Brad Feld

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CES’s Wheel of Fortune

Jan 12, 2009
Category Education

As I sat at Gate C18 of the Las Vegas McCarran International Airport on Friday afternoon, I heard the phrase “Wheel of Fortune” about 120 times during the 40 minutes I waited to board my flight home.  I was amused the first three times, increasingly annoyed the next 37 times, and then just numb the remaining 80 times.

While I was on the edge of one of those “going postal” moments (if my plane had taken 50 minutes to board, I might not have made it as the Las Vegas police officers would have taken me somewhere dark and quiet for destroying a Wheel of Fortune slot machine with my bare hands), it did occur that me that the phrase “wheel of fortune” has some applicability to my universe.

I hate big tradeshows.  I haven’t been to one since Comdex in 2000.  While most of my trips to Las Vegas were for short term debauchery (of which I rarely participate in since I don’t gamble, don’t like strip clubs, and don’t drink much), I thought I’d give CES a try this year since most of my partners and a bunch of my friends were going. 

I had fun – a lot of fun!  I managed to spend a day walking the floor of CES; Jason summarized what we learned on a creatively titled post What We Learned at CES. I also got to go see the new iRobot 562 Pet Series (I just bought one for Amy’s February 1st life dinner gift – shhhh – don’t tell her), my friends at BugLabs and DeviceVM, and lots of cool Boxee stuff.

I sandwiched my floor walking between two awesome dinners – one at Guy Savoy in Caesar’s Palace and one at Nobu in the Hard Rock.  I managed one strong run, got to party with Topspin, hung out with my dad, and didn’t get enough sleep.  And – I caught a cold.

But I saw a lot of really cool TVs.