2008 was suppose to be the year when blogging became legitimate. However, the prank Gizmodo pulled at the 2008 CES may have set blogging back a year or two in the eyes of major trade shows.
For those who don’t know, Gizmodo went around the show floor with a high power IR transmitter and proceeded to shut down a bunch of TV displays. They interrupted product demos from Motorola, Intel, my friend Fatal1ty and who know how many others. The end result: a ban for Gizmodo, a bunch of pissed off exhibitors and a black eye for blogging.
This year was the first time CES recognized bloggers as legitimate media and set up separate registrations for bloggers (they even had their own media room and workstations). Before then, Gizmodo and other big gadget blogs attended CES as press.
Many of the other press events at CES does not welcome bloggers. This is the notice found at the ShowStoppers event concerning blogs.
Anyone can post a blog. Anyone can post to a blog. That does not make you a reporter. Just like driving fast does not make you a professional driver of race cars.
Hopefully, CES won’t change their stance on bloggers after Gizmodogate.