The multiple badge pickup stations spread out across hotel lobbies, bus and monorail stops, and McCarran International Airport was my first clue that "CES takes over Vegas" is no understatement.
This badge, which you get when you register as an attendee, grants entry to the CES show floor, which includes company booths, keynote presentations, summits and sessions, and lounges. As a member of the media, I could also attend press-only previews and news conferences and get priority entry to keynotes.
According to my more experienced colleagues, the main exhibits and keynotes have been at the same locations for years.
Since this was my first time, I still studied maps and transportation options closely. Luckily, I've been to Las Vegas many times in the past with family and friends, so I was at least somewhat familiar with the Strip and the city — I probably would've gotten even more lost otherwise.
This is what one of the entrance halls of LVCC looked like. The expo centers opened at 9 a.m. each day and were usually already bustling within the first couple of hours. Since there was so much to see, getting started early (and wearing comfortable shoes) was the right move.
I personally didn't use these overwhelming maps too much, though. While I had a list of companies that I definitely wanted to check out, I also gave myself time and freedom to wander the aisles.
Read more: The 6 best TVs we saw at CES 2020 — from 8K OLEDs to a TV that can rotate like a smartphone
Hands-on product demos were available for all types of products, like this at-home cocktail machine developed in part by Anheuser Busch and Dr Pepper Keurig. After seeing how the machine worked, we, of course, had to taste-test its creations.
Read more: 12 best new home and kitchen products we saw at CES 2020
While I wasn't in the proper clothing to give its programming and equipment a full spin, I could still do a few reps to see how Tonal's "digital" weights worked.
Read more: 7 best new fitness tech products we saw at CES 2020
I spent the majority of my days seeing how my time at home could be made more convenient and enjoyable.
At CES, I noticed quite a few different bidet concepts. Bidet usage, while popular in other parts of the world, is only just starting to rise in the US, and companies like Coway want to capitalize.
CES is often when companies debut new products for the upcoming year, and for Coway that was the Bidetmega 400 (an upgrade from our favorite Bidetmega 200), which features wash care systems and cleaning technology to make your bathroom experience more sanitary.
Toothbrushes from household names like Colgate and Oral-B want to make your nightly brushing routine more effective and accurate, and they connect to apps that give insights into your brushing patterns.
The Colgate Plaqless Pro toothbrush above won a 2020 Best of Innovation Award, which recognizes outstanding design and engineering in consumer technology. Each product that received a CES Innovation Award usually had a plaque sitting close by to distinguish it from the thousands of other products at the show.
Meanwhile, the Picks team devised its own roundup of the most notable products of CES.
Read more: The 16 best new products we saw at CES 2020
Samsung's packed keynote, for example, called the new decade "the age of experience." HS Kim, the President and CEO of Samsung Electronics' Consumer Electronics Division, said this is the age when "innovative products foster seamless experiences and memorable moments."
Other keynotes revolved around transportation, sustainability, and corporate responsibility. The CTA's choice to invite Ivanka Trump as a speaker in a keynote about tech's role in the future of work caused some contention, but these speaking events otherwise went off without a hitch.
I wasn't sure exactly what to expect going into CES, but I finally understand what veterans mean when they say that CES is the show to attend.
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