Bloggers take the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show by storm

This was the year that bloggers really took over the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and pushed aside the mainstream media.
The Consumer Electronics Association, producer of the CES expo, said about 4,000 media representatives attended the show. CEA spokeswoman Tara Dunion estimated that about 400 were bloggers, or about 10% of the media. Or course, that doesn’t include reporters from mainstream news organizations who blog.
This year, CES officials handed out different badges to those it classified as press or bloggers. Gizmodo noted that the selection process seemed arbitrary and called the white blogger identification tag a “badge of shame.”
But bloggers got their own lounges at the Las Vegas and Venetian convention centers. They got front-row seats at major press conferences. And they filed articles at a rapid pace from press events and the show floor.
The four-day CES ends today.

Photo: Opening day of the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas Convention Center main hall on Jan. 7, 2010. (CEA photo)