Three Reasons #CES2016 Matters BigTime

This year in tech will be more important than the release of the original iPhone in 2007. I’ll be covering CES via Periscope with Brian Fanzo as we blast through the aisles on electric scooters provided by @EcorecoScooter like nerd gods (I should totally hashtag that). I envision thin carpeted and brilliantly fluorescent room as the belated sugarplums in a George McFly’s holiday dream.

In reality nothing is super new (I’ll get back to this thought). Robotics have been around for quite a while, drones are 2000 and late, 3D printers are getting better, #VR and #AR have been available for awhile and wearables have been around since before Robert Scoble took showers with them. The newness lies in the way that we are connecting technologies and the ways that technologies are connecting us. Our tech driven global village will help to eradicate a good amount of stupidity and hate… and I love that.

Here, in no particular order, are my thoughts on the important facets that are helping our world explode with tech and knowledge.

• IOT — The Internet of Things continues to make our devices more communicative with other devices… and with us. My toaster oven is more connected and has more computation power than what we used to land the Apollo 11 on the moon. This year our children will communicate with their toys, our cars will understand traffic and health tracking bands will tell me that the scone I just ate will never work itself off of my muffin top. Now everything collects data AND has platforms can quantify the information’s real VALUE.

• Virtual & Augmented Reality — I HATE putting these in the same category but I’m a sheep who is permanently stooped to bow to the will of the masses. My investments are more in #AR than #VR because of a higher potential for constant usage and business applications that will monetize (ugh… that word). I digress. #VR will explode on the user side because cost will be negligible and creators will be fighting to make a name for themselves by creating amazing experiences. I mean… holy crap… Google Cardboard came with the New York Times last month and Mattel has a VR headset — The View-Master (Yes, I put a WalMart link for impact) that’s less than $30.00.

• Live Streaming — Dude, come on. You totally knew I was going to do this one. It’s not that CES is going to showcase live streaming… it’s the opposite. Live streaming will help showcase CES. While there will be 170,000 people at the event there will be a group of people that will be broadcasting to hundreds of thousands of viewers via Mobile Engaged Broadcasting platforms like Periscope (#fanboy).

Brian and I will be #Scoping with Lizza Monet Morales, @AmberPlaster, @LisaSansouci, @Rocky_Nash and quite a few others… Scopers tend to unite.

The aggregated digital eyeballs that we bring as a community change the way the world interacts and the way that events, brands and celebrities quantify social media and engagement. The next Periscope Summit will be going on after CES in San Francisco. You should go. The inaugural one trended on Twitter with half the attendance. Buy tickets/research here:

PERISCOPE COMMUNITY SUMMIT

If you like this article (or want to throw tomatoes at me). I’ll be speaking about the changing landscape of technology on the 6th at 11:30. Here’s the link in case you think I’m lying. SEE… I’M NOT LYING

The truth is that my definition of the word “now” is what I am speculating to work in the future. A drone to me is nothing without a camera just as a holographic image of a heart has less use without a doctor manipulating the chambers to put into a 3D printer. We are formalizing the future with every platform that connects a knowledge center …

In the end, it’s all related and it’s up to us to put the pieces together. Make art. Write. Invent. Be lovely. Do your damn thing. It’s our job to be a better us… after all, we have the technology.

If I’m wrong the robots will destroy me.