The Consumer Electronic Association’s 2015 International CES presented attendees from around the world, with the latest in autonomous cars, wearable technology, the Internet of Things and much more Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas.

The world’s largest tech event just keeps growing, taking over the entire Las Vegas Convention Center, much of the Sands Expo Convention Center and parts of Aria.

This year’s show featured 3,600 exhibitors spread out over 2.2 million net square feet of space, or as Tara Dunion, senior director of communications for CEA, likes to say, “that’s 35 football fields of technology.”

She added they expect audited attendance numbers to be about 150,000 to 160,000, which is where those numbers were last year.

That many exhibitors and attendees can be a shock to those at CES for the first time. Brandon Tatum with WingStuff.com described the experience as overwhelming.

This year was his first one attending, and he said that he didn’t know what to expect. “Maybe if we were here for the whole week, we’d have time to take it all in and maybe pace ourselves,” he added.

Tina Knightly from Staples has been coming to CES for six years and said, “I think it’s great this year.” Knightly said she liked the Tech West area at the Sands Expo. “It’s a little smaller; it seems like it’s busier here than over at the convention center,” she added.

Wearables, a trend that was starting to emerge at last year’s show, had a huge presence this year. Also trending was the Internet of Things, with more than900 exhibitors highlighting devices as diverse as baseball bats to toaster ovens. 

Dunion said that the automotive marketplace at CES has doubled during the past 4-5 years. Ten major auto manufacturers exhibited this year, highlighting autonomous cars and high-tech safety features.

The digital health and fitness marketplace also has seen breakthroughs. Fitness products are no longer just counting steps, but also measuring your body fat and collecting all sorts of biometric data. Glucose meters are now able to measure your blood sugar, as well as send the updates to your doctor.

A popular spot on the showfloor was Eureka Park, a showcase for start-ups. Jay Nichols with Hi WiFi, an exhibitor located in that area, said, “It’s really fun to be in the Eureka Park area. It’s all startups. You’re surrounded by people filled with passion and enthusiasm.”

Jocelyn Painter with Brio, a first-time exhibitor at CES, said she saw a lot of traffic in their booth. “From our perspective, only coming here once, wow, it’s a lot more traffic than I even anticipated,” she added.

In addition to the expansion of the showfloor, new in 2015 was C Space at ARIA. CES is billing it as the destination for creative communicators, brand marketers, advertising agencies, digital publishers and social networks.

Dunion said that the advertising content community was coming to CES in ever increasing numbers. Those attendees knew they needed to be at CES, but they didn’t necessarily have a home at CES.

CES started reaching out to this group and said, “We know you’re here, what are your needs and how can we incorporate you into the CES experience?” What those advertisers wanted was meeting space and a conference program. Thus, C Space was born.

Other organizers can learn from the success of C Space. Dunion offers these words of advice, “not everyone fits in the same size box so listen to your customers, listen for ways to meet their needs and come up with creative solutions.”