What's happening in Vegas: the CES 2015 keynotes you won't want to miss

David Pierce editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

The biggest day of CES is the day before CES. Come to think of it, the day before that (today, Sunday) is pretty big too. But Monday is press conference day, the day some of the industry’s biggest and most important companies get on stage and launch somewhere between five and 5,000 new products. (Some of them will be washing machines.) If you’re excited about the future of technology and the gadget industry, there’s no bigger day than CES Day Zero.

That day is tomorrow. Monday, January 5th, 2015. We’ll be live all over Las Vegas, following every event, every announcement, every time Michael Bay melts down during a Samsung event because he forgot his lines and should probably stick to directing. For the biggest events, we’ll be on the scene liveblogging, bringing you everything in real time as it happens.

The best place to find everything at CES is our CES hub, which will reflect both the best and the newest things we’re finding at the show. But if you want to know everything that’s happening, as it happens, here are the events you’ll want to watch along with us.

Sunday, January 4th

8:00PM PT: Nvidia

Nvidia always kicks off the live events at CES, and every year it’s a show. Last year, a very ill Jen-Hsuan Huang, Nvidia’s CEO, shed his cold and his leather jacket long enough to talk about next-gen gaming, 4K, and the future of streaming games. If you’re a gamer, or just want to see what happens as chips and devices become staggeringly more powerful in every facet of your life, Nvidia’s show is a must-see.

Monday, January 5th

8:00AM PT: LG

Every year, LG does the too-early press conference. And every year, it announces All The Things: new TVs, new washing machines, new phones, new everything. We’ve already heard a lot about what LG’s up to (even a few things that were supposed to be a secret), but the press conference is our first chance to see everything up close. Especially the washing machines. This is definitely the year washing machines get awesome.

11:00AM PT: Asus

Asus’ press conferences are always worth watching, even when nothing happens, because CEO Jonney Shih is a maniac. He loves phones, tablets, PCs, and basically everything that has a button and a screen. He’s also never one to pull punches about how much better Asus is than its competitors, and he loves having weird ideas about how gadgets should work. Asus always has something new and different to show, and no matter what the company announces this year, the event itself will be a party.

12:00PM PT: Qualcomm

Two years ago, Qualcomm flawlessly executed what remains the most insane press conference of all time. Big Bird was there, along with Maroon 5, some cars, and a lot of people who were trying to make "Born Mobile" a thing. (It’s not going to happen.) Steve Ballmer even showed up! Most of Qualcomm’s actual announcements tend to be of the chip-and-processing-speeds variety, but the event itself is not — I repeat, not — to be missed.

2:00PM PT: Samsung

Everything we’re hearing (and seeing, from small jaunts onto the show floor) indicates that Samsung’s focus at CES this year is on the internet of things. After it spent $200 million to acquire SmartThings, we’re expecting to hear a lot from SmartThings CEO Alex Hawkinson about how Samsung plans to connect every single device in our lives. And, to be sure, Samsung will announce new models of every single device in our lives; we’ll be hearing a lot about 4K TVs, PCs, "seductive TVs," and washing machines with sinks in them. Oh, and yes — Samsung has its own propensity for getting pretty weird at press conferences.

5:00PM PT: Sony

Sony’s CES keynotes tend to flip between straightforward product announcements — "here are 40 new 4K TVs" — and amazing glances at the future of technology. Last year, we got a look at Sony’s long-term plan for Life Space UX, which turns windows into screens and screens into windows; we’re expecting something equally wild from Kaz Hirai when he takes the stage this year.

6:30PM PT: Samsung Keynote

With its announcements out of the way, Samsung’s CES keynote is a chance for the company to talk about the future. Boo-Keun Yoon, Samsung Electronics’ CEO, will certainly have a lot to say about what's next for the company that makes everything.

8:00PM PT: Mercedes-Benz

While we were looking at smartphones and tablets, CES was quietly becoming a car show. That’s why Dieter Zetsche, the Chairman of the Board at Mercedes-Benz, is given prime billing at CES. He’ll be talking about self-driving cars, mostly — but we’re hearing there’s an insane new concept car coming, too. We’ll try and steal it, I promise.

Tuesday, January 6th

8:30AM PT: CES Keynote

Let’s just be honest: if you’re going to skip a keynote at CES, this is probably the one to miss. Gary Shapiro, CEO of the CEA (the trade association that puts on CES), will be talking with Mark Fields, the CEO of Ford, about the future of both their industries. This keynote tends to be a lot of prognostication and not a lot of news — but it is two smart people talking about the future of the industries they have real power to change. So when they prognosticate, we listen.

11:00AM PT: Audi

Audi’s always at the front of car technology, whether it’s connectivity or headlights, and it always has interesting things to say at CES. There will be new cars, there will be lasers headlights, and we’re hearing rumors that there might be a surprise or two as well.

4:30PM PT: Intel

Intel was the surprise event of last year: instead of announcing chips and speeds and specs, the company showed off an always-listening headset, a self-sufficient smartwatch, and a plan to make every device a smart device. Intel may have been late to the mobile revolution, but it proved last year it’s going to stay at the front of whatever’s coming next.