In less than three and a half weeks, I will fly to Las Vegas to cover CES. Because I’ve now done that 25 times, I know that I should have my schedule set by now–and yet I don’t, because I continue to get pitches and invitations for the gadget gathering.
And many of the 61 e-mails I received Thursday alone (going by a search for “CES” in the subject line of messages that aren’t replies to my own correspondence) came from publicists pinging me about possible CES 2024 meetings and happenings for the first time this year. And as long as people keep putting new CES possibilities before me, I have little reason to nail down anything but the broad outlines of my schedule for those four days in Vegas.
(That’s late morning of Jan. 7 through almost midnight of Jan. 11, if any tech publicists are reading this.)
I have little room to talk about other CES types being late with their plans. But the runup period that I’ve taken to calling CES Advent really does need a lid, to steal the political-journalism term for the announcement to reporters from a White House or campaign spokesperson that there’s no more news coming out of their shops for the day.
A set and announced date for everybody to get their pitch out to CES journalists would simplify planning in the same way. Alas, I’ve never seen the Consumer Technology Association call a lid on pre-CES announcements. So instead I’ll just say that close of business Monday is my own lid, and anybody who waits until after then to try to get a bit of my CES time or attention only has themselves to blame for my ignoring their pitch.
But considering that since I started writing this post, I’ve gotten another four CES pitches, that means I’ll probably have another 130 e-mails about the show to deal with by the end of that day. Then I’ll just need a 28-hour day to give me four hours of free time to pore over these solicitations and decide which ones might merit a spot on my to-do or to-look-for lists, if not an actual timeslot on my calendar.
https://robpegoraro.com/2023/12/14/ces-pitches-and-invitations-could-really-use-a-lid/
