Alex Fees: I am Alex fees on Small Business Television; we are coming to you from SEMA 2008 that Specialty Equipment Market Association in Las Vegas. And joining me here now is Jennifer Bemisderfer.
Jennifer, how are you? Good to meet you. Appreciate you being here. Jennifer is a spokesperson for the Consumer Electronics Association doing a little bit of advance work it sounds like here at SEMA 2008, right?
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Yeah, absolutely.
Alex Fees: Because you have the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) coming up when?
Jennifer Bemisderfer: That's January 8 through the 11 right back here in Las Vegas.
Alex Fees: So Consumer Electronic Association officials come here what every year to SEMA just to kind of get a preview and see what is on people's minds or what?
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Yeah, well, we share a lot of the same exhibitors and members and obviously when it comes to mobile electronics, we have a lot of overlapping interests. We worked very closely with SEMA and our Automotive Electronics Connectivity Committee. So our associations are associating. So we come here just to get a sense for what we can expect in mobile electronics at CES.
Alex Fees: Well, I can certainly understand why there'd be some overlap between the Consumer Electronic Association because here at SEMA so many new products are unveiled and things of that nature. You are in and out pretty quick, in on Wednesday out Thursday, what's your impression so far, I guess, personally and professionally?
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Well, personally I love all the cars.
Alex Fees: Yeah.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: I am not a car person per se, but still you can't help but I think this is pretty cool to see some of the stuffs that's available in the car and the talent really that goes into fabricating these cars.
Alex Fees: Absolutely.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: It's amazing. So from that standpoint it's certainly an always a fun show to be at. From a professional standpoint it's been really interesting. A lot of the time that I've been here so far I have spent in North Hall which is focused on consumer electronics and mobile electronics in the car. And I am always blown away at the innovation that comes from consumer electronics companies for the car.
At the Consumer Electronics Association, we are obviously focused on a broader look at the industry from wireless phones to TV's, iPods, MP3 players, audio things like that. But what we are seeing more and more is that the technologies and the products that people have in their homes and that are also available on the go, like cell phones and iPod, they also want in their cars.
Alex Fees: Absolutely.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: That's really driving a lot of innovation for technology in the car. And I think we are going to continue to see that for years to come.
Alex Fees: Yeah, I shot a story yesterday on Azentek, a company that is doing just that. They are bringing -- they have a Car PC which people can use. It's got a keyboard and everything right there kind of between the seats if you will. We will not allow you to type or read emails while the car is moving.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Good.
Alex Fees: But aside of that, I think it automatically switches over like to a voice recognition system so you can keep driving and it take multi-tasking to a new level.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of these features are actually being built directly into the car stereo systems.
Alex Fees: Right. To replace the car stereo system.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Today iPod integration, blue-tooth integration, even Internet search is coming to the car.
Alex Fees: Yeah, absolutely. Gone are the days when we had simply GPS.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Absolutely.
Alex Fees: Well Jennifer what can people expect then at the Consumer Electronics Association show in, when, January?
Jennifer Bemisderfer: January 8-11. I think they can expect to see a couple of things. One is internet in the car and options not only for consumers to use internet in the car, search function things like that, but also to connect the actual car to the internet. So the ways that you can get diagnostic information, safety information from your car to the Internet and then back to you. So I think we are going to see a lot of innovations on that end as well.
Alex Fees: And I am guessing that Consumer Electronic show probably works very much like this, a lot of the same vendors
Jennifer Bemisderfer: It does. A few less cars but yeah, it does look a lot like this.
Alex Fees: Less cars is just as much technology, no doubt.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Oh absolutely!
Alex Fees: Where can people go to get more information about the show in January?
Jennifer Bemisderfer: About the show you can go to cesweb.org and you can find out all about our mobile electronic section. Alan Mulally the CEO of Ford is going to be one of our keynoters this year, which is obviously a very exciting from our automotive electronic standpoint because Ford is doing so much in terms of getting consumer technology in the car. So a lot of great things going on at CES and you can find out about it at cesweb.org.
Alex Fees: Cesweb.org for the show in January of 09.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: That's right.
Alex Fees: Alright Jennifer, thank you very much.
Jennifer Bemisderfer: Thank you very much.
Alex Fees: I appreciate you been here. She is Jennifer Bemisderfer, Is that right?
Jennifer Bemisderfer: That's right.
Alex Fees: With the Consumer Electronic Association. I am Alex Fees on Small Business Television again coming to you from SEMA 2008 in Las Vegas.
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