The Show vs. C.E.S. vs Home Entertainment

Sorlowski, you are now an official "industry affiliate". wink wink.

Well...although everybody can go to the CES and THE SHOW but both is actually a manufacturer show and mainly catered to distributors and wholesalers (or industry-only like Audiofile9 mentioned above). On the other hand, HE is catered for consumers and most exhibitors are local dealers plus some small presence of manufacturers.

Is it worth it for consumers to attend? It depends.. if your hobby is want to see the latest technology gadgets at the Las Vegas Convention Center and wish to buy discount audiophiles LPs and CDS and audiophile show specials then it may be worth it. Otherwise, CES is heavily business oriented show and as a consumer, you probably feel your presence is sometimes unnoticeable.

If you can get a press pass you get a LOT of free stuff that you wouldn't get otherwise. At least, that was my experience last year, as an editor of a paper my uncle works for...

Thank you guys for info, I have heard that The Show was for public only CES is for business. I guess I was wrong. Especially interesting is the information about this press pass. Maybe it would be stupid question for you but:
How one can get such press pass ? Is there special procedure to get it? I could try to represent some polish audio press (I do not think so they are going to send any of their legitimate reps - to expensive for them). How is it done?