CES2024, AI, and Innovation
140,000 tech enthusiasts from all over the world joined together in Vegas for CES2024.
The AI Gold Rush
Feels like every single one said “AI”. It’s like a gold rush; everyone mining use cases, rapidly creating wealth like Nvidia, but also rapidly solving problems for people, companies, industries, nations, and the world.
AI as the Ultimate Platform
AI is the ultimate platform of platforms; it’s accelerating software such as large language models (“LLM”) models are automating away copywriting, coding, design, etc… it’s accelerating hardware such as IoT sensors are measuring & optimizing performance of vehicles, fleets, lawn mowers, pool cleaners, barbecues, ovens, cocktail makers, limbs, organs, TV pixels, etc… (clearly I’m especially excited about this category) and it’s enabling the only means of governing the turbocharged software and hardware.
AI IoT Innovations
Innovation and Commercialization
The innovation in these technical creations is only matched by the innovation in the brilliant hearts & minds of their creators. This is the genius that not only finds applications of hardware & software, but also beyond such as the ride share areas of spaces like hotels in Vegas or the exhibitor experiences in the Convention Center and Venetian Expo that convey the potential needed to enable the buy-in from press, distributors, and partners for full commercialization because it sadly doesn’t count if the tree fell in a forest and no one is around to hear it. Vegas goes Big, trying to match the Big Innovation.
Big Themes at CES
Breaking Through at CES
Innovators use a variety of tactics to breakthrough, to be heard at CES. There is product design (I’m obsessed with Honda’s futuristic designs), booth design, creative design, feature & benefit messaging, and timing which becomes the context of meaningful conversations with the “right” people before, during, and after CES. Founders are the conductors of this innovative symphony. They’re not your “typical” artists; but make no mistake, they’re artists.
Design Themes
Growth Marketing Advisors' Role
Growth Marketing Advisors takes great pride and even greater responsibility in serving this community. We build foundations for profitable growth - efficiently reaching audiences via performance marketing and orchestrating stakeholders via CRM databases.
These foundations can be the difference between enduring layoffs & bankruptcy and reaching growth milestones & funding rounds. We are craftsmen. We are artists. And we’re part of your team. Together, we take work personally.
CES Superheroes
Here’s the superhero cast of characters from this community that made CES2024 special:
Oracle - David Merel
Pragmatist - Sheera Hopkins
Technology Half Full - Courtland Premo
Neo (The Matrix) - Daren McKelvey
Community Connector - Jonathan Yoni Frankel
Positively Dealmaking Differently - Ryan Close
Treasures Bartender - Neil McVicar
Hardware Software Maestro - Mehul Gandhi
Beach Business - Sherard Kingston
Going Big with JB - Rodney
Brave Biz Dev - Brandon Fricke
Royal High Energy - Jasmine Robinson
Mucho Mobility - Will Coleman
Celeb Whisperer - Joe Robinson
Patience to the Moon - Rob Vickery
Sensor Superman - Abhinav Kunchamwar
Maps Marketer - Becky Burke
Adept NeuroTecht - Flora Gaudet
Sharp Mind - Hanna Kushioka
Foolproof Growth - Amir Kariv
Table Tennis Tech - Danny Landau
TechSphere - Alex Korhunov
Personal Reflections
On a more personal note, I have been down about geopolitics and technology’s, especially social media’s, role in making things worse especially after October 7th. So I really appreciated when a couple of fellow tech practitioners helped me start to envision an alternative approach to the social media future as well as examples of how AI is helping children stay calm during CT Scans and dairy farmers treat cows better.
Hope for the Future
So maybe there’s hope! CES must play a role to inspire these outcomes. Hopefully the higher exhibitor pricing and reduction in exhibitors post pandemic like Apple and other fantastic emerging companies I’ve met previously at CES will be overcome. There’s a lot of work to be done and rewards for its innovators.
Fun Fact from CES
To finish with a fun fact I learned at CES2024 - in growth hacking, startups will find creative ways to leverage an established player’s traction; the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is an early growth hacker in historically timing its conference to coincide with the end of CES even though it didn’t happen this year. Innovation can be difficult but is open to all players in the right context. Let’s have an awesome 2024!
