Obviously, it is a riff on
Leaving Las Vegas is a 1995 romantic drama film. It had box office receipts of $50 million on a budget of $4 million. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, winning one, for Best Actor (Nicholas Cage).
I knew this trip would be magical the instant I got into Four Seasons and they upgraded me to a Presidential Suite (on the 38th Floor) with (stunning night) views of the Las Vegas Strip. (Yes, I did go to see David Copperfield.) I couldn’t help but think about my previous visits:
My first Vegas trip was in May 1990 for INFORMS as I was finishing up my PhD at Cornell (here is my Management Science paper on Kanban-controlled Serial Production Lines that was awarded Honorable Mention at the Nicholson Student Paper Competition, along with Garrett van Ryzin; the Runner-up was Michel Goemans, and the First Prize winner was Perwez Shahabuddin).
My next set of Vegas trips were as Founder and CEO of SmartOps, which usually happened the week or so after CES, for FKOM – Field Kick-off Meeting – with SAP, as we were Channel Partners (see Darden Case on SmartOps and SAP, also resold by Harvard), and this is where we planned for joint go-to-market activities. As I have written about it before (see Slumming It?), SmartOps After-Hours’ parties at SAP events (at FKOM and at Sapphire and at SUG) were must-attend events! Our SmartOps Wristbands were being counterfeited to gain illegal entry! We had to have a formal list to check at the entrance and hire bouncers. We used to rent out really cool Suites – Playboy Suite, then at $25000/night (plus taxes and of course, a lot more, for all the extras!), had an indoor waterfall and a cantilever jacuzzi enclosed in plexiglass that overlooked the Strip; Hangover Suite (without the Tiger or Mike Tyson) was a hit as well – in addition to renting out Private Spaces at exclusive bars and restaurants. (Some of you will remember that SmartOps was pretty profitable, with 92% Gross Margin and CAGR of 37%.)
The Hangover is a 2009 American comedy film. It is the first installment in The Hangover trilogy. It had worldwide gross of $467 million (on a budget of $35 million.)
Now to 2026. This was my first CES attendance, and it was a Sensory Overload! Just the CES Foundry area with Nvidia (prominently displaying the Vera Rubin architecture and other technological wonders) and Physical Robots (Medical and Personal) and AI-augmented Vehicles (from Lucid and Mercedes and Tesla and others) and Quantum Computing in Fontainebleau would have been worth the trip. But it was only one of four locations, each with multiple show floors, with some immersive booths that were themselves larger than most homes, and beyond Multi-national Companies and Startups, there were large areas, organized by Country, competing for Consumer mind-share and VC attention for investments.
The Digital Health section (at Venetian, where my panel also was, and where The Wizard of Oz is playing, and also is the location of Madame Tussaud’s that I strolled into, and saw wax figures of Nicholas Cage and Bradley Cooper and Mike Tyson, among others) of the floor had a dizzying variety of gadgets and AI-augmented analytics, with Longevity, perhaps being the health buzzword of this year.
A few hours before our panel, we received this email (from Rene Quashie who spearheads the Digital Health track at CES):
Yes, Mehmet Oz popped into the Speaker Lounge as I was hanging around there, and we chatted a bit about CMU (and he brought up Randy Pausch):
After our panel (expertly moderated by Ben Schlatka, Partner at Material Impact Fund, with Shahar Keinan of PolarisQB and Lara Jehi from Cleveland Clinic), I decided to stay and listen to him and other CMS leadership, and I chuckled as he sat down in the same chair as I was sitting in a few minutes earlier!
Indeed, after the sessions, we had a mixer where I had the opportunity to meet several attendees, and have been receiving several emails and LinkedIn messages, such as this one from a Cardiothoracic Surgeon from Mayo Clinic:
The video of the panel discussion is available here.
Wrapping up my in-room breakfast, as I head out, I am thinking: I was in Vegas first at 24; then around 42; now, I am 60. Wonder what it will be like in 2044 and whether there would be any wicked reason for me to come here again.
Wicked (titled on-screen as Wicked: Part I) is a 2024 American musical and fantasy film. Wicked earned ten nominations at the 97th Academy Awards(including Best Picture), winning Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. It had a box office gross over $758 million (on a budget of $150 million).
PS. Some of you have asked me if I prepare before my panels and keynotes. Yes: I make some notes to myself.
Sounds like much fun. I would have loved it. I heard that there were lots and lots of robots there.
Yes, there were sophisticated and interactive robots that also had good tactile capabilities.
I should have gone.