Overheard At CES
By Steve Smith -- TWICE, 1/21/2002
LAS VEGAS — Maybe it was the relief that the holiday selling season was pretty good at retail. Or it could be that attendance of about 98,000 at International CES was pretty damn good considering we are still in a war and a recession. Whatever it was, it seemed to this reporter that executives addressing the public and the press were more humorous, and more candid, than normal.
Here's a selection of quips, quotes and comments yours truly and others on the TWICE staff heard at CES:
"Despite the bumps and bruises, the industry had a good year, especially when it came to new technologies." — CEA president & CEO Gary Shapiro commenting on retail sales in his opening keynote.
"Even in a soft economy people are spending a lot of money on our products, and it looks like that will continue. But retailers will have to stake out their own role in that overall business." — Rick Souder, VP/general merchandise manager, Circuit City.
"At least I don't have to play second fiddle to a dog." —Sirius Satellite Radio president Joe Clayton, on his days at RCA and Thomson dealing with Nipper and family. He then introduced new company mascot, Sirius, a white West Highland terrier. (See picture, p. 6.)
"I'm still with the two dogs." —Thomson worldwide sales & marketing VP Mike O'Hara's opening line during his CES press conference, wishing Clayton and other former Thomson execs well with Sirius.
"During the 21st century the Web will equal the combined effect electricity, the telephone and the automobile had on the 20th century." —Meg Whitman, eBay president & CEO, during her speech at the CEA Leaders In Technology Dinner.
"The U.S. [market] is not meeting our standards, but we firmly believe that the products we have… and the management we have in place… will make [Philips as formidable] in the U.S. as it is in Europe, within that timeframe."—Guy Demuynck, senior VP Royal Philips Electronics and CEO of Philips Consumer Electronics. He was answering a question during a press conference about whether or not the company will turn around its fortunes in the U.S. in three years. Last fall, published reports from Europe quoted Gerard Kleisterlee, Royal Philips Electronics president and CEO, saying that if things didn't change in the U.S. within that time, the company would leave the market.
"HP cannot be a company frozen in time." —Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard's CEO, commenting on the proposed merger with Compaq. She added during her keynote that her company's founders Dave Packard and Bill Hewett never wanted HP to stand still.
"This should start the rumor mill going." —An observer of JVC executive VP & COO Harry Elias and Matsushita Electric chairman & CEO Don Iwatani mugging for the TWICE camera at the PRO Group party. (See picture on p. 6.)
"3G will dramatically enrich the whole wireless experience" by transmitting "volumes of useful data without being tethered to a desk or a phone line."—Sprint chairman William Esrey during his CES keynote.
"A really good way to start the year. Wish you'd all stay." —Larry Miles, a driver for the Yellow Checker Star Cab Company in Las Vegas, on how CES affected his business.
We might as well end where we began, with our host, CEA's Gary Shapiro, who pointed out that the new South Hall "can easily accommodate the Navy's largest aircraft carrier. The hall is 48 football fields big, and if filled with one layer of golf balls, there would be a golf ball for every U.S. and Canadian citizen." (We know Gary, we know. While it's beautiful and better than the CES venues that used to be spread all over town, it did take some getting used to. By the end of the show our feet felt like we were walking on all those golf balls.)
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