Survival Guide.
Hour-by-hour. Bring this on your phone. Ignore what you want. Blame us at 8pm when you're tired.
Not because you're late. Because Central Hall opens at 9 and the badge line at 8 is a 63-minute meditation retreat.
Bring a physical photo ID. The QR code is a suggestion. There's a coffee cart 40 feet inside. Buy two.
Skip the TV wall. It'll be there Thursday. Go straight to the automotive concept you actually want to sit in before the line is 45 people.
There is a quiet mezzanine above Central Hall that nobody uses. Charge your phone. Answer three Slacks. Do not check LinkedIn.
The food court is $19 for a slice. Walk to the Westgate. Or hoard a granola bar. Either way, do not queue.
60% of the pitches are 'AI for [normal industry].' 30% are French. 10% are the reason you go. Find the 10%.
This is where the real meetings happen. Every year. Nobody knows why. Get there before it fills up.
Pepcom, ShowStoppers, and a third one you'll hear about at 5. Pick two. Eat at both. Skip the third's opening remarks.
You are wearing a lanyard. Take it off. Nobody at a real bar wants to see it.
It's fine. There's another one. Text 'you here?' Someone is.
What to Bring
- ▸Two phone chargers. One will fail.
- ▸A physical business card, one, for the person you meet at Fontainebleau who won't scan a QR.
- ▸Real shoes. The show floor is a marathon in a warehouse.
- ▸A water bottle you can refill. The desert is not a metaphor.
- ▸A pen. The badge lanyard survey asks for handwriting for some reason.
What to Skip
- ▸Any keynote titled 'The Future of X.' It's slides. You can watch it on YouTube in March.
- ▸The 'Best of Innovation' aisle before Thursday. It's a graveyard of press releases.
- ▸The rideshare line at LVCC South at 6pm. Walk to the Westgate. Uber from there.
- ▸The 'exclusive networking mixer' at the hotel bar. Yes, that one. Especially that one.
- ▸Anything advertised as 'immersive.'