Posted by If there’s an inopportune place for a power outage to occur, it’s CES, an event filled with TVs, appliances and all kinds of other gadgets fueled by electricity.
Yesterday, a section of the huge Las Vegas trade show faced a blackout thanks to heavy rainfall in the desert city the day before. Oh, the irony!
Beginning at 11:15 a.m. the power went out in the Central Hall and South Hall bridge meeting rooms in the Las Vegas Convention Center. While power was restored in the South Hall within minutes, it took around two hours for the Central Hall to escape the darkness.
“A preliminary assessment indicates that condensation from heavy rainfall caused a flashover on one of the facility’s transformers,” the Las Vegas Visitor and Convention Authority, NV Energy and Consumer Technology Association (CTA) said in a joint statement.
While I was a few blocks away in the Sands Expo & Convention Center when it happened, I followed along on Twitter and kept my fingers crossed that other buildings would not suffer the same fate.
Attendees, exhibitors and even the CTA itself expressed a range of sentiments related to the #CESBlackout. Social media analytics company Crimson Hexagon parsed Twitter data and found that, by Thursday morning, nearly 4,200 tweets had been posted about relating to the incident. According to an email I received the company, 53.8 percent of those tweets can be characterized by joy, 18.9 percent by anger and 17.8 percent by sadness.
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In other words, most people got a kick out of it. That is, despite that fact that many exhibitors, who invested thousand of dollars to be at CES, lost power to their products as well as valuable face time with attendees. Some attendees even lost power themselves, such as those who were charging their phones in lockers when the outage struck and could not retrieve their devices.
Lol at all the phones being held hostage in this charging station that currently has no power and so no way of opening it #ces2018pic.twitter.com/g7DBLeFDf5
— Mike Murphy is at CES (@mcwm) January 10, 2018
Here’s a sample of tweets that capture the emotions that were swirling and ways people coped during the CES blackout — as well as a fair share of jokes to make light of the lack of light, even from brands.
Introducing Blackout™: The biggest thing to hit #CES2018 since #5G. #CESblackoutpic.twitter.com/xObxxxHvQe
— Intel (@intel) January 10, 2018
Hey Siri, switch on the lights. Or maybe Alexa? Hello? Anyone? #CESBlackout ? #CES2018
— Colin Vassallo (@ColinVassallo) January 10, 2018
@Tesla rocks it during massive #CES18#CESblackoutpic.twitter.com/h5EMvRdDOO
— Brian Lent (@BrianLent1) January 10, 2018
Young woman plays violin to entertain attendees at the Intel booth during #CES2018 blackout. #cesblackoutpic.twitter.com/BleGC38X8b
— Vinotecture (@vinotecture) January 10, 2018
Juggler making most of #lightsout at #cespic.twitter.com/u0XeJ72yO5
— Ty Pendlebury (@typendlebury) January 10, 2018
If you are in Central Hall, please go save the Sony Aibos. Without power these guys will be dead in two hours. Sarah McLachlan has prepared you for this moment. pic.twitter.com/y6uxqDAZEo
— Joanna Stern (@JoannaStern) January 10, 2018
Hottest gadget at #CES2018 right now! #CESBLACKOUTpic.twitter.com/74JD77D59C
— ISPNtweets (@ISPNtweets) January 10, 2018
Our booth looks a little bit different this year… #CESblackout#CES2018pic.twitter.com/W7Wtjy3Pqy
— Texas Instruments (@TXInstruments) January 10, 2018
Caught in the #CESBlackout? Don’t miss a moment with #HUAWEIMate10Pro and its outstanding lowlight photography camera. #CapturedOnMate10Pro#CES2018pic.twitter.com/y7V0NzoVrT
— Huawei Mobile (@HuaweiMobile) January 10, 2018
Lights on? No problem. #CESblackoutpic.twitter.com/e1Dj0Z9XKr
— Oreo Cookie (@Oreo) January 10, 2018
Welcome to the darkness. We hope you find it enlightening. https://t.co/eTKVpDxk8n
— Black Mirror (@blackmirror) January 10, 2018
An hour-and-15-minute blackout hit #CES2018. @alyssabereznak on the oral history of the #CES power outage: https://t.co/JU3RjJKUxB
— The Ringer (@ringer) January 11, 2018
And when the power was restored:
We have confirmation that #CES2018 is indeed lit
— CES (@CES) January 10, 2018