This was my first year experiencing CES (Consumer Electronic Show), so I didn't know what to expect. CES, which bills itself as "the most influential tech show in the world" and the global stage for innovation is such a behemoth that one convention center simply can't contain it. This year, the show was split across three locations—Tech East, Tech West, and Tech South (the North remembers)—that spanned ten casinos & resorts and the city convention center.

In a few days, we'll know just how many people descended on Las Vegas, but CES CEO Gary Shapiro estimated this year's attendance to exceed 100,000. Because last year's show was so scaled down due to so many major exhibitors and attendees pulling out, I expected this year's to come roaring back to life. It certainly felt that way.

What I didn't expect was how the show didn't focus very much on traditional consumer electronics. I think it's safe to say that CES is now an orphan initialism. Just as AT&T evolved to become so much more than an American Telephone & Telegraph Company, CES's scope has expanded well beyond consumer electronics.

I had a chance to stalk Eureka Park, and I met and spoke with dozens of founders and entrepreneurs, who are making sure that science and technology play a pivotal role in making our world better.

Here are some of the most interesting things that I saw.

This past decade saw an explosion in content. Endless platforms—Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, TikTok—gave people the opportunity to create and share so much content. We're constantly talking, tweeting, YouTube'ing. When we do listen, we're not so much listening as we are just waiting to respond with our take.

The first few days at CES, however, convinced me that we were about to enter the next era in listening.

I had the opportunity to experience Brane Audio, LLC debut their new Brane X speaker. Words hardly do this new speaker justice. When they told me that I had to hear it to believe it, I wondered "How much better can music actually sound?"

I thought I was an avid music listener, but Brane's new speaker made me realize that I was never fully listening. Through no fault of my own, I was missing entire layers of my favorite songs. When Brane Founder and CEO Joe Pinkerton played "Swimming" by Deb Never, a new lyric leapt to the foreground of the song. In the chorus, an echo surfaces—a call and response—that I'd never before heard. But there it was, plain as day.

When you listen to music with Brane, it's almost like hearing your favorite song again for the first time.

Haje Jan Kamps wrote in TechCrunch about his own experience listening to the Brane X speaker demo: "The huge amount of bass, plus a weirdly immersive soundscape coming from a box the size of a small toaster was a distinctly uncanny experience."

Meanwhile, Yobe Inc. is making sure that you're heard. On the noisy tradeshow floor, Yobe demoed its incredible voice solution that can extract and identify specific human voices while solving for unwanted sounds like crosstalk.

With hundreds of people walking past and dozens of simultaneous conversations going on around him, Yobe's co-founder and CTO Hamid Nawab demonstrated how Yobe and SoundHound AIare enabling a voice-controlled ordering and POS system for PLNT Burger. He didn't have to raise his voice or repeat his order multiple times. It simply worked.

This is voice technology for the future.

The old school 3 R mantra—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle—is experiencing (another R) a resurgence. Except now we can add a fourth R—recover.

I spoke with a co-founder from a company called Green Mineral that is using microbes to extract 70% of the lithium from spent EV batteries and other products and repurposing that Lithium to be used again. Over and over, Green Materials' technology platform will allow companies to squeeze every last drop from the lithium they mine.

Another company, Evolectric - CircularEV™ Solutions, is enabling the circular EV economy for high-capacity freight transportation. They help companies like The Coca-Cola Company and Anheuser-Busch give their aging diesel trucks on the brink of being decommissioned a second life as an electric truck.

Why invest in a brand new electric fleet when you already have valuable assets that just need a little bit of electric spitshine?

I am glad to see modern climate tech companies embracing the enduring wisdom of early sustainability movements. These companies are rapidly scaling their solutions while mitigating investment risk by using existing assets and infrastructure, and creatively recapturing resources for reuse. This approach is a far superior alternative to starting over from scratch every time.

After all, until we discover a new Earth, we only have one planet.

If you Google 'water crisis,' there's no shortage of articles covering water disasters everywhere from Colorado and Mississippi to Europe and the Middle East and North Africa.

Here in the United States, drought, pollution, and mismanagement of water resources has exacerbated the crisis. These issues have had serious consequences, including harm to public health, economic damage, and environmental degradation.

To address the millions of cubic water liters of water lost in supply networks every year, ACWA Robotics developed an autonomous robot that can snake through pipes and pinpoint worn sections that need attention before they fail. Their robot then delivers crucial data back to water utilities and network operators to help them preserve water quality and safeguard their infrastructure.

As we work to repair our damaged waterways, it is also crucial that we address our reliance on groundwater, a finite resource that is vulnerable to depletion and contamination. In order to secure a sustainable water supply for the future, it is essential that we use this vital resource wisely and explore alternative sources.

Kara Water's innovative air-to-water technology transforms air into high-quality, antioxidant-alkaline water. They literally create water from thin air.

About Vegas, Coach Beard says: One night is good. Two nights is perfect. Three nights is too many.

But four nights? That has the potential for madness.

Even with four nights, I never managed to make it out of the Venetian Expo Hall. But that's more a testament to the excitement and thrill that I felt on the floor of Eureka Park, meeting the visionaries behind these incredible companies.

With hashtag#CES2023 now in the rearview, the future ahead looks bright. In fact, I'm willing to bet on it.