Traveling At The Speed of CES

As you read today’s blog post, it’s likely Paul and I are at 37,000 or so feet, winging our way home from windy Las Vegas to frigid Detroit.  Yes, we’re flying Delta, “the official airline of Jacobs Media.”  It’s appropriate because they were the first airline to ever keynote and exhibit at CES back in 2020.

To celebrate its 100-year anniversary, Delta took their CES participation this year to a whole new level, keynoting a couple days ago at Sphere.  Not only is that a first for an airline, it also marks a new co-promotion partnership between CES and Sphere.  So smart.

Last year, shortly after Sphere opened, we took our Jacobs Media tours of radio broadcasters “off campus” to this amazing venue to view the incredible “Postcard From Earth” film.  Sphere represents technology and innovation at its best, so this new collaboration with CTA makes a world of sense.  At the keynote, Delta did it up right, featuring its congenial CEO Ed Bastian, along with appearances by the airline’s new content partner, Tom Brady, as well as a performance by Lenny Kravitz.

It was another lesson from the “school of thinking big,” the only way to play it in this fast-moving world of AI, innovation, and change.  I know our tour attendees felt this way, especially the many  first-timers to CES.

Save the date:  Our free CES 2025 webinar is scheduled for Tuesday, January 21 at 2pm in partnership with Inside Radio – registration info coming next week.

There’s also this issue of time.

Suffice it to say, the AI train has left the station.  Note my use of past tense.  It may be early days with AI for some of us.  But the world of tech has been dealing with this fast-moving technology for many years now.  Think about it:  How long has e-commerce giant Amazon been recommending other stuff to buy, based on our previous purchasing habits?  And how many years has Netflix been predicting other TV series we might enjoy by studying the analytics of our viewing patterns?

One inescapable conclusion from Nvidia Founder/CEO Jensen Huang to start off CES 2025 is the incredible acceleration of technology in every industry and life activity.  Whether you’re running an HVAC business, a university, a trucking company, or a radio station, there’s pressure to figure out this technology ASAP and get it going.  That feeling of FOMO is all over AI, creating an alphabet soup of innovation.

There are so many companies jockeying for position in the expanding AI marketplace, a feeling you cannot get away from at CES.  And Nvidia is more than happy to paint the picture of all those AI tributaries that emanate from his company’s technology.  When you’re at this show, it feels like 1,000 fire hoses are all being turned on simultaneously.

For radio broadcasters, this pressure to do it NOW can be disconcerting, especially for an industry that has been part of the American culture for more than a century.  But it should serve as a reminder that Delta is a contemporary of radio, but they’re taking a proactive stance in positioning their airline as leading edge, ahead of every one of their competitors still putting barf bags in the seat pockets in front of us.  They are innovating and experimenting in an effort to provide personalized and customized services to their passengers, especially their “P1s” – their most frequent fliers.

In addition to this year’s CES having a different flavor and tone from years past, our tour and our schedule of events this week were a departure from the basic format of past years.  To meet the changing needs of radio and the changing nature of CES itself, we developed a different model.  Rather than a dinner with special guests or a trip to Sphere as we’ve done in recent years, the 2025 version featured a lunch for all tourgoers who discussed and shared their main takeaways from the tour and how it has impacted their views of their jobs.

Almost to a person, our guests acknowledged the “AI is everywhere” reality and many embraced it.  And there was also a consistent sense radio must lean forward into this technology and its effects on today’s operations as well as the future of the medium.

In short, the AI train isn’t just out of the station.  It is careening our world at a super-high rate of speed, creating disruptions but also opportunities – IF we’re smart enough to recognize the trends and devise game plans that can maximize how it use can enhance our brands rather than take them down.

At moments like this when the radio broadcasting industry finds itself at a crossroads, I think of the greatest coach of all time – UCLA’s men’s basketball legend, John Wooden (pictured). All he did was win 10 NCCA championships in 12 years, including an unprecedented seven in a row.

And it was Wooden’s view of speed and action that is worthy of emulating.  His key piece of advice is simple:

“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

Especially when you’re racing against a speeding train.