KAPi Awards in Vegas

I just returned from the Consumer Electronics Show hosted in Las Vegas this past week. What a crazy, crazy event. I thought I’ve seen “large” before, but this show put a whole new meaning to that word. The most succinct way I came up with describing it (and it worked for my mom, so chances are it will work for you too) is to imagine an IKEA store, in size and layout, then to put about 8 to 10 such stores next to each other, fill them with electronic gadgets, cars, and TV screens (thousands and thousands of TV screens) and you have yourself something similar to what amounts to the public mayhem at CES. Here is another way to put it: After having explored the conference for a full day, I met up with Dean MacAdam, the creative mind behind Bobo, and we wandered the place together. At one point we found ourselves among a few huge exhibitors and Dean asked me whether I knew where we were. All I could do was reply that this was the first time I’ve stepped foot anywhere within a 300 yard radius of our current location and that I was as lost as a baby.

One of the most impressive displays for me came from Samsung who was showing off their latest, greatest OLED TV. I’m not much of a gadget geek, but this thing blew me away. The images were so sharp, the colors so vibrant, and the blacks so black that you couldn’t tell an image from a vivid painting. The thing that just floored me, however, was the fact that this enormous TV (a good double-arms’ length span) was thiner than an iPhone. Even I had to admit that was cool.

The highlight of the entire event as well as the reason for my presence, however, were the Kids At Play Interactive Awards. Dean and I flew down to Vegas to meet, shake hands with, and receive a KAPi award from the folks at Children’s Technology Review and Living in Digital Times.

We were very honored to be among the eight other recipients of the award for 2012. It gave us a much appreciated pat on the back as well as validation for our work; not to mention we spent a delightful evening hanging out with extremely creative people who enjoy kids and, at times, acting like kids as much as we do.

The award was followed by a wearable technologies fashion show and we just couldn’t resist snapping a picture. Here is Dean surrounded by some of the lovely ladies from the show. What can I say… we had a great time!