By Chad Henderson

I have always wanted to attend the massive Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that happens ever year in Las Vegas around this time. I imagined it as this sprawling, hypnotic disneyland of amazing technology and spectacle. A place to see the all your dreams of the future laid out around you like a feast. Where else are you going to learn about the new toys and gadgets that you will be drooling over in the stores next year? Companies like Sony and Microsoft spend all year planning how they will get the most attention at shows like CES. They spend huge amounts of money on booth decorations and lighting. They hire actors and stuntmen to make flashy dramatic entrances. They plant beautiful, evocatively dressed young ladies around their products, hoping to attract more eyes than the next company.    

But as I sat watching Leo Leporte walk through the convention center yesterday, all streaming to me live thanks to the magic of the modern internet, it occurred to me that these huge trade shows may be entering their twilight years. Watching Twit Live allowed me to be there without having to be there, and more importantly, without having to purchase a ticket to attend. I am sure that I missed out on some of the pure amazement and spectacle that you experience by being there in person. I am sure that things like the large beautiful 3D tvs do not seem very impressive when seen through a normal video stream, and standing next to a lovely young women in a tight Sony T-shirt is much more compelling that seeing her on a laptop screen, but otherwise, I felt like I was there. 

I was finally getting to attend CES, all without having to deal with the hassle of travel, and the crush of thousands of other technology geeks. I was getting to see all of the new toys and gadgets, and thanks to the power of an internet celebrity like Leporte, I was actually getting to see more than I would have as a normal visitor. I was getting to see interviews with, and hands on demonstrations by, the people behind the tech.

Wow, why bother going now?

But as powerful as that question is, it really doesn't seem as important as it once would have been. Now that sites likeCNet, Engadget, and Gizmodo are covering not only events like CES thoroughly, but also offering a year round spotlight on everything tech and gadget related, companies are starting to realize that they do not need to spend a ton of time and money to have a presence at huge events like CES. As a matter of fact, this will be the final year that Microsoft will be doing the keynote at CES. That fact alone tells you that interest in the trade show is waning. Apple has already pulled out of Macworld in a huge way and instead started doing their own events anytime they want to make an announcement to the world and it is working.

Even if companies wanted to wait for events like CES to make their big announcements, frequent leaks and rampant internet speculation often steal the thunder from what they waited to unveil. If news sites are discussing photos and specs in detail weeks before your big unveiling, why bother with it. Controlling the flow of information becomes harder the longer you wait and CES only happens once a year. For this reason, many products are now being announced long before the big events, even if the product is not actually ready.

Based on these changes in the mind set of companies and visitors, I expect that these large shows will start to fade into the background and eventually disappear altogether as the expense and effort eclipse the return. So if you want to attend an event like CES in person, you better do it soon. It may not be here in a few years.

Or just watch twit.tv, like I do.