The
Las
Vegas
Convention
Center
during
CES
last
January.
(Photo
by
FREDERIC
J.
BROWN/AFP
via
Getty
Images)
“We
bring
you
the
circus,
pied
piper
whose
magic
tunes
greet
children
of
all
ages,
from
6
to
70,
into
a
tinsel
and
spun-candy
world
of
reckless
beauty
and
mounting
laughter
and
whirling
thrills;
of
rhythm,
excitement
and
grace;
of
blaring
and
daring
and
dance;
of
high-stepping
horses
and
high-flying
stars…It’s
a
fierce,
primitive
fighting
force
that
smashes
relentlessly
forward
against
impossible
odds.
That
is
the
circus.”
—
Narrator
colloquy
at
the
beginning
of
“The
Greatest
Show
on
Earth”
Ahh,
January.
The
holidays
are
over.
It’s
back
to
reality.
But
in
Las
Vegas
the
first
week
of
January
is
all
about
the
possibilities
and
promises
of
consumer
technology
as
the
annual
gigantic
consumer
electronics
show,
CES (sponsored
by
the
Consumer
Technology
Association),
kicks
off.
Just
as
in
the
past
six
years,
I’ll
be
there.
Just
like
last
year.
I
will
be
covering
the
show
from
a
legal
tech
and
innovation
viewpoint
for
Above
the
Law.
The
Greatest
Show
on
Earth
To
call
CES
a
“show”
is
a
bit
of
an
understatement.
As
I
have
said
before,
it’s
a
massive
conga
line
stretching
from
the
Convention
Center
at
the
north
end
of
the
Strip
to
Mandalay
Bay
at
the
south
end.
It’s
part
computer
science,
part
giant
party,
part
marketing
and
part
schmaltz.
The
spectacle
begins
on
January
5,
with
a
day
and
a
half
of
media
days,
and
then
goes
full
tilt
for
five
days.
Consider
the
numbers
(according
to
CES):
-
Over
138,000
attendees,
60%
of
whom
hold
jobs
at
senior
positions
in
their
organizations. -
Representatives
of
309
Fortune
500
companies
from
some
160
countries. -
Over
4312
exhibitors -
1442
start-up
exhibitors
housed
in
the
basement
of
the
Venetian
Expo
convention
center
called
Eureka
Park,
where
you
find
people
pursuing
their
passions
and
dreams. -
Keynote
addresses
from
the
CEOs
of
companies
such
as
Waymo,
Nvidia,
Panasonic,
Volvo,
Accenture,
Sirius,
and
Delta
(in
the
Sphere,
followed
by
a
concert
by
none
other
than
Lenny
Kravitz). -
Over
1000
speakers
across
250
educational
sessions
from
thought
leaders
from
companies
like
Meta,
Vogue,
Netflix,
Mitsubishi,
and
Mastercard,
to
name
a
few.
Those
of
us
in
legal
tend
to
think
of
large
conferences
in
terms
of
those
put
on
by
Clio,
ILTA,
LegalWeek,
or
even
TechShow
(of
which
I
am
the
current
co-chair).
But
CES
is
in
an
entirely
different
league
altogether.
To
paraphrase
the
sportswriter
Irvin
Cobb:
Until
You
Go
To
CES
With
Your
Own
Eyes,
Behold
CES,
You
Ain’t
Never
Been
Nowhere,
And
You
Ain’t
Seen
Nothin.
CES
2025
Kinsey
Fabrisio,
the
Consumer
Technology
Association
current
president,
and
John
Kelley,
the
2025
show
director,
recently
emphasized
in
their
pre-show
presser
that
this
year’s
show
will
focus
on
things
like
how
quantum
computing
will
transform
business,
advances
in
consumer
wearables,
beauty
and
fashion
products,
food
tech,
fitness
and
longevity,
gaming,
and
health
care
and
mobility
tools.
And,
of
course,
the
show
will
focus
heavily
on
machine
learning
and
Gen
AI
and
how
these
tools
will
change
every
profession.
Among
the
top
10
things
to
look
for
this
year,
according
to
CES
promotional
materials,
are
a
Health
Summit,
new
Innovation
Awards,
vehicle
and
space
tech,
a
“Shark
Tank”
open
call,
and,
last
but
not
least,
an
Indy
car
race
with
full
size
autonomous
vehicles.
Among
the
top
10
products
not
to
miss:
foldable
TVs,
new
HDMIs,
perhaps
laptops
with
wall
displace
capability,
new
vacuum
robots,
smart
home
robots
and
flying
cars.
Other
notables
touted
by
CES
:
how
AI
agents
will
take
over
more
and
more
things
us
humans
now
do
(better,
cheaper,
faster),
as
I
wrote
about
after
attending
the
Summit
AI
New
York
a
few
weeks
ago,
hologram
display
products,
and
cute
“affectionate
Intelligence”
robots.
