I woke at 5 am (Eastern time) and hit the road 30 minutes after that. After 6.5 hours on a plane, a hairy taxi ride, quick hotel check-in and badge pickup, I finally hoofed it down the strip to the Venetian for the Bill Gates keynote that starts in 2.5 hours. I bumped into Dave Zatz and we quickly got our Press Vouchers for the keynote. I was thinking of heckling Bill to stake my claim at this year’s CES, but James said he was taking my jkOTR business cards if I do, so I’ll just lip-synch the heckling.

No posts today so far simply because I’ve been on the road for hours; hopefully after a little keynoting and some dinner, I can make it up. Before I hurry up to wait in line, I thought I’d post this pic below of two truly mobile geeks. While everyone else in the Venetian is milling around, Dave and I found a cushy bench with an outlet. Does it get any better than that?

Well, I am now in Las Vegas for the CES 2007 and will be blogging about fun stuff as I run across it.  The show doesn’t start until Monday morning but I will be attending Bill Gates’ keynote address on Sunday night.  I came out early to attend a two day Vista pre-launch event for Microsoft.  I am staying at the Hotel Orleans off the strip so if anybody is out this way and think you see me walking around you probably do.  Kevin and Matt will be arriving in Vegas over the next two days so the entire MobileTechRoundup cast will be in the same place at the same time which will be cool.

I had lunch with Dennis Rice and Warner Crocker of GottaBeMobile and the conversation centered around, could you guess?  Tablet PCs and UMPCs, of course.  It’s nice to finally meet Warner in the flesh.  More to come later but if you are curious about the rooms at the Hotel Orleans here’s a photo of mine:

Last year, I was fortunate enough to attend CES as a member of the Engadget team. That trip was covered by AOL and if you want to know how Engadget provides arguably the best coverage, the secret is: hard work. This year, I’m paying out of my own pocket to attend and I’m looking for the best strategies because you simply can’t go to CES without a plan. Well….you can GO without a plan, but you won’t cover nearly as much ground and you’ll miss important keynotes and such.

Jeremy Toeman has six years of CES experience and just provided his 10 tips that are worth reading even if you’re not attending simply because it illustrates the sheer size and scope of this ginormous show. I especially like tip number 7: discriminate on swag. I can’t tell you how much "stuff" I collected last year between flash drives, pens, towels and the like. I almost needed another piece of luggage!

Speaking of CES; James and I are planning our calendars for the show and I’m curious: whose booths would you list as "can’t miss"? If you’re unsure of who’s who at CES, you can see all 2,700+ vendors here.

Lora Heiny of What Is New reports that the Tablet PC/ UMPC meetup is now set for those attending the CES in Las Vegas this year.  The venue is the same as last year:

Cheeseburger Las Vegas, in the Aladdin Casino Desert Passage.
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
3:30PM – 6PM

I know I’ll be there as the meetup last year was a lot of fun.  Hopefully Kevin and Matt Miller will be there too as all the MobileTechRoundupers will be attending the CES this year.  Maybe we can even do a little video?  Wouldn’t that be a blast.

To make sure they know you’re coming be sure and

RSVP to ljheiny at hotmail dot com

Leave a comment here if you are going to be there and we’ll be sure and look for you.

(Thanks to Rob Bushway for the heads up.)