- Wackiest Booth Attraction: Kyocera's model having her body painted. What's up with that? (Although she did seem to attract a crowd of mostly middle-aged, mouth-breathing male attendees.)
- Most Underpaid Convention Center Employee, No. 1: Michael, the computer guy in the media center, who did a heroic job of setting up Ethernet cables when it became clear that the WiFi network wasn't up to the job.
- Coolest Booth Attraction: The few exhibitors thoughtful enough to offer late-afternoon beer and wine at their booths. This should become a tradeshow fixture.
- Best Concert: Busta Rhymes (the Motricity/BET party).
- Lamest Panel Comment: A panelist at Deloitte's Tuesday-night "Crystal Ball" mentioned, as if it were news, the cellphone-owning Indian villagers who become one-person telcos. Haven't we been hearing about this for about six years?
- Biggest No-Show, No. 1: Motorola execs, who didn't show up for their own party, on Wednesday evening at Tao, in the Venetian. (CEO Ed Zander was said to have taken off at 4 p.m. that afternoon.)
- Most Underpaid Convention-Center Employee, No. 2: The woman shining shoes in the Central Hall. I've had foot massages that were less pleasurable.
- Biggest No-Show, No. 2: Perhaps busy gearing up for its tepid earnings result today, RIM was virtually absent from CTIA this year. The best the BlackBerry-maker could do was a small-beer "announcement" that SouthernLINC Wireless will start offering BlackBerry to its customers in the Southeast.
- Biggest Pain in the Ass: Of course, the abysmal public transport in Vegas. More than an hour's ordeal to travel the mile-and-a-half or so from the Luxor to the Convention Center. Taxi lines hundreds of people deep. Totally unacceptable. And totally predictable.
— Richard Martin, Senior Editor, Unstrung