We here at Southwest Printers was given the opportunity through the Xerox Corp. to attend the "Innovation Power Panel" keynote at the Hilton Theatre. Aside from the fact that the Hilton which is now not the Hilton but sports the new and totally uninspired name of the Las Vegas Hotel, The innovation panel, made up of Ursula Burns the Chairman and CEO of Xerox Corp., Alan Mulally president and CEO of Ford Motor Co., John Stratton, President of Verizon Enterprise Solutions and hosted by CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro was for me was quite motivating.

It is always very interesting to listen to the people who were instrumental in turning around their respective companies from the brink of irrelevence to thriving, innovative and competitive entities. Ms. Burns and Mr Mulally in particular had very inspirational stories to tell, and I only wish that the time had not ended so quickly which is unusual for me since normally I find events such as this rather dull and often find myself squirming in my seat wishing I had sat closer to the door. This was not the case this time.

After exiting the theatre I found myself cought in a seamingly endless train of people all focused on getting over to the show. Once inside I wandered around looking for something that truly excited me. Keep in mind that I am a tech type guy and not much seems to amaze me when it comes to technology, so it was no wonder that I had a hard time finding anything that truly got me going. I have to admit here that I did not have all that much time and did not get to all the venues however, seeing how the Las Vegas Convention Center is the largest venue I think I got a really good sample. Having seen all the press releases and product announcements, I didn't really see anything really exciting and by new I mean NEW as in never been seen before, game changing, totally will blow you away new.

In an article on cnet by Jennifer Guevin entitled "What Mattered Most on CES Day 2" she tried to point out the most important things that mattered on that day but what she actually ended up doing in giving you the impression that there was nothing and she struggled to find anything at all to write about because there was nothing, nothing at all to talk about or write about. So what was there at CES 2012 Day 2,1 & 3 & 4 ? Well technologically speaking there was nothing really new, just the same old things repackaged, resized, 3D-ified, faster, wider, taller, smaller, flatter, thinner, bigger, better, have it this way, have it that way, have it your way....just anything but truly new and innovative...that thing that makes you say WOW !!!

Don't get me wrong here I loved the show and in fact one of the products I loved the most is one which is not new or changed very much at all. It is the A.R. Drone by Parrot. We at Southwest Printers and me in particular just love this thing. I want one.

In fact there were numerous products that I liked even if they were not game changers and one of those that is or will be influencial is the LG Cimema 3D OLED which is basically just a piece of glass and almost no frame to speak of and is only about 1/4" thick and a bezel width of about 1mm and was the CNET best of show award winner for 2012.

It's possible that I am being just a bit too synical and maybe next year there will be some magical product that just knocks your socks off and says "Here I Am !!". So are we just going to be followers and evolutionaries or are we still innovators and creators of the new and the WOW ! ?

Special thanks to Jeff at Xerox for making this possible for me.