Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have heard the blogosphere buzz and global news coverage about this year’s Consumer Electronic Show (CES) from January 7th to January 9th.

Ever present in Las Vegas, CES is the Super Bowl of technology, the Disney World for Geeks, and a must-attend event for media industry folk. CES is where companies showcase their latest innovations, trends are set for years to come, and major deals are made behind the scenes.

CES opened its doors in 1967 in New York. It’s astounding history boasts noteworthy announcements such as 1975’s Atari “Pong” game, the VHS VCR (1977), Camcorder (1981) and the Compact Disk (1991) among others. CES can be seen as a fossilized media marble; just a quick peak at the products announced throughout its history and we are transported back in time to a wonderfully naive unconnected world. This year, over 110,000 attendees were present on the conference floor, with 2,500 exhibitors and more than 20,000 new products on display.

This year’s CES was greatly anticipated, its products expected to make a significant impact particularly on entertainment, mobile and publishing industries, all experiencing significant evolutions under woeful economic and advertising conditions.  The very future of these industries relies on the technological innovations that emerge in response to changing consumer needs and habits.

After three full days immersed in the Vegas technological showdown, our minds are buzzing with slick new products, from netbooks to new generation 3D TVs to the much-hyped “Tablet” and a few quirky (even if sometimes useless) gadgets. The convergence of technology is finally becoming a sophisticated reality; from TVs that can make calls to netbooks that read novels, to game consoles that play unlimited video content, and cars that twitter. The battle of who comes up with the best “all-in-one” package seems to be the race of the decade, and CES kicked it all off with a bang!

Clearly there was one major digital elephant on the CES floor, and that was Apple’s expected January 27 Macworld announcement of its much anticipated iSlate tablet. With netbooks, eReaders and tablets on the market, could Apple’s iSlate incorporate all the necessary multi-media functionality, making all other devices obsolete?

Its virtually impossible to cover every single gadget or momentous innovation, though I will do my very best to outline the trends and products my team and I believe to be the most important to follow. Hopefully my related CES articles will paint a well-rounded picture of what went down, and act as a comprehensive guide for you to decipher which areas are of most interest to you and your business.