The sparkling Strip, non-stop action, casinos, shows, world-renowned restaurants; Las Vegas is in a class of its own. Add to the equation 9.8 million square feet of meeting and exhibition space and there are some groups who will look no further when planning annual meetings and trade shows.
How do planners who bring events back to Vegas year after year keep them fresh? Most agree there is a great variety of options to choose from. From new shows and restaurants to new hotels that are destinations unto themselves, Vegas continually evolves.
Keeping things fresh in Las Vegas can be especially challenging for Arlington, VA-based Karen Chupka, senior vice president of events and conferences for the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The International Consumer CES, the world’s largest trade show for consumer technology, started in 1967 in New York and moved to Las Vegas in 1978. The CES is held every January in Las Vegas and features 2,500 exhibitors and more than 120,000 attendees.
“Being a technology show, some of our industry members have been at other Las Vegas shows four or five times throughout the year,” she says. “Some have a love-hate relationship with Las Vegas. They have the attitude, ‘Vegas, again?’”
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Chupka finds Las Vegas to be a destination where it’s easy to get things done. “It’s convenient, has an abundance of space, built-in entertainment possibilities, and is so easy to get to,” she says.
These are especially attractive attributes to Chupka who leads a team of 30 who work full-time on the show. They start planning the program that entails up to 30 different hotels 16 months out. It is a vital show to the city, as $119.3 million is injected into the local economy when the attendees roll into town.
“This was especially important in recent years as other shows were dropping off; we were still bringing in a strong audience with strong participation,” says Chupka.
Over 120,000 attend the show, coming from 130 different countries. “People appreciate the time zone here and the fact that there is always something open. No one will have the feeling that ‘I haven’t eaten in 36 hours because of my flights and now there is nothing open.’ Las Vegas is a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week, destination,” adds Chupka.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is constantly looking for ways to help planners, says Chupka. “Most recently, they allowed our attendees to drop their bags off at the hotel and made arrangements for them to get to the airport so they didn’t have to deal with the luggage while they attended the last day of the show,” says Chupka. “This allowed our attendees to squeeze in as much as they could.”
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
The Awards and Recognition Association (ARA) has had its annual convention in Las Vegas for the past 27 years, since 1983.
“They love Las Vegas,” exclaims Kay V. Granath, CMP, CAE, director of meetings and conventions for Association Management Center, a Glenview, IL-based full-service association management company, that plans the event. “It has that buzz that something new is always going on. In its own right, Las Vegas keeps things fresh.”
The convention attracts anywhere from 4,000 to 5,000 attendees from all over the world, predominantly from North America. The trade show is always held at the convention center, and the group stays at the Las Vegas Hilton. “There is just so much to do in Las Vegas, and it always seems there is something new,” says Granath.
Is Las Vegas The Ticket?
Ticket Summit, the leading international ticket conference, was held from July 14-16 at The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino. Said to the be world’s leading ticket conference and trade show for live entertainment professionals that attracts hundreds of global business leaders, entrepreneurs, and entertainment experts in the ticket community, it has been held in the city since 2006.
Approximately 600 attended this year’s conference, says Vernon, CT-based Molly Martinez, Ph.D., Ticket Summit’s executive director. There were vendors from countries including the United Kingdom, Spain, and Singapore and attendees from Canada, Brazil, Austria, Australia, France, and Mexico.
Martinez makes a concerted effort to keep the Summit fresh. “My philosophy is to keep 25 to 30 percent of the show the same in terms of content but to make 70 percent of it new,” she says.
Attendees suggest some of the changes—each year about 150 give input. “We have people who come to the show year after year because they know it will be new,” says Martinez.
Martinez also relies on Las Vegas suppliers for ideas. “As a meeting planner, I’m glad when they reach out to me. Planning a show of this scale takes nine months to a year. I’m so busy with the logistics that I’m grateful when they send me information about things they think may be a good match for the show. In the long run, the business wins, my attendees win, and as a meeting planner I appreciate that.”
Since most Vegas shows are located inside of hotels, not independent venues, it’s even more important for hotels to communicate to meeting planners “what’s hot,” adds Martinez. “Be it communicating availability of special packages, or when a show has a new stage setting that’s even brighter and better, it’s all useful information. Meetings are a great promotional vehicle for Vegas events. The more information meeting planners have, attendees get an exciting experience and businesses get more traffic; everybody wins.”