CES is in Las Vegas, and is the largest Consumer Electronics Show of the year. It’s the time when everyone from Sony & Samsung to the smallest mom and pop inventor get a chance to show off the latest and greatest technology to 300 thousand retailers, manufacturers and media professionals. This year I was honored to attend along with Dan Wheeler and a dozen buyers, planers, directors & guests from of our huge electronics division at QVC.
It would be impossible to pick just one highlight of the five days. The technology we saw was mind blowing. But I will give you an idea of some of the cool things we saw & an inside into what might be coming to QVC this year. It was a crazy five days of working hard and having fun. Think scenes like this all week. Dan Wheeler and one of our vendors and buyers playing a new cell phone game while out to dinner.
The meeting is held for big electronic companies to splurge while showing off their latest technology. There are fancy dinners, big red carpets, and hours of gadget talk over cocktails.
But it’s also a show that covers roughly 36 football fields and it so takes 10 plus hours of walking a day, for at least 4 days to get to it all. We worked our buns off in addition to having a ton of fun. The one saving grace for me was that I wore my Fit bit pedometer and got in between 18 and 26 thousands steps a day walking the show! So lets start there; fitness technology was huge at the show this year!
Health trackers you wear on your wrist were everywhere else, including all the new colors and styles from Fit Bit.
In that category were designer health trackers that looked like thousand dollar watches and did everything from track your steps and sleep cylces to answering your phone and checking your email.
Also in the health & wellness arena were my buddies at Flex Belt, with their toned abs and a new fitness video that might make it our way sometime soon.
It was a blast being with Dan Wheeler since he is also a big fitness buff so we loved all the cool new stuff we saw in that category, in addition we kept each other accountable in the gym every morning no matter how tired we were! I even did a couple 20 min spinning sessions for the 1st time in more than 5 years
http://images-p.qvc.com/is/image/pic/co/9- spin.jpg
Before infertility and babies I was a spin instructor and I forgot how much I love it! It all came back the second I saddled up, just like riding a bike. Ha!
Back on the convention floor, I loved this cool bracelet that looks like one of those pretty leather wrap bracelets with a jewel on top. That jewel actually measures the sun exposure you are receiving and communicates data into your smart phone. As a skin cancer survivor, it is something I would wear daily!
Sleep number had a new bed that also tracks your sleep time and quality of sleep with a customized pad in the mattress similar to what new parents put under their infants to prevent S.I.D.S
In the kids arena I was excited to see kids and mommy technology all over the place. New tablets for kids, amazing baby monitors that link your smart phone and computer, baby jumpers that monitor vital signs, and my favorite; dozens of different kids watches and clip ons that track their activity, give them one touch dialing to get ahold of a parent and even GPS tracking!
Portable power was everywhere, which was funny because with all the techies and their three devices each at the convention center, bandwidth was minimal and our phones were working over time to connect. So they ended up being dead by noon each day. Power in every form from bricks, to bags to stands that charged & played music and of course so much of the latest and greatest in the category came from our friends at Halo. Watch out for some great things coming from them in March.
Dan & I saw one of our favorite Tv’s of the show on the 1st day, it was a 3d Tv, bigger than a movie screen, with the most amazing 3d we’ve ever seen. It nearly brought tears to my eyes, behind those attractive 3d glasses.
4K TV's were all the talk. They provide a picture sharper than any full HD 1080p we have right now. Tv’s are thinner, more light weight, crisper and bigger than ever. One TV in full 3d actually allowed you and whomever was the in the room wearing the glasses, watch and hear two different channels at once. Think about that for a minute! Crazy. Curved Tv’s in Organic LED (OLED) were all the rage. They not only look cool, but they allow you a deeper image and a wider viewing area. Someone sitting nearly in line with the side of the TV can still see the picture.
Also in the curved arena were curved phones. If you are like my husband (who fell on his rear and bent his phone) and you have cracked your phone, then you will love these new bendable smart phones from LG.
Tablets were bigger & smaller & smarter & prettier & everywhere! I fell in love with a new tablet/laptop hybrid from LG & a cool Chromebook from Toshiba. We saw a computer you can hold in the palm of your hand. You just plug it in to any monitor and all the brains are right there.
Everyone, and I mean everyone has headphones now, but how about a pair that keep you warm?
We're talking headphones that are fashionable, small, & huge! Of the hundreds of players in the category we found out the leader is now Beats Audio with their amazing color, great sizes and impeccable sound. Expect to see something fun coming our way from this awesome brand.
If wearing your schedule on your wrist or carrying it on your tablet isn’t enough, soon you will be able to see it on your bathroom mirror. This one from Toshiba had your daily steps, calories, & activity. It also gave you the weather and your schedule and it was nice – really – it gave you encouraging messages like “have a nice day.”
The best day for Dan Wheeler was when we hit up the Gibson guitar tent and he got to play his way through the newest technology in music.
For a former news girl and electronics junkie, every day was exciting and new but id have to say the best part for me was the two hours I got to spend one night seeing my best friend and her 8 day old baby.
I was in the hospital room with her for her first, as she was with me, so not being their when this little guy was born broke both our hearts. I truly believe God knew we couldn’t be apart much longer, and he made this trip possible within days of her delivery. We both cried our eyes out but even a couple hours will make it possible to survive another few months without seeing her.
I lived in Las Vegas for two years when I was with NBC news, so it's always like going home when I’m there. But, I will say this was the most fun I have had in all my visits to the desert. I can’t wait to get on air and show you everything we learned.
Don’t forget you can see real time pictures and updates when I’m on trips like these and daily, by “like” ing me on Facebook www.facebook.com/kerstinlindquistqvc and on Twitter www.twitter.com/kerstinlindqvc
Have a blessed day!!!
Kerstin