Well it’s that time of year again. CES is almost over and man are we exhausted. Just kidding, we didn’t even get to attend the tech industry version of Burning Man combined with the Super Bowl (no exaggeration here). No, this week we are pretty bummed, but our livers, feet, and backs all seem to be pretty cool with our absence of tradeshow madness.
Once again this year there was so much cool stuff, it becomes difficult to even find the same cool things on different “best of” lists. I took a look at a couple and my extensive 30 minutes of research I found what I like the most.
1.) ELECTRIC ROLLER SKATES
These aren’t quite Hoverboards, but even Marty McFly would say they’re pretty dang cool.
2.) PIZZA PRINTER
Photo Cred: Digital Trends / Jenny McGrath
I literally have two new favorite words, and they are Pizza Printer. Pizza Printer. It makes me so happy to type that I want to jump up and down at my desk. GIVE ME A DANG PIZZA PRINTER!
3.) AMPSTRIP
If you are like us, you probably have to sign up for some sort of activity tracker to start meeting your New Year’s goals or even getting a discount on your health insurance. Thanks to the new Ampstrip startup, this no longer means you have to strap on a 4 different wearables and your smart phone during an active workout. This cool device integrates all that monitoring and is a sticker. Yes, a sticker.
4.) SLINGTV
FINALLY! I cut my cable cord years ago and have had to deal with the patchwork and semi-legal solutions that have come through since. SlingTV sounds like the final nail in the coffin for traditional TV service
5.) CISCO CEO JOHN CHAMBERS KEYNOTE
You can see why we regret not attending this year with all of the “electronic roller skating” and “pizza printing” going on, but what we really made the regret set in was this keynote recap from earlier this morningwith Cisco CEO John Chambers.
To summarize this discussion – Chambers offered a bit of insight about technology and change predicting that only 40% of major companies today will exist ten years from now because of their unique ability to adapt to a more digitalized world. Success and failure will depend on an organization’s ability to look at change and the “internet of everything” as an opportunity rather than a barrier or threat.
The essence of change can be found everywhere at the CES 2015 conference, from what we’ve seen so far. There’s still another day left, and we’ll be enthusiastically watching from the sidelines.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the keynote this morning:
“You have to change people and culture too. The tech might actually be the easiest part… We need to think with more of an entrepreneurial spirit… we have to think more like startups.”
In case you missed it:
References: http://www.digitaltrends.com/ces/top-tech-of-ces-2015-award-winners/ http://www.engadget.com/2015/01/07/introducing-the-best-of-ces-2015-finalists/
