A Peek into the Future – CES 2025
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The Consumer Electronics Show aka CES is the largest convention held in Las Vegas each year. In fact, it’s the largest convention held in the United States. Inaugurated in 1967 by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), 2025 was CES’s 57th year and it’s changed dramatically throughout the years. From a showcase for gadgets and electronic gizmos, its categories now include automotive, health tech, wearables, extended and augmented reality (XR and AR) and cutting edge technology innovations. From John Deere autonomous tractors to smart bird feeders, attending the show is an exciting glimpse into the future.
With over 140,000 attendees, 4,500 exhibitors and more than 6,000 media professionals, it’s quite the hodgepodge of huge corporations introducing their latest tech innovations and small start-ups introducing their new products to the public. And then there’s the media… local and national television commentators, magazine and newspaper reporters from around the world, podcasters, industry analysts and bloggers (like us). Yup, they even let us in.
I might add that qualifying as ‘media’ was a bit of a trial. Still on the editorial staff of ‘Good Old Boat’, David had no problem. Marcie, on the other hand, evidently had dubious credentials, but JustALittleFurther.com and our YouTube channel finally fulfilled the qualifying statistics. David was unrelenting in his efforts and Marcie was finally cleared for admission.
CES provides an all-encompassing app that allows attendees to check out presentations and exhibitors, set schedules, access transportation, find maps, sign up for seminars, and more. We used it constantly while attending.
The CES app was awesome. We used it constantly.
The first two days of the show are ‘Media Only’ and the media are treated well. Media rooms with media badge access only are set up in several locations offering wifi, coffee and most importantly, snacks, food and swag.
We attended CES Unveiled the first night, an evening venue/exhibition for smaller companies to highlight their new products and innovations… everything from electric skates, robo pets and humanoid robots to new home health care products and everything conceivable (and sometimes inconceivable) in between. Some were indeed, innovative. Some were a bit bizarre. All were interesting.
New product introductions and big brands took the spotlight: John Deere, Bosch, Panasonic, LG, Nvidia, Samsung, Siemens, AMD, Amazon and the list goes on and on. It seems each year is highlighted by some particular new technology.
In the past it’s been new, hot technologies like 3D printing, drones, home security, wireless devices, wearables. This year it was AI, artificial intelligence… smart this, smart that, smart everything everywhere... sometimes taken to extremes. Deere’s autonomous tractors, washing machines and refrigerators with internet and phone capability. Bosch introduced a Smart Crib for new parents that monitored an infant’s vital signs and even went so far as to rock the crib if the infant seemed restless. Really? We got a kick out of the ‘Worst of Show 2025’ listings. We were surprised to see several of what we deemed over-the-top products make their list.
The show floor during exhibition hours is crazy. Wall-to-wall people are hurrying in different directions, trying to take in everything that’s on display. We discovered early on, seeing everything is an impossibility, so we concentrated on a few companies in which we were interested and wandered around the show trying to experience as much as we could. In the end, however, it’s a fatiguing few days and our brains were on overload.
Crowded, loud and frenetic
The most impressive presentation for us, however, was the Delta Airlines presentation which celebrated the airlines’ 100th year in business. Did you know Delta began as “Huff Daland Dusters, a crop-dusting service [started in 1925] and evolved into a major global airline”? We certainly didn’t.
Ed Bastian, Delta’s CEO took the stage at The Sphere to deliver CES’s keynote address. Delta unveiled its onboard YouTube partnership, cloud-based seatback experience, personalized, seamless travel features and lots more geared to the frequent business traveler. The Sphere venue itself is nearly overwhelming, but the presentation was mind boggling with music, graphics, special appearances by Viola Davis and Tom Brady and culminating in a virtual fireworks display followed by a Lenny Kravitz concert. Pretty spectacular.
All in all, an exciting, tiring, staggering couple of days and a peek of things to come. Glad we went, but it was certainly good to get home, rest up and get going on all those house projects we’ve got planned.