Posted by: Contributing columnist, Clarion-Ledger, Business, January 6, 2016: If you are following any technology news this week, you’ll be seeing lots of new product announcements and cool prototypes 
being displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I’m proud to say that Innovate Mississippi is out here with a booth and five participating Mississippi companies — three of which are introducing new products.
If you’re not familiar with CES, just imagine the biggest tech geek show you can and multiply it by 10. There are 2.4 million square feet of exhibits and 170,000 people filling three very large convention centers. In addition to the exhibit space, there are 42 conferences on different topics going on during the show. There are also new product announcement events, keynote speakers, start-up pitch competitions and media from all over the world clamoring to see the latest cutting-edge consumer products.
There is so much activity that it’s impossible for one person to see more than just a small share of all that is going on. Even using the official CES app and its “Personal Show Plan” tool for mapping visits to all of the booths and activities, the event is so large that pre-planning seems to be the key to a productive show. This year has a very divergent group of new products but no real “theme,” so it will cover a lot of ground — from drones and bio-tech wearables to smart refrigerators and self-driving cars. I’m doing my best to get around, though, and next week’s article will focus on some of the interesting products and trends that impressed me the most or that I think will have the biggest impact
I think you’ll be hearing a lot more about the Mississippi companies that are participating in CES 2016, but I wanted to at least mention who they are and what they are doing at CES. Peer Elevate Funding is Mississippi’s only approved equity crowdfunding portal. Jennifer Gatewood, the founder of Peer Elevate Funding, is now part of a growing national group of equity crowdfunding websites. Another company attending is Emergent Technologies, a new commercial drone company mostly concentrating on video and data analytics. Drones are a big part of CES 2016 with several conference sessions and more than 20 device makers exhibiting.
Newly formed BrainLinc, a joint venture between Tupelo’s Hyperion Technology Group and Meridian’s Rush Sports Medicine, is introducing its product — a collision-monitoring athletic mouthpiece. The mouthpiece measures and communicates head trauma to sideline personnel. Considering all of the recent discussion of brain trauma in football and the recent release of the movie “Concussion,” the timing of its product introduction is very good even if it isn’t doing the release at CES.
Satchel, the Jackson podcast technology company I have mentioned in previous articles, is announcing the beta for its new iOS app at the show. Anyone who listens to podcasts knows how bad the current podcast players are, and this is the product that I’m personally the most excited about because the new player has some great features that puts the company far ahead of competitive products. Podastery Studios, producer of podcasts such as “Let’s Talk Jackson,” is owned by Satchel founder Beau York, who will be recording podcasts from our booth at the show.
Finally, VRM Telematics of Ridgeland is introducing its product, Sentinel, which is being marketed primarily as a distracted driving product that tracks cellphone use by drivers and reports information to parents or fleet managers. Sentinel also can track speed and location and provide data so consumers can take advantage of usage-based car insurance ratesWhile parents of teen drivers are the primary focus of the company now, there are other very attractive markets down the road.
All five Mississippi companies are participating because Innovate Mississippi has a free booth as an “Allied Affiliate” of CES 2016. I’ve noticed that no other Southern state has a booth presence and the other Allied Affiliates are all from global regions such as Hong Kong, India and Africa.
This show is a great opportunity for Mississippi companies to shine and demonstrate how well our companies can compete and lead on a global scale.
Tony Jeff is the president and CEO of Innovate Mississippi. He can be reached at tjeff@innovate.ms.