Last Year Andy McCaskey and I combed the halls of CES and were able to get some very good interviews. These were live on the floor interviews with a microphone in one hand and notepad in the other. Over the entire conference we were almost mobbed by exhibitors at times because it seems those that had press badges were hardly ever seen on the floor. Just like many other new media folks that where on the floor we were not able to get official press badges it really did not slow us down though.
So here Andy and I are ramping up to do Video and Audio Interviews on the floor again, and do you think we can get some press credentials. I suppose the 700,000 plus downloads those interviews got last year did not reach enough people.
I would think CES at this point should be willing to reach out to some of us new media folks that are their on the floor getting exposure to many of the vendors who have no chance of getting press exposure beyond the traffic through the halls. I nearly got mugged in the foreign delegation section of the Hilton, those exhibitors were so starved for attention I quite literally got chased around that hall for about 4 hours.
But unless you are part of a mainstream media company, have a name on a masthead someplace, good luck getting press credentials. I suppose the 6000+ plus tech articles that I have written here and 220 tech shows I have produced don’t make me qualified enough to be able to hold a coveted Press badge.
Last year if it had not been from the Waggener Edstrom folks we would have probably about died, they provided a room close to the convention floor where we could go mid-point in the day and put a show out along with getting some food. But because we were off site we still lost several hours a day due to the logistics of having to leave the convention floor.
If anyone has any contacts at CES that can get us hooked up with Press Badges please drop me a line I would be very grateful.