Why I Don't Go to Tradeshows Like CES Anymore

Once upon a time there was a tradeshow called Comdex. During the 90s and into the new millennium, the computer industry lived for Comdex. Every November before Thanksgiving hundreds of thousands of computer geeks descended on Las Vegas to check out the latest in computer technology.
But Comdex wasn't just about computer resellers. The entire industry turned out for the show. Bill Gates, Michael Dell, John Chambers, Scott McNealy, Carly Fiorina, a who's who of the tech industry was there to give keynotes, make big announcements, and of course, to party.
It's that last part, the partying, that keeps me away from shows like CES - the Consumer Electronics Show - these days.
You see, back in the 90s I was head of marketing for microprocessor maker Cyrix and later National Semiconductor when the two companies merged. And Comdex was the event where we showcased and launched our groundbreaking products:
The 6x86 processor that competed with Intel's vaulted Pentium; the MediaGX processor inside Compaq's sub-$1000 Presario; the wireless WebPad; and the MediaCenter were all industry firsts. Our booths were huge big-budget productions. One year we even had a giant football stadium playing Chip Bowl '97 (a parody of the ever-popular Bud Bowls), right in the middle of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
It was press, analyst, reseller and customer meetings all day, dancing and drinking all night. The parties were incredible, but the most coveted annual event was PC Week's Spencer Katt party. Spencer F. Katt was PC Week's (now eWeek) imaginary rumor reporter. Everybody who was anybody turned out, but you had to have an invite (maybe you can recognize the nerd dancing to the right).
We won't even talk about the after party.
I don't know if it was the excitement of the product launches and awards, having hundreds of friends, coworkers and associates all in Las Vegas without their spouses, the 90s in general, or maybe it was just me. But it was like five solid days and nights of adrenaline and booze.
But it didn't stop there. There was PC Expo in New York, CeBIT in Germany, Computex in Taiwan, and Comdex replicated in Brazil, China, it went on and on. Finally, Comdex fizzled out when the computer industry ceased to be interesting.
Still, to this day, I can't bring myself to go to the CES show, going on now in Las Vegas. I'm sure there's a lot of great technology to check out, but I'm just getting too old for this sort of thing. At 51, I have precious few brain cells left to give up for the cause.