Adult Entertainment Expo

Also known as the "Porn Show", the Adult Entertainment Expo was going on at the same time as the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week. I know this because I was there. At the electronics show of course.

We stayed at Trump, which was nice, but I didn't see Donald. His loss.

I've been to Vegas a few times before but this was my first time at CES. CES is one of the largest shows in the world. The show covered approximately 29 acres housed in the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC), the Hilton, the Venetian, and half of the Sands Expo and Convention Center.

Shows like these are usually showcases for companies trying to one-up the competition : biggest, smallest, lightest, fastest, thinnest, brightest, well you get the picture. Panasonic showed a 150" plasma TV. Samsung had and AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) TV that was only .85mm thick (that's about 1/32" or about at thick as a crdit card). Perhaps one of the most impressive items on display was LG's cell phone watch with Bluetooth. Not quite Dick Tracy yet but still impressive.

Despite all the new "toys" we saw, ultimately we were very disappointed with the show. We didn't go to see the things that would be in retailers showrooms later this year. We were looking for technology we could apply to our products in the future. I don't know if the economy affected what we saw or if our expectations were out of whack. Normally about 130,000 attend the show. We heard this year attendance was down 30%.

I'd mentioned earlier that CES occupied half of the Sands Expo and Convention Center. The other half we found out contained the aforementioned AEE. The entrance to the Center was an odd mix of AEE and CES banners and visitors. It was interest to watch some of the “talent” go into the AEE. We were surprised to see what we thought was AEE talent going into CES and presumed CES visitors going to AEE. I'm quite sure that the timing and location of AEE with respect to CES is not coincidental. Your typical CES geek is probably very familiar with adult entertainment industry. But in their defense there was probably a lot of interesting technology there. Some of the virtual devices I'm sure have high-tech sensors and feedback systems.

If we had a little more time and the registration wasn't so expensive I would have gone in. Come on, how often do you get the opportunity to go to the Porn Show? At least for me I'm guessing this was my only chance. But we had other things we wanted to do and $80 seemed a little steep so we passed. I'll probably regret it.

We ended up heading to Freemont Street for the rest of the afternoon/evening. As much as I dislike the Strip, I kind of like Freemont Street. It kind of reminds me of State Street in Madison. To me the Strip is phony and screams excess and waste. If I never get back to the Strip again I don't think I'll be disappointed.

The guy I was traveling with had never been Downtown Las Vegas so the whole Freemont Street Experience was new to him. We watched the overhead light/music show as well as three, yes three, motorcycles in the Sphere of Death.

As always, spelling and grammatical errors are intentional.

That's all.

My daughter, wife, and MIL are coming back today from their adventure in NYC. Hopefully they will let me tell their tales in my next post.