By The Brown Messiah
Five years ago I heard of the Consumer Electronics Show. I was fascinated. An entire convention with all of the newest technology sounded like an awesome week and it is in Las Vegas, so umm… sign me up and ship me out! The problem was I knew I’d never be able to go. It is a trade show; unless you’re planning to spend a stupid amount of money to go as an attendee, a regular consumer isn’t really likely to go.
Late 2014, I got involved in the game of Dice Masters and met my buddy KT. KT owns a tech review site called Ktdata. He has had a few shows in the past and produces three shows now. Anyway, he gave me the chance to help him out as a cameraman and provide coverage for Ktdata. Let me just say I completely underestimated the size of the whole show. There were three sections, which you can check out here. Basically the show was the whole Las Vegas Convention Center, the Sands Expo hall, and the Aria. We only managed to make it to the LVCC and the Sands for the show, but were invited to a party in the evening at the Cosmopolitan. We did a ridiculous amount of walking, I honestly wasn’t sure I was gonna make it, but I survived and now I’m gonna tell you about it!
Day 1: The Drive and Concert
We left in the morning on Wednesday January 9. The car consisted of myself, KT, and the other cameraman Deedo. Deedo has been working with KT for years and did an anime podcast with him. This would be KT’s sixth year and Deedo’s fifth so they knew what we were in for. We left around 10 am and made it to Vegas around 4 pm Vegas time.
Our first stop was the Aria to pick up our badges for the show, as well as to check-in for the AT&T Developers Summit where Blink-182 would be playing that very evening. After pick up, we were off to the glamorous Circus Circus where we would be spending our week in Vegas. We checked in, ran up to the room for a quick unpack and change, then back down and out to the Palms for the summit. We arrived and made our way to the venue. We didn’t get there in time to see the show floor; and we decided to skip the pre-party, with drinks and card exchanging, to be the first ones into the club where the concert and food would be, like any reasonable person would do. Once we got in we saw the setup, and they had the works. Different stations with all types of food, from Asian to Mexican and Italian, they even had a milkshake station to bring us all to the yard! We stuffed ourselves and talked to a developer for Microsoft who was leaving the next day but had to see Blink before he left. Finally around 9 pm, Blink-182 took the stage. They played really well with Matt Skiba, and I feel like he will prove to be a great alternative since we won’t get any Tom. The highlight of the show, for me, was Travis Barker. I’ve always respected his talent and recognize him as one of the best drummers in the business so it was amazing to see him do his thing and beat the shit out of those drums!
Day 1 ended on a great note and we headed back to the room to rest up for the next day. However, I was foolish enough to hit a blackjack table before I went to bed, but, while I came away on top, had I known what was in store for me the next day, I would have gone to bed.
The Nerdd 
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