# Shadow Report: Feeling on the Floor



## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Today I did about half of the show floor, and I noticed a big difference from previous years. 

First of all, there was a notable lack of "stuff" on the show floor. CES was once a show well known for "swag" and to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot. There were some little giveaways but nothing really interesting. 

There was also practically no product literature. It seems printed material is dead at CES, and while I usually try to get a lot lof literature to look at later, there was simply none. 

The floor was still congested, but nothing like previous years. It was a lot easier to find my way through the show, and as a result I ended up back in the hotel a lot sooner. 

There were a lot... a lot... a lot of TVs. Too many. Frankly I'm a little burned out on large TVs because there just were so darned many.


----------



## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Where the printed material used to be, now there were often notes or cards explaining where to find the information online. It's much greener that way. They also had a fair number of CDs in lieu of printed material, which sort of makes sense considering how cheap CDs are these days.

Ditto on the lack of congestion. Not nearly as dead as the after-hours photo I posted in another thread  but rarely so crowded that your progress was slowed much as you walked the aisles.

Another odd bit was the occasional spot where some exhibitor must have pulled out at the last minute. Some were like carpeted Central Parks, with leg-weary visitors sitting around or eating lunches from nearby convention snack bars.

The only thing I would disagree with is swag. My experience with CES is that it was never a great swag show. My First Rule of Convention Swag is: The more tightly focused the convention, the better the swag. You don't want to give out a pile of $1.50 goodies to meandering visitors who don't care about your products. 

With that in mind, this year was certainly no worse than the last two years. Heck, at the NBC/Universal booth, you get a free USB drive that you can use to download several of your choice of NBC/Universal shows. As always, if you sit through a booth presentation, you've got a real chance at real swag. And for everybody else, there are lots of mints and pens.

Did you have a Blogger badge? I had a Press badge, and I confess that helped a lot.


----------

