Richard Turen
There was a moment several years ago when I was sitting in the Grand Ballroom of the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with five-minute appointments scheduled throughout the week at our annual Virtuoso Travel Week gathering.
There was a coffee break, and I remembered sitting there laughing to myself as I watched several thousand people head for the doors leading to the refreshments.
I must be, I thought, the only attendee who has received a specific request from the Las Vegas tourism authorities to never return to their city.
It had to do with a column I wrote in the early '90s when Las Vegas city fathers declared they were going to become a family-based resort. In the piece, I speculated on what family resort might really mean in Vegas parlance. I won't repeat it here.
I did apologize, but I fear I am still not welcome in Vegas. This is my way of explaining why I did not join the more than 145,000 attendees at January's Consumer Electronic Show, an event that has an estimated $6 billion impact on the city.
Please consider attending next year, as this is where you will find more than 4,100 exhibitors and more than 2,000 startup businesses, many of which are prepared to enter our world of customer service, data control and presentation. Let's look at a bit of what we missed this year:
Everyone wanted to see the latest iterations of Chinese robots. Rumor had it that the Chinese were making rapid progress, particularly in the area of humanoid robots comfortable in, let's say, a travel-planning office environment or as a personal assistant, at some point fully capable of booking personalized travel for their owners.
Over at Engine AI, humanoid robots were participating in low-key boxing matches, while another Chinese firm, Sharpa, featured a robot playing ping pong. The playing was extremely impressive, but the real high-tech designers in attendance seemed fascinated by the robot's hand machinations. It was seriously improved over past versions.
In my recent series about AI design developments, I pointed out that the ability to tie a pair of shoelaces correctly was seen by many in Silicon Valley as a hurdle that must be overcome if robotics is to move on to the next steps of working in retail and the home. Well, that bridge has been crossed and actually enhanced with new technology.
Dyna Robotics is producing products that are already finding their way into the hospitality sector. At CES, their booth featured a robot that can actually fold laundry correctly. The company is already placing robots in one or two major laundry facilities in California, and it has received major investment funding from a group including Amazon, LG and Samsung.
The show featured such new technology as biometric luggage locks and earbuds that translate languages automatically. Several firms were demonstrating air-taxi platforms. What is most impressive is that these platforms are expected to be deployed within the next 24 months.
More specifically, this year's CES featured Smart Itinerary Assistants that create accurate recommendations and booking capabilities for dining, excursions and airport routing.
There are new Smart Itinerary Assistants that can automatically optimize connections, layovers and complete port-day scheduling. The show featured real-time disruption management programs that rebook and reroute automatically when flights are canceled.
Then there are the latest digital experiences that enable consumers to preview excursions, staterooms and onboard venues in new virtual reality settings on a home computer.
Finally, there was the Chinese general robotics manufacturer Galbot that set up a convenience store on the convention floor where its bots were able to identify and deliver products of the visitor's choosing.
But -- and this must be said -- I have not read or reviewed anything about this year's CES that makes me feel my clients will not need me next year. Nor should you.