Once a year over 150,000 people trek their way to Las Vegas to attend or exhibit at the Consumer Electronics Show, and many will be seeing and showing 3D printing gear.
Our team will be there.
In recent years CES has been a place where many significant announcements have been made, releasing new equipment to the public for the first time. We’ve seen MakerBot reveal new products, we’ve seen 3D Systems food printers for the first time in public and much, much more. This year should be no different.
In fact, we anticipate the event will include a number of significant announcements, for two reasons:
Confusion over one of the other major announcement events, EuroMold, which degraded in size significantly this past year and possibly delayed announcements
A lack of important announcements from key industry players, suggesting they may be holding something back to announce at CES
Regardless of what happens, our team will be on the ground investigating things at each of the now 70+ 3D printing vendor booths. This year, like last year, 3D printing equipment will be shown in a special “3D Print Zone”, for which our feet will be eternally thankful. In past years, 3D print vendors were splattered all over the event, sometimes taking multiple kilometers between booths, and we’re not kidding. Now they’re all in one place for ease of walking.
We will be spending most of our time at Tech West, Sands Expo, where the 3D print exhibitors are located.
We have a few interviews and several meetings planned including with Ultimaker’s CEO Jos Burger and Makerbot’s CEO Jonathan Jaglom. You can be sure that we have a few questions to ask them!
The close proximity within the 3D print zone permits vendors to peruse each other’s wares. We find this particularly fascinating as it is surprisingly often the case that vendors are unaware of what their competitors are up to. At CES, they find out quickly.
The event takes place all week, and we will be wandering the floors to talk and take pictures of new machines, materials and people.
If you happen to be in Las Vegas at the event, please give us a shout, we’d love to meet and chat about 3D printing.
