What Best Buy will be looking for at CES
The massive consumer technology show known as CES is underway in Las Vegas and retailers in attendance will trolling an area of the 2.4 million-sq.-ft. show floor called Eureka Park in hopes of finding the next big thing.
That’s what Best Buy plans to do. In a blog post on the retailer’s website, Patrick McIntyre, VP for innovation and strategy, said the Best Buy team would be spending a lot of time in Eureka Park, an area of the show floor that was established five years ago to showcase startups. That’s because there isn’t much as CES that Best Buy – and other large sellers of technology – haven’t already seen or that they don’t have awareness of because of the company’s role in consumer electronics world.
“Best Buy’s headquarters is kind of our own little version of CES on a rolling basis because we have vendors coming in all the time to share their latest innovations,” according to McIntrye. “But what we don’t see a lot of at headquarters is that early stage technology, mostly because it’s not ready for consumers. So CES gives us a chance to see that stuff. Our goal is to figure out what could be commercialized and help to make that happen faster.”
Seeing stuff, as McIntyre puts it, is quite challenging at CES due to the enormity of the event. Not only is the show floor large with 3,600 exhibitors, but some estimates place the number of attendees as high as 170,000. Coping with the congestion requires having a plan to spot trends and other innovations with the potential for a long-term impact.
Televisions are always a big deal at CES, according to McIntyre, and this year he expects there will be a lot of buzz about high dynamic range (HDR) technology, which enhances color and contrast and connected home, virtual reality and drones will continue to be hot.
“And I think you’ll hear a lot about cars, because automakers have been using CES for a number of years as a venue to talk about in-car technology, and this year will be no different. There will even be discussions, and possibly demonstrations, of self-driving vehicles,” according to McIntyre.
As for next generation stuff, that’s why McIntyre and others will be trolling Eureka Park where 500 companies are exhibiting; up from 375 last year and 100 in 2012, the first year the concept was introduced at the show. Within Eureka Park, companies are segmented by specific verticals such as wearables, smart home, health and sports tech, 3D printing, audio and video and virtual reality.
“We are in the middle of a revolutionary wave of innovation where game-changing ideas are springing up from small companies and entrepreneurs all over the world,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, owner of CES. “We are proud to host some of the most brilliant minds in emerging technology at Eureka Park. We continue to be wowed by the success stories coming from these innovative startups as they present potentially game-changing concepts and prototypes to an eco-system on the CES show floor designed to help these startups grow and thrive.”
Since 2012, the roughly 1,100 companies who have exhibited within Eureka Park have received funding of more than $1 billion, which helps explain why Best Buy is focused on the area.
“Most of our work right now is focused on early stage technology — we’re trying to understand what’s disruptive and innovative,” according to McIntyre. “A lot of that technology tends to be in ‘connected’ devices, that is, devices that are connected to the Internet and one another. It can be anything from a fork to a flower pot — it’s taking mundane stuff in our lives and making it connected to the web. And we’re starting to see more artificial intelligence being rolled into these products. Now your stuff isn’t just connected, but it’s actually intelligent in that it will proactively try to do something for you instead of just waiting for you to do something with it.”
CES is held Jan. 6-9.