As I write this, I’m in the Las Vegas airport, awaiting my ~11:00 PM flight that will get into Georgia (the state, not the country) early tomorrow. A shorter flight will then take me to my Tampa Bay, Florida homeland at circa 9:00 AM. I am running on very little sleep, breakfast ~12 hours ago provided by the Autodesk University trade show, and a dinner at the airport consisting of a Wendy’s Double Stack meal that somehow cost ~$15.1
Read on to hear how I missed my original flight in Atlanta, bought a speaker system that wasn’t great for too much money (a metaphor for Vegas in general?), assembled a robot, took video of (part) of the show, and lots more. As for the show itself, TL;DR: it was probably good, but I’m really not the person to ask.
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Monday night, August 14th, 2026 — a bit of a blur as I write this — I was scheduled on an ~8:00 PM flight out of Tampa with a connection in Las Vegas to put me in at ~11:30 PM after the 3-hour time change. Late, but manageable. At ~6:00 PM Tampa Time, however, things started to get manic. I was informed that my initial flight was delayed, leaving just 18 minutes to catch the next flight, and a possible missed connection.
That wasn’t going to work.
(Getting to) the show must go on
The next best option was a flight leaving at 5:15 AM the next morning for an ~ 8:00 AM flight from Atlanta touching down at ~9:30 AM. After a few hours of sleep at home, I left for my 3:30 AM (!) airport departure. The one bright spot was that I was upgraded(?) to a (middle) exit seat on the ATL-Las Vegas leg.
However, I failed to secure armrest dominance versus the aisle dweller in my section, and ended up squirming and being somewhat uncomfortable for a good portion of the flight. I think that person at the conference. I dutifully avoided him.
[Wed, September 16th, 8:45 PM Las Vegas airport time: I am so tired. Does this writing make sense? Will edit later. Or should I? Maybe this in-the-moment reporting will be interesting when I look at it later]
Touching down in Las Vegas, I had much more energy than had any right to expect, and when I got to the ground transportation section there was a line of cabs waiting for me (or whoever). What seemed like 15 minutes minutes later I was at the Venetian, and a few minutes after that I had my Autodesk show pass. All I had to do was find my Vegas Vic Neon Cowboy statue and proceed to where it was to be set up. Amazingly, I might actually get there at the 10:30 AM conference start. Things were looking up, but could I maintain this pace? Maybe.
Shipping (and receiving) a big case in Las Vegas
One big worry about this project was actually getting it there in safely, and I give the Venetian FedEx Business Center, FedEx itself, The Mail Room in Palm Harbor, Pelican cases, and myself for packing it well (if I may be so bold) a lot of credit. I shipped it next day from ~Tampa and it was there waiting for me at the business center after paying $30 bail as a receiving fee.
This was probably the right way to do things, as it would have been difficult to lug what looks like Barrett .50 cal case around through the airport and ground transportation. That said, I’m not sure what my client will say about how much it cost to get it there. When I told one regular reader2 to guess how much it cost, my response was that he missed a zero. Not quite, but close enough. I’m sure the state of gas prices these days didn’t help.
Another thing that worked out nicely was sticking an Airtag inside of the case. I could see exactly where it was at all times, and when I showed up to the Fedex business center at the Venetian, they got it out for me in a few minutes. Once the case was extracted from its cardboard mailer packaging, it really did like I was lugging a giant case around because I had an important mission. And arguably, I did.
Show setup — more difficult than anticipated (as always)
The plan was to show up the night before, then get up early to assemble the cowboy, which would be easy since LV is 3 hours behind Tampa. As outlined above, that didn’t happen whatsoever. Nonetheless, after securing a space in the back of “The Factory Experience,” i.e. my client’s area3, I got to work putting things together when it probably should have been working.
Like most things of this nature, assembly took at least as long as I had anticipated, though to my relief I didn’t have to employ any of the spare parts that I had brought with me. Save having to re-seat the Teensy board that runs the device, my packaging was apparently sufficient to keep everything safe. There was some discussion about where it should go, and whether it was a risk to passersby, but eventually we got it out on the floor, waving its arms and illuminated LEDs, and saying various “cowboy” phrases that I’d come up with (see video 👇).
Overall, I thought it was success, but there were two issues that may or may not have raised some eyebrows. First, I used an LED strip with its stock controller, in part because my timeline to get this done was very tight, and also to hedge my bets if something went wrong. If everything else broke, at least the LEDs would work (or vice versa), but it also probably didn’t seem as technical or interactive as it could have been if controlled directly by the Teensy.
This was (again, under a significant time constraint) probably the right move. The other issue was that, while it sounded good in my garage, it just wasn’t loud enough to be easily heard in the gigantic indoor space that is the Venetian conference center. Thus my adventure on day two:
Moar volume — Boom boxes are hard to come by in Vegas
In addition to its onboard speakers, the cowboy can easily be hooked up to an auxiliary speaker input… if one is available. But I didn’t bring my auxiliary speaker because… it sounded fine in the garage. Here I did not entirely hedge my bets and left my portable speaker/amp at home, and ended up trying to find a boombox with an appropriate auxiliary input on the Las Vegas strip.
In case you’re wondering, neither Walgreens nor CVS in Las Vegas has such a thing, and rather than just taking a cab to a ~nearby Guitar Center (as I should have), I went to the nearby mall where I was told there was an Apple store. However, Apple no longer sells a speaker with an aux input, even with an adapter. Dick’s Sporting Goods in the mall did sell a speaker that appeared like it would work. Success!(?)
After purchase of said speaker and a bit of finagling, the Cowboy was loud enough to be heard appropriately.4 Long story short, if you think you might need an aux speaker, just bring it. The one spare part and/or tool that you decide not to bring will always be the one you need.
