THE HEADLINES

A Huge Show
2013 was the largest CES show in terms of square footage and new products launched. At Living in Digital Times, we bring new products to life through a series of conferences and exhibits that highlight how technology can serve real-life consumers. The headlines of the year included the astronomical growth of our Sports and Fitness and Digital Health areas. We had acres of new products designed to keep you healthy and fit.



Conference Insights
Arianna Huffington, Dr. Reed V. Tuckson, Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Deepak Chopra were just a few of the marquee names talking about digital health. Nolan Bushnell guided Kids@Play attendees through the brain’s ability to learn through games. Vinton Cerf drew a picture of the Internet as it enters its maturity for our Silvers Summit. Chris Nowinski, retired WWE superstar, showed how to minimize traumatic head injury in sports, and Michael Yang predicted the direction of fitness tech expansion and the earning potential. Walt Mossberg, Larry Summers, Joel Klein and Candace Carpenter were just a few of the headliners that painted a picture of the how technology is disrupting today’s college campuses.

We Grabbed Headlines
So many of the companies that exhibited with us made front page news in many important media outlets. All told we had more than 300 major media stories about our exhibits and conferences. Some of the largest included TV spots on Fox TV, Extra! and CNET. Discovery Channel, Huffington Post, Forbes, PC World, Financial Times, SF Chronicle, USA Today all picked up on our trends. Velodyne’s Google Car was one of the most photographed items at CES. It actually drove itself to the show from the West Coast. Fitbit Flex, GeoPalz ibitz and LEGO Mindstorms EV3 were introduced to the world. Whirlpool showcased the kitchen of the future, and one of the most tweeted products from CES was the HapiFork. Kelly LeBrock, most widely remembered for her stardom in Weird Science and The Woman in Red, emceed our FashionWare Show.

SOME OF THE TRENDS AT EACH OF OUR EVENTS

Last Gadget Standing and
Mobile Apps Showdown
These crowd pleasers were more exciting than ever. Hosted by Gary Dell’Abate and Jon Hein from the Howard Stern Network, both contests let the people vote for the products they think will change the future and withstand the test of time. This year a young Kickstarter company, Luminae by TransluSense won the Last Gadget Standing with its beautifully designed, make your own modules, touch keyboard. Lenovo‘s Horizon Idea Centre won the online vote. For Mobile Apps, it was an historic first as MyScript Calculator swept both the online and live event vote. At the Wall of Apps, we showcased the future with cloudbased solutions from companies like Aspera and Polkcast, plus crowd pleasers like Zinio and Sales Navigator.

Sports and Fitness

Body monitors are clearly the new fashion accessory, and counting your steps has become as important as counting your calories. BasisBand, BodyMedia, FitBit and even meters for kids from GeoPalz made big splashes on the show floor. The release of MC10‘s skull cap to monitor head trauma, and the new Looxcie HD mountable video camera made big news.

Video Moment: Watch Michael Yang of Comcast Ventures tell us what investors in the sports and fitness tech space look for.

Silvers Summit

This is the year that Living in Digital Times is claiming that “Silvers (boomers) are the new Black.” Vinton Cerf, Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, kicked off the conference saying “some people think silver surfers don’t know how to use technology. I have news for you: some of us invented this stuff.”

For some context on the remarkable growth in this space, read this article. Boomers are driving sales of the hottest products in their space: tablet computers and 3-D televisions. They also see that Boomer spending on health devices represents the best way for the $200 billion consumer electronics industry to capture a slice of the $2.6 trillion healthcare industry.

Jeff Makowka from AARP and Mary Cain from the consulting group HT3 did an incredible job co-hosting the ceremonies. Companies including GreatCall, Consumer Cellular and Telikin showcased on the exhibit floor. From care-giving to safe driving, eyesight savers to sexual health, the talk was frank and empowering at the Silvers Summit.

Video Moment: Arianna Huffington and Deepak Chopra show off new tech for the mind.

Digital Health

The Digital Health Summit was a 2 day conference drawing an audience of 800 representing every aspect of the nascent digital health confluences: regulators, big pharma, insurance, institutions, doctors and loads of entrepreneurial engineers. The speaker’s agenda read like a who’s who in the Digital Health World: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Reed V. Tuckson, Ron Andrews, Don Jones, Paul Slavin, Jeff Arnold, Dr. Otis Brawley, and the list goes on and on.

More than 220 companies showcased their health-and-fitness products including an area of new products just centered on Ant+ ULP technology platform for mobile sensor based products. 4iiii, Continua Health Alliance’s, and Qualcomm Life’s industry presence as well as Ideal Life and Life Technologies were just a few of the companies making important announcements.

And on the show floor, Allie Fried with CESTV reported on what she found while roving the show floor.

