Final Day of 2006 International CES Conference Sessions Captures Trends in Accessories, Public Policy and Wireless.

LAS VEGAS -- Hot Products Honored at the Last Gadget Standing SuperSession, Scientific American Innovations People's Choice Awards and CNET's Best of CES

The final day of conference programming at the 2006 International CES outlined trends in wireless and the wireless retail market, plus consumer electronics accessories and public policy. Adding to the excitement, CNET, Scientific American and Ziff Davis announced a full slate of product awards. The 2006 International CES, the world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, runs through today in Las Vegas.

On Saturday@theSands, 10 finalists competed head to head for laughs and votes in the final SuperSession of the 2006 International CES, the fifth annual Last Gadget Standing. Hosts Robin Raskin, the Internet Mom, and Michael Miller, editor-in-chief, PC Magazine, executive vice president and editorial director, Ziff Davis, moderated the session. Finalists included Celestron SkyScout Planetarium, Epson P4000, iRobot Scooba, inFocus PlayBig IN 72, Logitech Z-5450 Digital 5.1 stereo system, Netgear Storage Central Model SC101, Nikon Coolpix P1, Palm Treo 700w and the Pioneer Inno. Each product was allotted a four minute demo. At the end, the audience voted via text message and applause. The Pioneer Inno MP3 player with XM Satellite Radio stood as the text message winner and the Celestron SkyScout Planetarium was the audience applause winner.

Saturday@theSands also featured the announcement of the Scientific American Innovations People's Choice Award. The annual Innovations Awards honor outstanding achievement in design and engineering. Throughout the show, attendees voted for their favorite Innovations 2006 product at electronic polling stations at the CES Innovations Showcase at Innovations Plus at the Sands. Flexity's PowerSquid Surge Protector with Ultra Mov(TM) Technology took home the coveted award presented by Scientific American publisher Bruce Brandfor. A Zero Air Polition (ZAP) executive announced that Jason Nast of Santa Maria, Calif. won the drawing for the ZAP Xebra electric car.

Back at the Las Vegas Convention Center, CNET announced its Best of CES winners during a special presentation on the CNET Stage. The winners covered 12 product categories from cameras and car audio to peripherals and TVs and Creative Zen's Vision:M portable media player was the Best in Show winner. Winning the online vote out of more than 5,000 votes, the Pioneer Inno picked up the CNET People's Voice award.

On the conferences front, in a morning session entitled "Technology Policy Reform: The Future of the Internet," moderator Drew Clark, senior writer of National Journal's Technology Review, led a discussion on the revision of telecommunications policies in order to continue to increase competition in the field. Panelists Howard Waltzman, chief counsel, telecommunications and the Internet, House Energy and Commerce Committee; Thomas Navin, chief, Wireline Competition Bureau's Competition Policy Division, Federal Communications Commission; John Godfrey, vice president, government and industry affairs, Pioneer North America Inc.; Johanna Shelton, minority counsel, House Energy and Commerce Committee and Alan Davidson, Washington policy counsel, Google Inc. agreed that there was a strong desire on behalf of the government, carriers and manufacturers to build large pipelines in order to give consumers more choices in regards to video and internet products and services.

Another public policy session, "DRM Implementation in Media and Entertainment: From Standardization to Implementation of New Technology Strategies," focused on digital rights management (DRM) and ways the content industry can protect the rights of content producers while embracing new technologies and distribution methods. Moderated by Peter Kang, partner, Sidley Austin Brown and Wood, panelists included DRM experts Nate Alvord, director, licensing and market development, Digimark Corp.; Keith Kocho, president and CEO, ExtendMedia; Carter Laren, senior security architect, Cryptography Research; Raj Samtani, director of sales and marketing, ContentGuard; Pallavi Shah, digital rights management strategist, HP and Jian Zhao, CTO, content security solutions, Thomson.

"Accessories are where the profits are for retailers," said David Lorsch, president and CEO of DBL Distributing, said during the panel discussion "Accessorize now! - Rethinking the Accessory Supply Chain." He was joined by Gavin Downey, director of product management for Belkin; Mark Karnes, general manager in the Personal Audio Division of Shure; Mike O'Neal, president and CEO of Philips Accessories; Cliff Robards, CEO of Stereo North and Dawn Sullivan, senior category manager of the Cell Phones and Portable Electronics Division of eBay on the panel moderated by Henry Chiarelli, president and general manager of Gibson Audio for Gibson Guitar. From product placement at stores to accessory counterfeiting, the panel discussed all aspects of the creation and sale of electronics accessories.

Several sessions throughout the day focused on the wireless market. Ed Legum, President of the Edmond-Howard Network, moderated the discussion panel "Maximizing Your Wireless Retailing Marketing Results," which included panelists Mark Landgren, vice president of TracPoint Wireless Inc. and Brad MacArthur, president of TracPoint Wireless. The panel discussed the effectiveness of different wireless advertisement strategies and suggested methods to further increase the value of wireless advertising.

In another wireless session, Mark Landiak, president of Corporate Dynamics Inc., moderated a discussion session on "The Future of Wireless for the Independent Retailer." Panelists identified key wireless trends for the coming months and predicted obstacles that independent wireless retailers should watch out for in 2007.

For more information on the 2006 International CES, including keynote transcripts, photos and a complete conference line-up, visit www.CESweb.org, the interactive source for CES information.

About CEA:

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is the preeminent trade association promoting growth in the consumer technology industry through technology policy, events, research, promotion and the fostering of business and strategic relationships. CEA represents more than 2,000 corporate members involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and integration of audio, video, mobile electronics, wireless and landline communications, information technology, home networking, multimedia and accessory products, as well as related services that are sold through consumer channels. Combined, CEA's members account for more than $125 billion in annual sales. CEA's resources are available online at www.CE.org, the definitive source for information about the consumer electronics industry.

CEA also sponsors and manages the International CES - Defining Tomorrow's Technology. All profits from CES are reinvested into industry services, including technical training and education, industry promotion, engineering standards development, market research and legislative advocacy.

UPCOMING EVENTS

    --  2006 CEA Winter Summit
        March 2-4, 2006, Vail, CO

    --  CEA 2006 Winter Technology and Standards Forum
        March 6-10, 2006, Clearwater Beach, FL

    --  CEA Spring Break
        March 14-17, 2006, Washington, DC

    --  CEA Entertainment Technology Summit
        March 15-16, 2006, Washington, DC

    --  Digital Patriots Dinner
        March 15, 2006, Washington, DC

    --  EHX Spring 2006
        March 28-April 1, 2006, Orlando, FL

    --  CONNECTIONS (TM) - The Digital Home Conference & Showcase
        May 2-4, 2006, Santa Clara, CA

    --  2006 PARA Conference
        May 3-7, 2006, Hilton Head, SC

    --  The 10th Annual Consumer Electronics CEO Summit
        June 21-24, 2006, Southampton, Bermuda

    --  2006 SINOCES
        July 7-10, 2006, Qingdao, China

    --  2006 CEA Summer Technology and Standards Forum
        July 24-28, 2006, Coronado, CA

    --  CEA Industry Forum
        October 16-18, 2006, San Francisco, CA

    --  2007 International CES
        January 8-11, 2007, Las Vegas, NV