Computing
with
keyboard-less
input.
Glasses
that
display
data
as
you
view
objects
around
you.
Voices
that
talk
the
info
you
request
into
your
earbuds
or
smartphone
on
demand.
Autonomous
vehicles
or
drones
delivering
you
and/or
goods.
All
this
and
more.
What’s
a
Lawyer
Doing
Here?
What
does
all
this
have
you
do
with
legal?
Why
attend
and
write
about
a
Show
directed
toward
consumer
products,
not
products
for
lawyers
and
legal
professionals?
As
I
have
written
before,
there
are
two
main
reasons:
the
first
is
attitudinal,
and
the
second
is
practical.
It’s
the
‘Tude,
Man
First,
the
attitude.
The
people
and
exhibitors
at
CES
look
at
the
world
and
ask
questions
differently
than
most
lawyers.
They
look
for
ideas
that
could,
might,
or
even
possibly
work
to
address
consumer
pain
points.
Legal
spends
its
time
looking
for
ways
something
won’t
work.
CES
is
the
party
of
yes,
Legal
is
often
the
party
of
no.
The
people
who
attend
CES
are
motivated
and
rewarded
for
finding
ways
of
doing
things
that
make
what
consumers
do
better,
cheaper,
and
faster.
Legal,
on
the
other
hand,
in
large
part
poo
poos
better,
cheaper,
and
faster,
especially
if
the
better,
cheaper,
faster
could
impact
billable
hours.
CES
is
a
different
and
refreshing
perspective.
Different
viewpoints
and
perspectives
lead
to
different
approaches
that
could
someday
be
applied
to
law.
But
for
that
to
happen
you
have
to
be
exposed
to
different
perspectives.
Crossover
Potential
I
have
found
that
CES
has
historically
introduced
tech
that,
in
different
forms,
later
crosses
over
in
one
form
or
the
other
into
legal.
(As
far
back
as
2020,
CES
speakers
were
saying
that
AI
would
permeate
every
facet
of
our
commerce
and
culture.)
Like
everyone
else,
lawyers
are
consumers.
And
when
they
use
consumer
products,
they
look
for
products
that
work,
are
easy
to
use,
and
solve
actual
pain
points.
Inevitably,
those
consumer
products
and
their
uses
will
spill
over
into
legal.
Lawyers
gradually
begin
to
expect
and
demand
products
that
help
them
in
the
same
way
as
the
consumer
products
they
use
in
everyday
(real?)
life.
So,
it’s
important
to
see
what
products
and
trends
in
the
consumer
domain
could
have
implications
for
the
legal
profession.
Understanding
the
relevance
of
these
products
and
trends
is
crucial
for
anticipating
future
challenges
and
opportunities
in
legal.
The
prime
example:
the
iPhone.
When
it
was
introduced,
most
legal
and
business
people
dismissed
the
iPhone
as
having
no
work-related
significance.
The
common
belief
was
it
would
never
replace
the
BlackBerry.
Yet
the
iPhone
and
similar
smartphones,
ultimately
completely
transformed
how
lawyers
and
legal
professionals
work.
I
have
learned
over
seven
years,
amidst
all
CES
spectacle
are
stories
that
could
affect
legal.
Last
year,
for
example,
I
wrote
about
such
things
as
the
best
use
and
practices
for
AI
that
might
work
for
legal,
how
consumer
electronics
could
impact
client
attrition
and
expectations,
and
how
the
metaverse
could
be
used
to
train
lawyers.
I
also
wrote
about
a
gallery
of
flops
that
an
exhibitor
identified
and
how
legal
could
take
a
lesson
from
those
flops.
All
insights
and
perspectives
different
from
what
I
might
have
obtained
by
sticking
with
legal
tech
conferences.
Legal
tech
conferences
all
too
often
turn
into
a
bunch
of
us
sitting
in
a
closet
talking
to
ourselves
too
much,
as
one
of
my
clients
used
to
say.
Stay
Tuned
CES
is
a
blend
of
computer
science,
marketing,
and
pure
revelry
that
turns
Las
Vegas
into
a
giant,
interconnected
stage
for
innovation.
As
I
attend
CES
for
the
seventh
time,
I
hope
to
bring
you
some
insights
and
stories
about
the
experience
and
what
I
discover
and
what’s
relevant
and
important
to
legal.
“And
now
let
us
welcome
the
new
year,
full
of
things
that
have
never
been.”
–
Rainer
Maria
Rilke
Stephen
Embry
is
a
lawyer,
speaker,
blogger
and
writer.
He
publishes TechLaw
Crossroads,
a
blog
devoted
to
the
examination
of
the
tension
between
technology,
the
law,
and
the
practice
of
law.