LAS VEGAS - The 2012 Consumer Electronics Show has innovative new gadgets and hi-tech hardware. It takes hundreds of workers to help the nearly 150,000 registered attendees get around - both at the convention and on the Strip.
Holly Coombs has worked at CES for six years. She makes $125 a day to ensure traffic flows smoothly.
"We get up at the bus stop probably six a.m. We work until about eight o'clock at night, go to bed, get up and do it again, about seven days in a row," she said. "If I didn't have this right now, I'd be unemployed. I'd be collecting unemployment, which isn't good either. So, I'm glad this is here every year."
Conventions are bread and butter for many workers. Seventy-four-year-old Rosie Anderson has worked at the Las Vegas Convention Center for seven years.
"This is my play money. If I didn't have this, I could live, but I couldn't play. I love to gamble. I love bingo, and I love to go out and eat," she said.
She says she's worked nearly every event that comes through Las Vegas.
"We've got other big conventions. We've got NAB, which is National Association of Broadcasters, coming in. We've got MAGIC coming in, and anything that we can get to bring people to this town helps everybody," she said.
Limo and cab drivers also get a piece of the cut. Cab driver Emilio Garza says CES is a nice change from a lull in business the past few months.
"It helps out a lot more than you might think," he said. "These people, they come in. They not only hop the cab, we take them to other places. We get the opportunity to talk to them a little bit more and helps bring in more tips. They're more willing to spend."
Workers not only benefit during the convention, but also before and after. A lot of manpower is needed to set up and break down conventions like CES.
