Friday & Saturday CES impressions. Summary: OMG CES. (that's an acronym for Only Major Geeks Can Enjoy the Show.) Okay, I added "the".

While I didn't see much of the light of day, the lights of CES were shining bright... I almost found it appropriate to wear sunglasses at night. (Thanks Cory Hart http://bit.ly/xFmnE). It is Vegas, after all!

Early (likely accurate) reports indicate this is the highest attended Consumer Electronics Show in history. And, since it's the world's largest show, that means that this weekend in Las Vegas, NV (http://bit.ly/7TYgcf) there are more geeks interested in bleeding-edge technology than ever before. How exciting.

Take a look at some snapshots of the crowds I had to make my way through. It was well worth the stress of dodging the tens of thousands of people searching for the thinnest LED TV.

I set out with my eye on the exhibits and ear to the booth staff's 30-second pitches to find out what they were doing to engage with their audience (me) during and after the show using social media and online tools. While it was easy to spot the twitter feeds and custom URLs, I had to literally ask the exhibit staff how they were collecting consumers' info. The answer, most of the time, was "we're not". I was a little disappointed at first, but that just means that even at such a high-tech conference like CES, there is still plenty of opportunity for marketers to educate consumer brands on effective ways to connect.

I continue to wonder why exhibitors at CES wouldn't want to measure and target their best customers (or potential customers). As a marketer, I'd want to make sure I'm getting the best ROI on the $10k - $10mm I was spending on this event. Doesn't Samsung want to target the "on-the-fence" LG customers who just might consider switching brands and bring them to the dark side? Tomorrow will shed more light...

CES still has plenty of life left. Tomorrow I'm writing about some cool social media excerpts and I'll post a few videos and some more snaps from my iPhone.

Stay tuned.

P.S. at&t, if you are reading this, you're still getting a lump of coal in your stocking. CES wasn't a last-minute surprise. You knew this was coming. You knew we'd have our phones and put more stress on your network. I wasn't pleased that I had to wait 30 minutes and try six times to post to twitter. I'll share the old military adage with you just for fun: http://bit.ly/8lO5T2