In planning since last year, CES gets underway next week

How fast is your tennis serve? Is it getting better?

How hard does your kid kick a soccer ball? Is his performance improving?

Technology that can measure swing velocity or the speed of a kicked soccer ball will be among the thousands of products to be shown at next week’s International Consumer Electronics Show.

The four-day trade show officially opens Tuesday, but as with any gathering that brings more than 150,000 people to one place, the prep work and advanced events begin much earlier.

CES, the largest tech gathering in North America, is easily Las Vegas’ largest convention and kicks off one of the months that traditionally brings the most conventioneers to Southern Nevada.

The show has been an annual January fixture in Las Vegas since 1978 and over the show’s history, popular products like videocassette recorders, compact discs, plasma televisions, tablets and netbooks have been seen for the first time on trade-show floors in the city.

Last year’s tech smorgasbord brought 160,498 people to Las Vegas, including 40,828 international attendees from 140 countries, 6,575 members of the media and 2,670 financial analysts.

They met with 3,673 exhibitors that made more than 20,000 new product announcements from 2.06 million square feet of exhibit space.

For locals, CES is an economic bonanza. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority estimates the show produces a nongaming economic impact of $210.2 million.

This year’s show is expected to be bigger than ever and because of its girth, the organizing Consumer Electronics Association is segmenting it differently in what it expects to be a more organized display.

The association has divided the show into three sections:

— Tech East, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Westgate Las Vegas and the Renaissance, where there will be exhibits for cyber security, digital imaging and photography, computer gaming, personal privacy, streaming content, unmanned aerial systems, smart vehicles, Internet and wireless devices and services.

— Tech West, at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, The Venetian, the Palazzo, Wynn Las Vegas and Encore at Wynn, where there will be exhibits for three-dimensional printing, education, family, fitness and health technology, smart homes, robotics, smart watches and other wearables.

— C Space, a brand new exhibition space for CES this year, at Aria, where there will be presentations on disruptive technology, marketing and communication with executives from Twitter, Google, Yahoo, iHeartMedia and Havas Worldwide.

SPACE FOR ENTREPRENEURS

CES is open only to technology industry professionals and not the general public, but this year, there is an in for local entrepreneurs. An open casting call for the reality television show “Shark Tank” is scheduled Thursday from 8-10 a.m., at Section J of The Venetian Ballroom. The public doesn’t have to have show credentials to attend. Organizers warn that entrepreneurs wanting to audition their ideas for the show won’t be able to line up outside the ballroom until after 7 a.m.

The Venetian will also be home to CES’ “Eureka Park” exhibit of up-and-coming entrepreneurs and their products.

In addition to product displays, CES is a stage for companies looking to make a big splash with their products and for debates about some of the issues facing the technology industry.

While trade show floors don’t open until Tuesday, two pre-conference keynote addresses are scheduled Monday night.

Boo-Keun Yoon of Samsung Electronics kicks off the keynote addresses at 6:30 p.m., at The Venetian, while Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, will speak at 8 p.m. at the Chelsea Theater of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, and Mark Fields, the new president and CEO of Ford, are the show’s opening keynoters and Brian Krzanich, CEO of Intel, wraps up the first day with an afternoon address.

Tuesday afternoon, a panel that includes Phil Abram of General Motors, Jan Brockmann of Electrolux, Jon Fortt of CNBC, Steve Mollenkopf of Qualcomm, and Jeroen Tas of Philips will discuss fundamental changes in mobile computing.

Disruptive technology will be discussed Wednesday morning by panelists John Chambers of Cisco, David Kirkpatrick of Techonomy, Neil Smit of Comcast and Werner Struth of Robert Bosch LLC. An afternoon session on branding will feature Randy Freer of the Fox Networks Group, Margo Georgiadis of Google, Wenda Harris Millard and Michael Kassan of Medialink, Leslie Moonves of CBS, Jay Rasulo of Walt Disney Corp., Bob Sauerberg of Conde Nast and Deborah Wall of McDonald’s.

AIRPORT BECOMES BUSY SATURDAY

This year’s CES has been in planning since the last one ended, but trucks filled with displays and products began showing up in December. McCarran International Airport is expected to start getting busy Saturday with attendees and exhibit support staff arriving over the weekend and early in the week.

A show preview for the media is scheduled Sunday afternoon and the Mandalay Bay Convention Center will be busy all day Monday with a series of new product demonstrations and presentations for media members.

“Were always excited to come back to Vegas,” said Karen Chupka, senior vice president of International CES and corporate business strategy.

“We love the city, it’s such a great host city for an event like this because it is welcoming to all our international attendees and that’s just something that helps make our job a little easier,” said Chupka, who has been with the association for 25 years.

The logistics of planning transportation for a show of CES’ enormity is always a challenge, but the association has contracted to have more than 275 shuttle buses to transport attendees between local resorts and convention venues and among the convention sites.

In addition, the Nevada Taxicab Authority authorized up to 40 additional cabs, 20 each within any two 12-hour shifts, for each of Southern Nevada’s 16 cab companies during CES.

The association has contracted with a company to provide a smartphone app called Bandwagon to help attendees waiting in cab lines to find others going to the same destination to split cab fares.

The Las Vegas Monorail also is collaborating on CES, adding a ninth train to the line for an additional 250 passengers of capacity. Monorail officials say they will limit the number of passengers boarding trains at each station to assure that each station is adequately served.

With the additional train, vehicles will arrive at stations about every four minutes.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Find him on Twitter: @RickVelotta