Day 1 at the CES. I arrived at the CES show Tuesday morning after a LONG night the night before making sure that Vegas received all of my hard earned money so the city could properly function and pay its bills another day, and was immediately greeted by a huge mass of people the likes I have not seen since the huge number of bandwagon jumpers jumping off of the Indy Colt train when Peyton Manning got hurt this past year. I saw a plethora of people ranging from tech nerds, CEOS and executives walking around in $15,000 suits, men walking around in track suits, Jewish men with their Yamakas on, lots of people from China and Japan, to attractive models in tight little dresses (not that I noticed haha) all doing one thing, trying to get their badge and to get into the show to gawk and oogle at all the latest gadgetry and “techiness” that the corporate world wants the average Joe Schmo consumer to go into massive amounts of debt from and to spend billions on this year.
Having survived the hour long check in process, I made my way into the North Hall, which can only be described as the size of Mount Olympus X infinity. I wondered around in a daze for a while, checking out all of the wonderous sights, until I started to get my bearings and decided it might be a good time to find Bob and the MMRF exhibit they share with Alcatel-Lucent. I made my way through a second giant hall, with the super catchy name of wait for it…..the Central Hall, only to then find out I needed to walk the length of a football field or 100 and get to a THIRD HALL, aptly named the South Hall, to finally get to my goal. I tried to contact Bob but to no avail, but I wandered over there anyway. Of course as luck would have it, I didn’t recognize anyone as Bob and Kira were not around at the time, so I went back to the Central Hall and checked out the ESPN exhibit along with a few others. Finally, I heard back from Bob and made the long trek (after gassing up on some cold and not very appealing Quiznos) back to the South Hall. There I found Bob and Kira and I have to say seeing them was like seeing two angels in the light after seeing literally 10’s of thousands of people for the previous 3 hours and not knowing a soul. Bob was looking very sharp in his rather expensive European suit and after having recently lost some weight, and Kira was looking lovely as usual. Me? At this point my eyes were probably the shade of the red couch in my hotel room I am looking at while writing this, and my body felt like I had the much hyped bird flu ala 2009, but I was energized and excited to see everyone. I was then introduced to Richard Lagani-Exec VP, who I must say was looking rather dapper himself in his blue pin stripped suit. I was immediately struck by what a friendly guy he was, and after getting to talk to him a while, I saw what a very smart man he is as well. Bob is lucky to have him on his team. I can say that about everyone I met though.
After looking around the exhibit and checking things out, I noticed the Kodak booth and asked Bob about them and his relationship between the two companies, and he said basically that things could not be better, they are selling product at a good rate, and he was VERY happy with the relationship. So I hope that that settles the Kodak question in some people’s minds, including my own. Kodak seems to be here for the duration. I then walked over and talked to an Alcatel-Lucent rep who explained the entire TeleConsult system to me and what it did, and I must say I was pretty impressed. He then gave a live demo (while it was being filmed by MMRF-sorry but I forgot the guys name filming it). Basically it involved the Alcatel rep doing a few exercise moves, an upright row and a lateral move, which were then shown via a stick figure on a TV screen with the various joints being illustrated. (the right side TV in the pic I posted) The software then analyzed the info received and told the patient what he was doing right or wrong during the exercise, his vital signs, and some other health info relating to the movements. That info was then transmitted to his therapist in real time, who could analyze what he did right or wrong and make suggestions on what he can do to improve his health from whatever injury he suffered. So basically this allowed someone undergoing physical therapy to do it while in their home, while at the same time getting the teaching/instruction along with the health analysis needed to heal and get better. Finally the third step of this was everything was then instantly uploaded into the patients MMRF MyMedicalRecords account, where the patient could then store the info and go back to it for reference as needed. I could see this being a big plus for the average everyday guy at home, as well as the bigger hospitals and Doctor clinics around the world. Good stuff.
So, after hanging around for another hour or so, myself, Bob, Kira, and Richard L all made the long trek back to the main North Hall where we visited the 2nd, smaller, MMRF/Lucent-Alcatel booth that had some MMRF brochure and pamphlets, along with some more MMRF people manning the booth. We then went to the hotel and we all had a drink or two and were able to just talk in a relaxed and comfortable setting. We were joined by another Richard who now works for the company in the prepaid card area, AJ (very nice guy), and another EXTREMELY SHARP man who just flew in from Aspen and who is helping with their various patents. I won’t give his name because I am not sure how he is employed by the company, but needless to say the guy appears to be quite an asset. (liked his ski jacket btw) Of course the people there were very careful about what was said in front of me, but I was able to glean a few interesting tidbits. One, these people care…a lot. They care about their company, the shareholders, their image to the outside world, and finally they care about what is said about them and the company. Some, in regards to that last part of the statment….more than others, but they are all pretty much aware what is written about them, especially on this board. Bob especially really takes to heart what is written here. Not in a way that will affect how he runs the business, he will do what he has to do, but what struck me was just how wrong he feels some of what is written here is. But I feel that will drive him to prove the critics wrong even more, as he has been fighting the “fight” his entire life I am sure. I won’t use any of the exact quotes he said, but I can tell you that his number one goal, and I know this is cliché but I was told this time and time again, was increasing shareholder value. Does that mean there won’t be bumps along the way? Of course, just look at the past year. But I think the long term goal is still the same….to make everyone a gazillion dollars. Which is why while I understand some having an issue with the proposed JER transaction, if it comes to fruition this imo is just a stepping stone onto bigger and better things. A way to bring in some much needed cash while bridging the gap between their next move. And I just want to reiterate again that Bob has surrounded himself with some very smart people. I am talking Harvard Business grads, patent lawyers and experts, guys with a strong background in prepaid cards and PHRs and insurance. It is NOT your typical penny stock company that may have a CEO who may or may not have a degree from the Univ. of Phoenix School of Business and a trillion shares to sell. This is a company that is very much shaped (both in structure and manpower) and run like a Fortune 500 company. VERY very rare these days on the OTC and I know they hope, and I do as well, they aren’t on that market very much longer.
Also, I asked about the various patent PR’s and all of the confusion on what they mean. Basically, what I got from it is of course the first patent does not cover faxing a medical record. We were all fixated on the word FAX. You can’t patent something so broad. So if someone wanted to fax a document to their doctor, the patent does not apply. What the patent does cover is the PROCESS of FAXING or UPLOADING a PHR to ANY PHR system. So if a person or company is using another PHR system besides MMRF’s, if something is faxed or uploaded to that system, it will either violate the patent or, if there is an agreement between MMRF and that particular company, MMRF gets royalties. I guess I don’t need to tell you how potentially big that could be down the line. All you would really need is the 5 biggest fortune 500 companies involved in PHR’s having a licensing agreement with MMRF, and it could set up MMRF for good without potentially ever having to sell another MMPro, or a candy bar for that matter, again (not that that would happen). Just the patents and royalties from them alone could be worth $hundreds of millions or more. In fact this was discussed in a general sense and it was the consensus that down the line, this will be an absolute goldmine for MMRF. We sat and talked for a while longer about various things, and then they all had to head to a private dinner with the Alacatel-Lucent people, so we walked out to the lobby where they went to go get ready in their rooms and I went back to my hotel for another fun night in Vegas. I am off now to the CES for day 2 and will try and update either from the floor there or when I get back.
