CES Survival Guide 101
A first-timer's observations on a larger-than-life convention in a larger-than-life city.
This year I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Consumer Electronics Show, held annually in Las Vegas, to report out on what was labeled “Conscious Tech” - essentially, use cases or products that spoke to underserved communities, or drove sustainability, or increased access for all. More or less responsible use of the technology that is being forged in the fourth industrial revolution.
You can find some of those takes here. We’ll also be doing a webinar towards the end of January of a fuller recap of the entire show (not just where our collective consciousnesses are involved.) But this being my first CES, I wanted to pass along a few tips I was given that were invaluable, and some I’d highlight having gone from rookie to vet.
First, Las Vegas Isn’t Real
The city of Las Vegas itself is not real life - it’s a testament to man’s greed and hubris. Every aspect of it is meant to extract as much money out of a consumer as possible, which the city does quite effectively. Remember - the house always wins.
The sheer scale of it is almost impossible to truly comprehend. Five of the world’s top ten largest hotels are in Vegas (14 of the top 25 reside in the city and on The Strip.) You can go days without going outside, thanks to a system of luxury malls that act as hallways between the behemoth lodgings.
All of this in a desert that can’t sustainably support its current rate of growth (and potentially its current population.) But like late-stage capitalism, growth at all costs must continue in the Las Vegas Valley. And walking through the smoke-filled casinos feels like a capitalist fever dream (because it is.)
Getting Around
Bring some comfortable shoes if you’re going to CES, as your step count will see a significant increase over your normal day (even for those New Yorkers accustomed to hoofing it everywhere.)
That scale we talked about? It is acutely felt in trying to get from one end of a hotel to another (typically a 5-10 minute walk.) And then getting between hotels via those malls and indoor walkways takes even longer. And unless you’re keen on paying a taxi to sit in traffic for about the same time as it will take to get a couple of hotels down, it’s not worth hopping in a car.
There are trams and public transit (and - something so stupid it could only be concocted in Vegas - The Loop), but their use cases are extremely small. You need to be at the right place at the right time (and going to only a handful of hotels) for these options to make sense. And the buses suffer the same surface traffic problems as taxis (as well as stopping a lot more often.)
There are CES shuttles, and they are invaluable when it comes to getting from floor to floor. This is obviously not their first rodeo, and the logistics of moving as many people as they do from point A to point B has been, dare I say, as perfected as possible from an efficiency standpoint.
The Service is Impeccable, But You Pay For It
One thing you are going to notice in Vegas is that the service - from housekeeping staff to casino floor workers to servers in restaurants and bars - is a noticeably better than the rest of the country (outside of extreme luxury areas.)
The Vegas economy is dependent on services to survive, which is a big part of this. Another aspect is that most of the workers you interact with are unionized, earn a living wage, and have benefits. It is amazing what not worrying about where your next meal is coming from will do for an employee’s productivity and attitude at work.
The flip side of this? Everything so expensive in Vegas (but don’t necessarily blame the unions by themselves.) And while casino floors are littered with workers pushing that particular casino’s app with enticing offers of free money to bet, there is no free lunch in capitalism or in Vegas. So much so that you might be hard-pressed to find something as simple as a Kuerig machine in your hotel room - lest you use it as opposed to buying a $6 drip coffee after waiting in a 15-minute line (if you’re lucky) from a cafe that happens to be owned by the hotel.
Drink Water - A Lot of It
There are plenty of ways to stay hydrated, particularly if you find yourself at a table game or the sports book for a decent amount of time. But it’s important to follow that all-time Taffer Tip and make sure you’re drinking water in between these bouts of hydrating activities.
This isn’t just to avoid a hangover (though that’s helpful) - while you may be surrounded by fountains and fake canals, Vegas is smack in the middle of a desert. And that dry air you’re used to after a long flight and staying in a hotel is magnified by being in a desert valley.
So bring your Stanley (or pay exorbitant prices for bottled water if tap isn’t your thing) and keep it topped up. Also throw some chap stick and moisturizer in your bag. Vegas is not only after your wallet - they also want your moisture.
Be Flexible
One benefit of CES planning is that the booths are mapped out and you can look up the exhibitors before you go. This helps you plan your days out and even the routes you want to take on the floor. And you should make these plans - showing up to CES without one is more chaotic than CES itself.
But leave room for unstructured exploration. Take time to wander down aisles or through parts of the floor you might not have gone to otherwise. Hit up a panel that might seem interesting, even it it’s not super tangential to your work. These moments of serendipity - even if you have to force yourself into them - could lead to an epiphany. At the least they will open up your perspective a bit.
Have Fun
Part of the fun of Vegas is that it’s not based in reality, and CES just adds an extra layer of un-reality to it. The insane amount of money flowing via sponsored happy hours, hospitality suites, and meals rivals only the amount of money being wagered all day every day on casino floors across the city and the Strip (the latter of which is technically not part of Las Vegas, better to consolidate power amongst casino owners and garner lower taxes.)
With all of that money floating around, it’s easy to have some fun. After a long day of walking the floor and checking out the latest technological wares, a drink or three and a rare steak, followed by putting a couple bucks on black and/or your favorite team, is a nice way to unwind. But don’t overdo it - while Vegas isn’t exactly a locale that begs moderation, it’s best to mind your Ps and Qs at CES. It’s still work, at the end of the day.
Grab Bag Section
WTF In-Room Coffee: I mentioned this in the post, but a baffling part of my stay at a luxury hotel on the strip was the lack of a coffee machine in the room. I had early calls every morning and I would have very much appreciated a coffee in my sweatpants off-camera. Instead, I had to get up early enough to get dressed and look presentable (Vegas is full of industry people during CES), head to a cafe, and hustle back to my room with a cup of expensive coffee in order to function for my meeting.
I thought maybe it was just me or my hotel, but asking around it turns out that others up and down Las Vegas Boulevard were suffering the same fate. And this wasn’t our CFOs colluding and having the hotels pull out anything that cost money in the room like we were Denzel Washington in Flight and couldn’t be trusted with in-room amenities. Perusing some local news outlets, I actually found a reference to coffee makers being removed and needing to buy overpriced coffee.
Blackstone, which owns the hotel I stayed at last week, makes over $2 billion a year in net income. Put the Kuerigs back in the room.
Media of the Week: For 2026, I want to move outside of just music. We’ll still have albums of the week, but I’ve been able to reclaim a little bit of time lately to get back into movies and books - something I had been slacking on during a very busy stretch the past eight months or so.
With that said, I was able to watch a movie on the way to Vegas that has stuck with me the past week. War Pony follows the lives of two kids living on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where their lives are ruled by poverty and the ways they try to escape it, even temporarily. It’s a heartbreaking look at life on a reservation and how poverty in general grinds up countless people in its wake.
It was a debut feature film from Presley heir Riley Keoegh and Gina Gammell, winning the coveted Camera D’Or at 2022’s Cannes Film Festival. Most of the actors and writers on the movie haven’t done much since, which is surprising given how well it does on the old Tomatometer.
You don’t have to be stuck on a plane to watch this movie, but don’t expect to leave it feeling all warm and fuzzy.
Quote of the Week: “Hedging is for gardeners.” - Unattributed
Use of AI in This Post
This might be the first post on the newsletter that has zero AI usage - the pictures are mine and the research was done the old-fashioned way. A nice way to start 2026, but let’s not get used to it.
See you at the next one!