CES SCENE: STARTUPS SURGE AND ALEXA GETS COMPETITION

(CAPTION: CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW LOOKING AT ANOTHER RECORD YEAR.) PHOTO: NORM CLARKE The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) opens today on a record-breaking trajectory.

A year ago, the 50th anniversary of the world’s largest showcase of the technology industry attracted nearly 185,000 industry professionals. Nearly 60,000 were from the U.S.

More records will fall this year, including more than 1,000 startup companies in town, trying to make a breakthrough.

Some will include “two people in a garage spending their last $1,000 to get to Las Vegas to showcase their technology in the hope they get the media attention and the financial backing,” said Denise Medved, vice president of sales and business development for the International CES and International CES Asia.

Commissioners from the most major sports are expected to talk about technology, she said.

The startup showcase will be in Hall G, the lower level at the Sands in the Sands Expo at The Venetian. The qualifying criteria for a startup company is: “You can’t have had a product on the market within the last six months or it has to be coming on the market in the next six to nine months,” said Medved.

The latest technology in television has always been a public favorite. She predicts one of the most heated battlegrounds will be Amazon’s intelligent personal assistant Electra and Google Assistant. “Last year the big headline out of CES was Alexa. So Google has made a huge investment for this year’s show. They’re partnered with hundreds of companies and I think in their activation in Central Plaza they have about 100 partners that are showcasing their solutions with their assistants.”

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