I returned home this past weekend from CES 2017 in Las Vegas. This was my very first time attending CES, due to my being one of the winners of a video submission contest sponsored by ZTEUSA. All of this came about because last June, I joined the Z-Community of ZTEUSA. I ended up becoming one of the beta testers for the ZTE Axon 7, before release, and that has become one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Being a part of the Z-Community has allowed me to get to know some of the GREAT folks at ZTEUSA. As testing continued over a number of months, I also became acquainted with others that joined the community. I can only say that both groups have made the time spent with them, both online and now also in person one of the most fulfilling and rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.
When I found out that I was one of the contest winners and would be attending CES, I was grateful. But, I had no idea of how much effort, time and money ZTE would put into this trip. Let me tell you that I have never before felt so appreciated and ‘spoiled’ by a company. This trip was not only for the video contest winners, but also for Z-Community members and ambassadors that have contributed heavily towards making the community a great success by interacting with members and providing support with technical knowledge and just plain caring/kindness. I never did find out the total number of us that ZTEUSA brought in to Vegas but it looked to me to be somewhere between 30 and 40 people.
All of our flights, hotel bills, breakfasts and dinners were paid for with very, very little coming out of our pockets. We arrived on Monday, the 2nd and most departed on Friday, the 6th, and we stayed at Circus Circus. A CES 2017 Exhibitor badge was included, which allowed us entry into the first day of CES with access to just about everywhere. This included all of us being a part of ZTE’s press conference and presentation on day one of CES 2017. I actually was in the first row at the press event (when did I become important?). We also had breakfast with ZTEUSA CEO Lixin Cheng at Mandalay Bay. And to give you an idea of the type of venues, we had dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant (Paris), Treasure Island, Venitian and Luxor. The very special show that we attended was the Blue Man Group and had a helicopter flyover Las Vegas.
As you can tell, we were given the red-carpet treatment at all times and had a thoroughly good time. A special shout out to Peter Shih, Samer and Daniel who bent over backwards to ensure that we all were entertained and informed, put up with a ton of questions and patiently waited and counted heads when any of us was running late. I can’t express how grateful and humbled I am to have been treated so specially and hope to be able to attend many more ZTEUSA events in the future.
This is intended as a small, public thank you to ZTEUSA, the Z-Community and all that were involved in making this trip so completely memorable.
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