ShowStoppers Highlists StartUps and more at CES

Fighting back at the doom and gloom that has begun 2009 worldwide in the face of ongoing economic crisis, some 90 companies aimed shot new life into the US economy last night by introducing and demonstrating new products and technologies for work, home and play to more than 1,000 journalists, analysts and bloggers attending ShowStoppers, the press-only special event during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“At ShowStoppers events, journalists get to see, touch, feel and play with new products, as they are announced,” said Steve Leon, partner. “For exhibiting companies, it’s an incredibly effective use of executive time and marketing dollars in a tough economy. There’s nothing like being one-on-one and face-to-face with a reporter – who’s actually holding your product in her hands – to help push product coverage and interviews.”

Some of the journalists, analysts and bloggers tracking hot products from cool companies included, among others, ABC News, BBC, Crunchgear, gizmodo, Good Housekeeping, Wall Street Journal, Which?, Wired and more. The invitation-only event featured start-ups, upstarts, innovators and industry leaders, including Astrogaming, AT&T, Bug Labs, Jakks Pacific, Slacker, Smith Micro Software, and Zoombak, with demonstrations that offered the world’s first demonstration by Ford, Microsoft and partners of the next-generation edition of SYNC, the hands-free information and entertainment system for drivers – just one hour after it was announced by Alan Mulally, chief executive office of Ford.

IFA invited exhibitors, journalists, analysts and bloggers to Berlin for the largest consumer-electronics and home-appliances tradefair outside North America – and ShowStoppers @ IFA 2009, the official press event, while Intuit introduced Quicken Online, the first forward-looking personal-finance service on the Web.

Other demos included Boingo Wireless and Skype, who announced an agreement that allows Skype users to access more than 100,000 Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide. Schwinn gave rides to journalists on its innovative electric bike, the Tailwind. Start-up Cloud Engines launched Pogoplug, a small device that connects a USB hard drive to the Internet, giving users access to files from any Web browser, from anywhere. FusionOne, GoTV, Juice Wireless, Truphone, Vringo and Vuzix also demonstrated tools that won Mobile Entertainment Awards.