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The exhibition is opened for the public from 7th to 10th January 2008. The program for media workers begins already on 5th January 2008, so they can inform about the exhibition in advance.
Bill Gates has the first word
The key note has in the evening before the public opening, on 6th January 2008, Bill Gates himself. Expected interest is so great, that the organizers give each attendee a wristband. The queue is opened four and a half hours before the talk begin. Any previous queues at the official queue starting place are turned away. To defense the starting place well, it is situated at the outside bottom of the escalator, that leads to the building, where the talk takes place.
When the official queue starting hour appears, the organizers start to give the wristbands on a first-come first-served basis and put each attendee to the official queue. What happens during this time is hard to expect. Every wristband equipped attendee must however still stand in the queue, so it is clear, that he or she is still interested and did not quit the queue. The numbered wristbands are only to prevent outrunning. When all wristbands are distributed, which is expected to be very quick, the waiting phase begins. It is not possible to hold place to anybody, because only people with a wristband are allowed. The entry is opened usually one hour before the talk begin, so the attendees must stand about three and a half hours.
Celebrities
Consumer electronics is not only hardware, but also the software. And it is from a certain point of view the celebrities of the show business. In the Las Vegas shine appears for example Yoko Ono, Kevin Costner or Michael Douglas, which are part of the official programme.
Neighbouring Hollywood and a bit of history
More celebrities can be expected as visitors, of course. Firstly because Las Vegas itself is named as the entertainment capital city of the world and secondly because the official statistics say, that from the about 40 millions yearly visitors of this city, whole 80 percent come from the neighbouring California, where the idol of the show business resides, which is Hollywood.
Las Vegas itself has only about half a million of inhabitants, whole metropolitan area has about one and three quarters millions of inhabitants. It lies in the Mojave desert in Nevada and the city elevation is about 620 m above the sea level. It was named by the Spaniards, who stopped there for water during their first commercial journey on the way, which later became an important about 2000 km long commercial trail connecting the Spanish inhabitated areas, thus Santa Fé in New Mexico and Los Ángeles in California. Las Vegas means The Meadows, because there were really the meadows there thanks to artesian wells. Originally, Las Vegas was part of Mexico. Its name as the centre of entertainment came of the fact, that there was railway going through it and thus the city became an important stop and crossing of the colonizers heading west.
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