Darryl Wilkinson

While it would seem a just another target-rich environment for feminism-bashing jokes and inappropriate sexual innuendoes in the sausagefest that is the annual CEDIA conference, the annual Women in CE breakfast held Saturday morning was actually one of the serious high points of this year’s CEDIA for me (and not simply because of the free prizes that were given out). In addition to a very interesting keynote address by Debra Boelkes, CEO of Business World Rising (a leadership development services firm dedicated to the advancement of high potential business leaders and stronger, more inclusive enterprises) that covered some of the societal and personal reasons why women succeed or fail in the current corporate business world, I was able to catch up with an old friend, Molly Gibson, who recently founded Sixty3percent, a retail sales training concept solely dedicated to marketing to women.

According to Molly (a woman with over 20 years of experience in marketing and sales in the CE industry), women make 63% of consumer electronics buying decisions, but despite the overwhelming numbers, they’re not engaged in the process at all. After interviewing hundreds of women in all economic ranges, Molly’s come up with a sales training program aimed at helping retailers and manufacturers to stop ignoring (at best) or alienating (at worst) the half of the population that makes the larger percentage of buying decisions when it comes to consumer electronics. While the ulterior motive for manufacturers and retailers is to sell more stuff to women, if they can figure out ways to do that while also improving the experiences that many women have when they walk into most consumer electronics stores, everyone will win in the end.

At a low-key reception this morning, NXT showed off some recent introductions of their flat-panel speaker technology, including this Gateway all-in-one computer that incorporates the NXT’s SoundVu technology. It’s a flat speaker panel that’s clear enough to be used to cover an LCD screen on a computer, and amazingly the vibration of the panel does not affect the view of what’s underneath.

You can always expect to find something you didn’t expect to find at CEDIA. This year, for me, it was a better mousetrap—a Z-Wave-enabled mousetrap, as a matter of fact. Dome took top honors in the unexpected category with the company’s announcement of the Mouser, “the first ever smart mouse trap…designed to humanely eliminate mice and other rodents with an electric jolt and send a notification that the trap is ready to be emptied.” No, I’m not joking. And no, it’s something that’ll actually be useful for people who suffer from an overabundance of mice...

After unwrapping the gifts, polishing off the last drops from near-empty bottles of champagne, and sweeping up the streamers and confetti left from SIM2 Multimedia's 10-year anniversary party, those still standing announced a trio of new high-definition displays being added to the SIM2 USA product line: the HTL40 LINK LCD flat-panel monitor, the DOMINO 55M rear-projection monitor, and the C3X front-projection monitor.