Video Moments: Watch Dr. Gregory Bayer, This is Your Brain on Tech, where he spells out the future of high tech brain possibilities based on what we’re learning about neuroscience.

Watch: : Digital Health Summit’s First Ever CES Super Session – The Digital Health Revolution: Body, Mind and Soul . The fastest growing segment brought the crème de la crème of digital health experts to discuss the impact of technology on improving healthcare — Arianna Huffington, Dr. Reed V. Tuckson, the health guru of United Health Group, and Deepak Chopra, who took a holistic look. David Daly discussed the lifechanging genomics developments, Andrew Thompson threw a curve ball to the entire industry with the digital pill, and Sonny Vu captured the vision of a game changing entrepreneur.

SPECIAL HIGHLIGHT SESSION: Inside the Digital Health Studio -
See Dr. Reed Tuckson interviewed by Paul Slavin from Everyday Health.

Kids@Play

The big trends were the number of new tablets for kids. The battle against the iPad’s share as the family tablet is underway. This new tablet surge is bad news for the video game industry but Nintendo says “we’re not dead yet.” Second screen darlings like the Wii U taps the potential of two-screen co-op play, backed by an impressive lineup of games. Our 2013 KAPi Award jurors were impressed by the potential in 2013 for whole-body TV which was featured by Microsoft’s Kinect. Finally, we’re calling this year a “pedagogical renaissance” where adept digital tutors for the masses are readily available.

At the conference Nolan Bushnell, CEO of BrainRush, kicked off the day with his next act after Atari and Chuck E. Cheese. Spoiler alert: It involves the neuropsychology of learning and finding the commonalities between learning and video games. The launch of Lego Mindstorms EV3 brought plenty of excitement, and KAPi Award winners for this year included Microsoft Kinect and Make Magazine’s Dale Doherty for the Pioneer Award.

David Pogue began the MommyTech portion of conference with a look at how to make science really exciting for kids, based on his new season of PBS shows. Panelists included Lori Schwartz of World of Schwartz, Beth Blecherman of TechMamas, and Carol Campbell of Napco Publishing. Each took a look at the world of women in CE from different vantage points. On the show floor were battling Attacknids, 3D Systems Cube 3D printer, plus Vinci and Leapfrog tablets. Adorable apps including Toon Boom, Fingerprint Play, a mobile play network, and Wanderful Interactive Storybooks made a visit to the show floor a fun adventure. Whirlpool‘s fantastic kitchen of the future was mouthwatering.

HigherEdTECH

From mobile devices to MOOCS, personalized instruction to global universities, e-texts to on-demand learning, HigherEdTECH showcased the new generation of education services, tools, and institutions that are disrupting the ivory tower.

Walt Mossberg, the Personal Technology Columnist for The Wall Street Journal, kicked off the Summit with an unexpected and provocative dialog on the challenges of integrating technology into higher education.

Joel Klein, CEO of Amplify and former Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, delivered a powerful morning keynote that not only analyzed problems afflicting schools but also offered a solution for individualizing instruction to ensure student success.

Lord David Puttnam, eight-time Academy Award winner and current Chancellor of the Open University UK, employed the power of film to convey the impact that new technology has had on the world throughout history and more recently in education.

Peter Smith, Senior Vice President, Academic Strategies & Development, Kaplan Higher Education Group and Chip Paucek, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, 2U (formerly 2tor) described new and emerging services in higher education.

A prescient look at MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) was moderated by Michael B. Goldstein of Dow Lohnes PLLC and included leaders like Andrew Ng of Coursera, Jim Applegate of the Lumina Foundation, Candace Thille of Carnegie Mellon, Susan Cates of the MBA@UNC. They looked beyond the hype and hyperbole to what would make new online educational services of greater value to students.

Executives from McGraw-Hill Education, Promethean, Education Elements, LearningMate Solutions, Copia Interactive, Pathbrite and Chegg shared the latest developments. Casey Green. Founding Director of the Campus Computing Project, led the perennially popular Dewey to Digital panel.

Larry Summers, The Charles W. Eliot University Professor of Harvard University and former Secretary of the Treasury, delivered an expansive closing address followed by a discussion with Candace Carpenter Olson, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the Fullbridge Project.

Inside Higher Ed was our exclusive media partner and Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-founder, moderated several key panels. Whiteboard Advisors was our production partner and Ben Wallerstein, John Bailey and Jenna Schuette Talbot played key roles in the summit.

FashionWare

We closed our festivities with the annual KAPi Awards and a look at the world of high tech wearables. Headsets from Onkyo, Velodyne and Kidz Gear donned the gaily appareled models. Alphyn Technologies showcased smart clothing for wearing all your high tech gear on your person. Moon Berlin’s exotic LED collection brought shimmering lights to the ceremonies.