MKBHD Warned Me About Covid 19 at CES 2020
I love new tech and gadgets. I consider myself an early adopter and have always craved the newest phones, TV tech and other gadgets. Every year I publish a Tech Gift Guidefor the holidays with my picks of cool new gadgets and technology. I follow several blogs and vlogs to stay up on the latest and greatest. While I don’t get to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas every year, I have been several times. In fact I have been to CES over three decades and shared my reflections on how it has evolved in this post: Insights from 3 Decades at CES
In January 2020, I traveled to Las Vegas to attend the 2020 CES event. It is like Candyland for technology lovers. So many innovative new products and concepts all in one place. The show has outgrown the Las Vegas convention center and spans to multiple venues and convention centers. It is an exhausting three days during which time I walked over 20,000 steps a day viewing products, attending keynotes and breakout sessions with tech industry leaders.
While at CES I met several tech leaders and influencers including Gary V, David Chang and Marques Brownlee. Tech influencers use the CES show as an opportunity to check out new products, meet with tech execs and to speak at various break out sessions. The show brings together a very global audience with thousands of Asians and Europeans in attendance.
One of the technology Vloggers that I have been following for the past few years is Marques Brownlee who goes by MKBHD. He has a very successful YouTube channel with 11 million subscribers. Marques has become a tech celebrity who now garners attention. He has interviewed Elon Musk and Bill Gates among other tech titans. Marques performs informative and well produces tech product reviews ranging from phones to electric vehicles.
I was walking between convention halls outside when I saw Marques and his videographer partner getting some fresh air. I went up to greet him and to chat about what he had seen. When I introduced myself, I extended my hand for handshake. Marques offered a fist pump instead, stating that he is not shaking hands as a way to ward off germs. Made sense to me. At the time which was January 7th very few of us knew much about Covid 19. It was thought to be a strange flu virus contained to China.
Marques makes a living by being ahead of the curve on technology, but it was clear from that interaction, that he is not just tech savvy, but pandemic savvy as well.
It was another two months before the world woke up to the real threat of Covid 19. That fist pump greeting from Marques made an impression on me at the time, but it came to have even greater significance. The large global crowd at CES may have been a major entry point for the Coronavirus into the US. The event occurred at the beginning of January. While the media says the disease came to the US from China via Europe, it may have in fact been spread at the CES event. We may never know.
MKBHD was on the right track with his fist pump greeting back on January 7th and the way we greet one and other may have to adapt much like an early adapter embraces new technology.