching the devices. And I know exactly what you’re thinking…yes, we keep lots of Purell handy.

My workstation in the second-level meeting room of our booth.

A view from above.

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Here’s a quick look at the TomTom booth here at the Las Vegas Convention Center North Hall (Booth 6006). Apologies for the low quality, I’m running quite the guerrilla operation here.

This is, admittedly, my first CES and I’m pretty awed by the whole thing. I mean, this is the best of the best in consumer electronics. Every big and small name is here and they are all showing off their very best. What’s been really fun for me has been talking to the small electronics companies. Last night, I ran into three guys who just started their own software company and are exhibiting for the first time here. You could almost see the Bill Gates-dreams in their eyes.

Las Vegas is a sight to behold as well. You fly over hundreds of miles of mountainous terrain then, just out of nowhere, huge city with what looks like enough lights to brighten the country, densely compacted into a few hundred square miles.

Anyway, I’ll have my second impressions at the end of today (8PM EST). You might have read that we already won some awards here (I know, didn’t this thing just start?). I’ll have an update on that as well.

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