Also, just take a cab to Guitar Center if you’re ever in my situation. I would be shocked if they didn’t have something that would have worked.
Between setup on the first day, negotiating for a spot/convincing the venue that it was safe, getting filmed in various roles, three hours of time changes, a boombox quest, and missing lunch, I was exhausted on Wednesday afternoon. But I was supposed to document the show for my client as well. So one more thing to take care of.
I took video… of The Factory Experience ONLY
I was anticipating taking video of the entire show, or at least the Expo — like a trade show with mostly Autodesk-adjacent vendors. However, that afternoon I was informed that I was only allowed to film my client’s Factory Experience area since I didn’t have official press credentials. While this threw me for a bit of a loop, I was quite tired. At least there was a decent amount of stuff to see in The Factory Experience that I could film.
While I’d already gone through most of The Experience under another cameraman’s direction, I filmed my own take on it. Or, more accurately, I mostly interviewed/filmed Jonathan, the creator of the Factory Experience and the macro pad that you get to build (he can be seen triggering my Cowboy in the video above).
He did a great job, and given that I only had a few hours left, this got me out of a bit of a jam since I needed something submit. So a big thanks to him.
Leaving Las Vegas
With this last bit done, I packed my (what I now realize is an extremely heavy) bag, said my goodbyes, and headed to the airport. While I could have taken my time and seen more of Vegas, I really wasn’t in the mood. I just wanted to get to the airport and sit down. Perhaps even type up some of my experience when it was fresh and after having some food. A significant chunk of this article is a product of my tired wait in the airport.5
Several hours later, I entered the plane, secure in the fact that I had a window/exit row seat and could hopefully get some sleep. And somehow the middle seat never filled in! Interestingly, at ~6’4”, 245 pounds, I am a large man. However, the person on the aisle seat was maybe a tiny bit taller than me, and much larger — athletic, not fat. He was also extremely friendly, and a short conversation before takeoff/sleep revealed that he was a former FSU offensive lineman.
So maybe whoever was in the middle seat saw the situation and turned around (very unlikely). Or maybe the crew saw the situation and intervened (also very unlikely, but maybe possible).
Sadly, I slept very little, though large aisle guy looked like he had no such problem. The flight from Atlanta to Tampa was similarly middle-seat-free, though the person tangent to the aircraft’s circumference (weirdly, there was no window) was a small woman. Amazingly (to me) she was able to curl up toward the wall with her legs on a backpack or something. Such a maneuver is out of the question for me, though if I were to become flexible enough to sit with my legs straight up in the air and parallel to my chest, that would open up some possibilities.6
So how was the actual Autodesk University show? How was Las Vegas?
I have no idea. I was so busy with the aforementioned tasks that I had very little time to actually take things in like I had hoped. It’s strange, you think of traveling to different locations for business as exotic, and perhaps fun, but in my limited experience it’s more like you’re in a building that could be anywhere, but it just happens to be in X, Y, or Z. Parts of it are nice, but at times you’re so busy that you don’t really get to see much.
To be fair, “no idea” isn’t quite true. I got to walk the floor a bit, and saw some cool stuff including a cool truck-camper van combo thing. And The Factory Experience, the bit that I was allowed to film, was quite cool.
The scale of the Venetian is truly impressive. Also, Vegas’ ability to host conferences is like nowhere else I’ve ever seen. There appeared to be at least three other conferences going on, and the city was entirely unfazed. It was a normal Tuesday/Wednesday apparently.
Both aspects were nice, but I saw a very limited slice of either. Also, I didn’t gamble whatsoever, though that’s not something I do anyway.
A ~sequel at CES?
In early 2027, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) takes place in Las Vegas. There is some talk of using this device for the show there as well, perhaps with a retrofit to better fit the tech-centric theme. While I don’t know if this will happen, I’d certainly love the opportunity to work on it again, especially if I get the contract with a bit more time to experiment.
If it happens, perhaps I’ll plan to get there a bit earlier to allow myself a bit more setup time. Plus that might give me a bit more slack if anything goes awry. How about you? Any trade show/business travel tips/experiences I should know about? Do let me know in the comments. -JC
Related Posts/content:
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Vegas Neon Cowboy build on Hackster.io
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Addendum/Footnotes:
How did I ever afford Double Stacks in college? IIRC, I once even got a triple stack and regretted it. TBH, it seemed like a bit too much food/grease on this occaision.
In my experience, Autodesk provides fantastic meals for attendees. Breakfast Wednesday was no exception, and lunch/dinner-ish snack the previous day was also very good. No lunch Wednesday, however, as I was busy running around trying to find a speaker.
Yes, you Jason.
This was a pretty neat setup, basically allowing people to go through a small-scale manufacturing process where they made their own macro pads. Being a macro pad aficionado myself, I though this was especially cool.
A Turtlebox speaker, which runs over $400. I was told to put it on my invoice, but hopefully no one will balk at the cost. It had an auxiliary input, as well as a microphone input, both in what appeared to be 3.5mm.
The speaker unit may be good otherwise, but plug was not tight as all and the volume doesn’t work with an aux input — which seems ridiculous to the extreme. I ended up having to secure the plug in with a rubber band so that it would work consistently, then reprogram the Teensy development board to play softer.
The unit can be returned for up to 90 days. I’d say doing so would normally be bad form if it served its purpose over the remainder of the show. However, it seemed really poorly built considering the price tag. If the client wants to take it back, I have the receipt and would have no qualms about this.
Much was cut/edited. For various reasons.
After well over 24 hours without a shower and in the same boat shoes, no one really wanted my feet vertically aligned with, or slightly above, their noses.
Wow, what a wild visit in Vegas! Perhaps not the kind of wild one typically associates with Vegas, but beggars can't be choosers. Glad all seemed to go well despite the chaos.