The Cosby Sweaters Crew was going to CES. Naturally, we had to be prepared to bring the best and worst of the convention to the forefront. While we were accompanied by a well-suited and gifted AV team, I had to be fully stocked myself to cover the CES floor. I bought a Flip HD Ultra because my Blackberry Bold video camera didn’t quite cut it. I bought the camera at 8:30pm the night before we left and headed back to the office to plan the next day.
The next morning we pulled past Primm, Nevada. I whipped out my brand new, unused HD Flip camera from my case and boom:
I tweet my dismay out to the Twitter world. My phone rings… Tami from Cisco Corporate is on the line. They want to replace it in Vegas for me immediately. The people (Tami and Katie) at the Cisco corporate office quickly connected with the people at Best Buy to make my crappy situation less crappy.Problem solved.
When we made it into Vegas, I was sent to the nearest Best Buy. A brand new Flip camera was waiting for me at the Geek Squad desk. I was thrilled by the immediate response. That was one in a million.
After three hours passed, we headed off to the Cosby Sweaters mansion. We never made it in. That’s another untold story for CS ears only. In short, we wasted half the daylight on a creepy situation with a Utah Satanist. We had to find a new hotel in the nick of time. We were lucky enough to be left in the hands of Circus Circus. At the casino, the crew packed all of our bags and equipment onto a bellman’s cart and checked into the hotel. I wrapped my second unused Flip in a Cosby Sweater.
When the bellman arrived at our door, everything came with him, but, of course, the sweater wrapped Flip was gone. The bellman, Celso, had no idea where it had gone, but sincerely vowed to find out where it had gone. He understood I needed to cover the great things on display as a member of the press corps. Unfortunately, we had to run to catch the day’s latest. I assumed my second Flip in 18 hours goodbye.
In the cab on the way to the convention center, I received another call. It was Karen Ray, the Bell Captain of Circus Circus with news. Regrettably, she told me that even the power of a Cosby Sweater couldn’t protect my second fangled Flip. It had fallen off en route to our room and had been run over by a car, let’s call it a semi. Karen assured me not to worry. She would personally drive to the Best Buy across town and repurchase a replacement by the time I would get back to the hotel.
When I returned after a long day at the convention center, Karen was waiting with the 3rd flip in 24 hours in her hand. She went above and beyond for me. She and the Circus Circus team didn’t have to, but they did. I am now a full convert based upon the actions by Karen and Celso. Forevermore I will be an advocate for the Circus Circus establishment. We need more industry people like you. Thank you. Three cameras later, I look forward to even better footage of CES with the newest Flip in my toolbox.
