I was disappointed to hear that this would be Bill Gates' last CES keynote because I, for the first time in about 6 years, decided not to go. Given how big a draw it is I thought for sure that Microsoft would draft him into doing a few more even if his role at the company had diminished.
Going to the Gates keynote had become something of a tradition for me. Las Vegas is less than 4 hours away and I have friends there who will happily put me up so I'd usually head out Sunday morning and spend the next couple days there as a sort of "mini-vacation"
This year I just decided it wasn't worth the time. It has been a long time since anything revolutionary came out of CES (that I can remember) and without at least one "home run product" CES is a pretty boring. Sadly, from what I've seen thus far I was absolutely right about that part.
But had I known this was Gates' swan song I probably would have gone out for one more year. I think it would have been a nice ending point for my tradition. Oh well, not everything can work out perfectly I guess.