by Michael Sheehan on January 9, 2012
in CES, Consumer Electronics, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Intel, Microsoft, Opinion, Review, Tech News, video
Remember when netbooks were the “next big thing”? A few years ago, everyone wanted one of these small, compact and seemingly essential computers. But after a few years, the fog lifted from people’s eyes as they realized that the small form factor wasn’t the only thing that people needed. They wanted the best of all worlds, a small, lightweight, portable laptop that is fast and boast solid performance, has stellar battery life and looks slim, sleek and edgy. This new form-factor, based on a reference design from Intel, actually now has a name - Ultrabooks - and you will be hearing more and more about them in 2012, especially over the next few weeks with CES 2012 upon us.
Over the past few weeks, I have had quite a bit of hands on time with an ASUS Zenbook UX31E, which, for all intents and purposes, is a perfect example of an Ultrabook. It has a sharp-looking design, weighs next to nothing and does not compromise on performance, given that it is powered by a second generation Intel Core i5 processor. The Ultrabook is no netbook. It’s not even close.
Some UltrabookDads Videos
Instead of reading, I have a couple of videos that you should watch instead, one by me and one by Jeff Sass. (Jeff and I go back quit a few years to some Sony project work we did together. More recently we have participated in the Intel Advisor programs and events, and we both are part of the Cast of Dads.)
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by Michael Sheehan on February 14, 2011
in audio, Cast of Dads, CES, Consumer Electronics, Event, Family, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Intel, Mobile, Opinion, parenting, PodCast, Tablet, video
The Cast of Dads has been on a bit of a vacation recently – the reality is, we’ve all been so busy that our little “baby” (Cast of Dads) has become a bit neglected. But we promise to get back on track! To get things going again, we actually did do a video podcast at CES 2011. Unfortunately it was only a 3/5ths of the Cast of Dads as Brad Powell and Max Kalehoff were not at the show. But we did have our first guest ever and it was none other than Dave Delaney (a dad as well) of Griffin Technology.
I had never met CC Chapman in person so this was a great tradeshow for me personally. Both Jeff Sass and I were brought to CES by Intel as part of the Intel Advisors program, and consequently, Intel provided us an area to do our podcast. We recorded both a video and audio podcast, both of which you can find below. The post can also be found on the Cast of Dads website.
Note: we are always looking for sponsors! If you would like to sponsor an individual episode or a series of episodes, please do let us know.
The Topics
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This is the Second Part of a Two Part series that hopefully will help you plan out and strategize your next trip to a trade show. In the previous post, I discussed the Pre-Show Planning. It’s important to think about the show well before you get there. If you haven’t read Part One of this post, be sure to take a look at it.
This portion of the article is mainly about what to do AT and AFTER attending a trade show. This part becomes increasingly more subjective as people have different expectations of a show as well as objectives and directives after the show concludes. What I offer below are some ideas to help guide you. I do hope that people will add their own ideas to this post in the comments section.
At the Show Activities
So you made it to your hotel, checked in and unpacked. Hopefully that was without incident. The important thing is that you arrived. This section will be much shorter than the previous one simply because everybody approaches a show differently and each trade show is different as well. You might be going to attend conferences, workshops or breakout sessions and less inclined to visit the vendor booths. Other people might be more interested in doing a booth crawl and talking to vendors directly. With CES, it was all about the booths and a few Press Briefings and Keynotes.
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I’ve been back from CES for a month now (and recently attended MacWorld) and have had time to cobble together a few blog posts about things that I saw at both shows as well as have a tiny bit of time to reflect back on my time there. My general experience at CES was that of being thoroughly overwhelmed, not only by the amount of technology that was being showcased, but also at being at a place and event that was quite new to me. Yes, this was my first CES (but not my first tradeshow) and only my second time in Las Vegas. I learned a lot, especially in terms of how to pack as well as how to strategically approach the show from a “reporting” perspective.
What I will outline in this two-part article are some tips and tools that I found to be useful. Some may be good take away points for you when you plan your next trip to an expo, and others are more insights from my own personal standpoint. Obviously, this is not a de facto list and your mileage may (and probably will) vary.
There are 3 sections to this 2-part article:
- Pre-Show Planning (this post)
- At the Show Activities (Part 2)
- Post-Show Follow-Up (Part 2)
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