There’s one rule for traveling to Las Vegas – stay less than 48 hrs. Beyond that threshold you catch a cold, lose your money and end up with nothing very good. Keeping that in mind I traveled to Sin City for CES earlier this week but made sure to keep the trip short.

Highlight of the visit was Les Moonves’ keynote where both Chad Hurley and Philip Rosedale joined the CBS CEO on stage to talk about their work with YouTube and Second Life. Love it when my worlds run together. There was much standard corporate speak in the keynote but give Les some credit – he featured two YouTube videos poking fun at the crown jewels – CSI and his wife the Chenbot.

After the keynote Google hosted a small cocktail affair where I was able to bring together some of my favorite people for a little chatter. Gibu Thomas from Sharpcast (who had a booth!) and Michael Quigley from Turner represented our class from Stanford. David Hornik jumped around for a bit before taking his overscheduled self to an event where he apparently met Jennifer Beals. Philip Rosedale stopped by and was quickly swarmed by various friends and flacks. Jesse Marmon, fellower Googler and fiancee to a good friend of mine, graced us too.

Done being social, the Google and YouTube crowd retired to the Social House for some good natured mingling. Highlight of the trip for me was spending time w/ my fantastic new colleagues from YouTube.

That and the Technology Emmy’s (where I sit on the Advanced Technology Committee of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences).