David Berkowitz scanned the showroom floor at CES to find the latest social media/tech innovations (image via CES).

Is the Consumer Electronics Show a social media event? Hardly. Any event that dedicates a few football fields of floor space to iPod accessories isn’t entirely about social. But there is a big social side to it that comes up in several ways, if you know where to look.

Gadgets and Technology

The biggest reason everyone comes to CES is to play with toys — which, increasingly, have social components.

Panasonic, for example, announced a deal with Skype that lets you run video conferencing on its new TVs. If you can’t get home to visit mom, you can at least see her face in high definition. Maybe soon you’ll get to see her in 3D. For some reason, I suspect that tagline won’t make it into their collateral.

For another approach, consider PlayOn.TV. The company released software that lets you connect your PC to your TV through your gaming console. I tried it out using my Wii at home and it didn’t quite work as planned (scroll down here for the full story),  but I could almost watch my YouTube videos that way, and in theory I could have caught Hulu. It’s designed more for premium content, but user-generated can work just as well.

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While at the Consumer Electronics Show, I moderated a panel at Digital Hollywood on “Mobile Commerce and Content: The Mobile Web, Texting, Search, and Advertising Options.” As you can see, the panel covered a lot of ground, and I can’t begin to capture it all. But I did take some notes and I’ll share those here.

I need to thank my panelists here for all their insight, and I wish I could have done the session more justice, but look out for any of them at other events as you’re guaranteed to learn a few things.

• Ali Rana, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Dynamic Logic
• Jamie Wells, Director, Global Trade Marketing, Microsoft Mobile Advertising
• Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Americas and Asia Pacific, mBlox
• Thomas Roberts, Chief Product Officer, Digital and Mobile Services, kgb
• Pooj Preena, CEO, Groupe Hi-Media USA;
• Greg Fawcett, co-founder, MobiAd Sales

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