2005 CES Day 1 010506

Today is the first day of the 2005 CES show. My company has a booth on the 2nd floor of the South Hall. Luckily, I am not required to show up for booth duty. I have several meetings spread throughout the day and the week. This is the only show where I don't participate in the planning process. The downside is that I don't have a dedicated meeting room so I'll be scrambling to find space. A funny thing did happen as I walked past the ATI Technology booth to speak to some of my acquaintances. Their Director of Strategic Marketing meets me and asks me what I do for Logitech and that he had an opening of the same position at ATI. Apparently, Mike Smith, who was the Developer Relations Manager (they call theirs ISV Manager), had moved on to a different group. Apparently, he's heard of me through several people within ATI. It feels exhilarating to feel like you're wanted =). I said thank you and he tells me to think about it and get back to him.

There are several big parties scheduled for tonight and everyone is planning on which one they want to attend or trying to acquire tickets. Here are the parties that I knew of and their special guests:

Intel at the Empire Ballroom - Black Eyed Peas
AMD at Studio 54 at MGM - Black Crows
Microsoft - The Killers
Ziff Davis - Foo Fighters (not sure)
Corsair / Asus - Suite at the Bellagio
Playboy TV / Spice - Club Rain at The Palm

I scored tickets for the Intel, AMD, and Corsair / Asus parties. I had originally planned to go to dinner, stop by the Corsair / Asus party and then finish off at the Intel party. I could have attended the Microsoft party but I'd already seen the Killers at the Xbox 360 launch party at the 2005 E3.

Our dinner reservations were at Bouchon in the Venetian Hotel. Bouchon was the top rated restaurant that week according to several different Las Vegas newspapers and websites. As you can tell by the name, they serve French cuisine. Dinner reservations were originally planned for 5:00pm by our friend at Microsoft (CD). A majority of our group show up in time while I'm about 15 minutes late (traffic). Our Microsoft guest was over an hour late and shows up as we finish our main course. We left the restaurant on-time but our CD didn't get to each much more than a salad.

I started off with a salmon tartar appetizer and decided to go the healthier route and ordered one of the specials which was Grilled Black Bass for my entree. The fish was very good but not worth the price of the meal. I guess its really hard to make fish taste any better than it already does. The others at my table really enjoyed their orders. Some meals ordered were pork shoulder and lamb. For dessert, I ordered the special doughnuts and a double espresso.

Dinner lasted longer than anticipated so I missed the first evening event which was the Corsair / Asus party scheduled for 6pm to 9pm. We all split up and attend the different parties that evening. I head over to the Intel party with CD and ES and run into the good folks from DISCover. They had a table on the left side right next to the stage. Their table was elevated so we were on the same level as the stage. We had a great view of the stage and the back area where you could see the Black Eyed Peas preparing to start the show. The crowd at the Intel party was mostly older and more mature. They were very very strict about who was allowed to attend their party. Their goal was to invite the major movers and shakers (mostly executive level or higher). I was lucky to get an invite as a regular middle manager peon.


The Black Eyed Peas performance started around 930pm and start of singing a majority of the songs off of their Monkey Business album. The Black Eyed Peas performed very well and were entertaining. I'd say that they were one of the better performances that I'd ever seen from a group or musician at any of the major private parties that I've been to. Fergie can really put on a show and really looked 'hot' on stage. She can really play to the crowd.

Everyone on our side of the table was screaming for them to sing "My Humps" and were disappointed to hear that they were about to perform their last song when something weird happened. BEP went off the stage for a short break in their set and they let some musicians on stage to play some beats with different instruments. These musicians were right behind us during the whole BEP performance so we had no idea that they were part of the event. Even stranger was that I noticed an extremely large muscular African American guy behind me who we all thought was a bodyguard. In the end, we find out that this person was Jamal Anderson. He was a football running back who played for the Atlanta Falcons. He was a great player during his prime. Jamal Anderson had heard our chants for "My Humps" and went back stage to tell the BEPs and they closed the show out with that song. Not only did they sing "My Humps" at the end but they sang another 2 songs before that.

After the BEP performance, I left right away and headed straight to the AMD party to see if I could catch the Black Crows but it was 1030pm and I had just missed everyone. I receive a call from my buddy Conway who was able to get me a pass into the Playboy party so I head over to the Palm. Club Rain was packed but the VIP Playboy party was being held in a private area at the very top of the club. I've been to the club before but I never knew there was such an area. We party in private suite number 3 for most of the night while watching the crowed below from our balcony. Someone mentions to me that a few months ago, Mike Tyson's entourage threw someone off of the balcony down to the dance floor below (about 3 stories). I'm not sure if this was true but it was certainly a possibility

At around 2am, our party decides to visit a strip club called Seamless. One of the guys with us knows several of the strip club owners in Vegas. While walking through the casino, one of the guys in our party stops to play the slots and hits a triple 3 different times. We spend about an hour gambling. On our way out to the valet area, we see Ron Jeremy get out of a car and head into the Palm. Everyone starts to call out his name to say hi to him. I had met him a few years back at the Adultdex. One of the guys in our party gives Ron one of his business cards.

Seamless had just opened 2 months ago and cost about 25 million dollars to build. It was a very large and impressive building with its own parking garage. As we enter the building, we are greeted by the twin big bodyguards that starred in the movie Ocean's 12. I didn't know who they were right away until someone told me about it. We walk into the club as VIPs and not cover charge was paid. As we go through the entrance there is a topless girl atop a large champagne glass to greet us. We are brought to a private VIP area and we order drinks. The club itself was fairly typical of any strip club you've been to. We only stayed about an hour before we all head home.