When I got ready to go to the 2016 CES Show

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It was a little over five years ago, on January 2, 2016, that I told you about our team’s plan to head over to Las Vegas. The upcoming 2016 CES show was about to kick off, and my biggest concern was what the show would look like. The 2016 show was the first year that the organizers had started reacting to the overcrowding that characterized the week in Las Vegas. They were desperately trying to be relevant.

You can read all my 2016 CES Coverage here, and while most of the products I saw there have long been made obsolete, a few still stand out. This was the year of the Hopper 3. That’s right folks that hardware is now five years old. There hasn’t been much new from DISH since. Maybe there’s a reason for that. Maybe that’s because the Hopper 3 is still slaying it, as the kids say.

It didn’t end up being that different after all.

The 2016 CES show was a little smaller, but the folks with the big TVs were still there, and Casio was still there with their largely empty booth. The show went on as scheduled all the way through 2020.

When I look back on those days, and think about how different this year’s show is about to be, it made me realize that the 2016 show was just one more in a pile, not something that really moved the needle in a lot of cases.

On the other hand…

as I write this I can tell you a lot of things I’m not doing. I’m not packing up my bag full of chargers and power banks and extra accessories. I’m not calling or emailing old friends and setting up dinner and drink meetings. Hey, I’m not getting my pile of gas cards together (I try not to use credit cards at weird gas stations) and I’m not checking my rental car reservation.

I’m not checking my hotel reservation, either. I’m not thinking anxiously of restaurants that only Las Vegas offers, or of the myriad entertainments of the strip.

Pretty much the only thing I’m doing is creating a virtual list of virtual booths I want to virtually visit.  Unlike previous years I plan to spend next week in the same chair I’m sitting in right now.

Now that’s a truly different CES. With that in mind, it helps me realize what’s possible. I guess with enough time you can look at things with a little bit of a different perspective. I hope you’ll join me throughout the next week for more CES coverage. Read the coverage all throughout the week. I will do my best to attempt to bring you something interesting and relevant.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.