Approaching Las Vegas always comes with a sense of marvel and high expectation, especially when flying in over the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam from the east.
While the city’s planners did not create these American icons (the latter’s water and electricity integral to the fruition of Vegas, of course), it would seem fitting, even feasible, if they had in this mecca of man-made monuments.
Daytime descents into McCarran are impressive enough. At night though, and whatever your vantage point—airplane seat, high-altitude nightclub, Eiffel Tower at Paris Las Vegas, Stratosphere, High Roller, or fabulous terrace suite at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas—the grid is positively electrifying.
The energy and inspiration to “go big or go home” is integral to Vegas’ design, but it’s also a mantra that the keepers of the brand have had to obey ever since first cultivating Vegas’ signature “anything is possible” personality back in the 1940s. In the aftermath of a withering recession and in the face of ongoing competitive dynamics, the current generation of brand guardians have more than met the challenge.
In kinship with Hollywood and Wall Street, Las Vegas is a larger-than-life American dynasty built on high-leverage, high-stakes, high-returns endeavors. Essential to the bet is maintaining an aura of power, mystique and invincibility: As vividly illustrated by the rusting hulk of the stalled Fontainebleau Las Vegas project, today’s gain is tomorrow’s loss—and discredit.
Yet, the unfinished 68-story monolith, virtually the last of the recession’s ghosts, is yesterday’s news. The spotlight in Vegas is now brightly back on today, and shinier still on tomorrow.
Like the portfolio wizards on Wall Street and Hollywood’s star producers and directors, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA) and its casino-resort partners, along with the Downtown Alliance and independent contributors to the Vegas experience, are making bullish, creative plans for perpetuating the city’s legendary allure.
From more agenda-boosting options than ever to transformative projects such as the Las Vegas Global Business District, it’s a future that looks anything but conventional for groups.
Trade Volume
Welcoming a record 40 million visitors in 2014 and aiming higher for 2015, Vegas, which reached another historic milestone as America’s trade show leader for the past 20 consecutive years, also has grand ambitions for its group business.
“Las Vegas hosts more meetings and conventions than any other destination on the planet,” says Chris Meyer, vice president of global business sales for the LVCVA. “We are a global brand recognized for many things, including customer service, value, variety and excitement, and the city just keeps developing in ways that make it new and exciting for groups year after year.
Every conceivable market segment has returned to Las Vegas and embraced the power of face-to-face events, according to Meyer.
“In fact, many of our top shows experienced increased or record attendance during 2014 and we feel confident that trend will continue,” Meyer says.
Affirming that optimism is the return of four of Vegas’ largest shows in 2015. These include top-ranked International CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the largest trade show in North America and synonymous with Las Vegas since 1978. According to the LVCVA, the innovation showcase is expected to draw an estimated 160,000 attendees from more than 140 countries generating an economic impact of more than $210.2 million. As Ad Age reports, expect to see more marketing and branding professionals at the event, heading to a first-time venue at ARIA Resort & Casino dubbed the “C Space.”
Rounding out the quartet is the city’s second-largest event, the automotive juggernaut SEMA Show, along with World of Concrete Exposition and ASD (Associated Surplus Dealers) LV, eighth and ninth respectively. Collectively, the four shows are expected to attract an estimated 394,000 business delegates generating nearly $518 million in non-gaming economic impact.
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With multiple other returnees in the mix, Vegas truly means business, hosting the 53 largest trade shows in the U.S. along with more than 22,000 conventions, corporate meetings and other gatherings each year. What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, as the LVCVA’s popular campaign goes, but as Meyer explains, the bureau’s continuing mission is to get the word out far and wide.
“We want to continue to grow our international visitation,” he says. “For some of our largest trade shows, the international audience is as much as 20 to 30 percent of total attendance. The LVCVA has more than a dozen international offices all around the world, and we utilize them to help promote Las Vegas as a business destination. We are also leveraging our World Trade Center designation to attract more international travelers by seeking out new business connections and exhibitors for our trade shows.”
Trade show missions are another innovative way the bureau is building its business brand and recruiting more international visitors. “We take a group of organizers from our key trade shows to international cities to seek out new business opportunities to help grow their attendance and their exhibitors,” Meyer says. “We then partner with the U.S. Commercial Services representatives in the various countries to target companies and industries that make sense to each individual show.”
Through the decades, the brand challenge for Vegas has been about going bigger than before. As futuristic as it sounds, the Las Vegas Global Business District is poised to be the biggest step forward in years.
Capital Thinking
Originally built in the late 1950s, the Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) is presently the nation’s third-largest such facility, hosting approximately 1.2 million business delegates every year and generating nearly $1.7 billion in local economic impact annually. Envisioned as the investment that will perpetuate the city’s 20-year run as the nation’s top trade show destination while establishing a strong future-ready economic platform for Las Vegas and Southern Nevada, the Las Vegas Global Business District is a multiphase development centered on the proposed $2.3 billion dollar expansion and renovation of the LVCC.
Described as a “watershed moment for Southern Nevada” by LVCVA President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter, the project’s economic potential, job growth included, were revealed in a feasibility study released last September. The two-stage LVCC expansion, the largest in its history, will increase the current total footprint of 3.2 million square feet to nearly 5.7 million square feet. Phase one includes adding 750,000 square feet of new exhibit space and 187,500 square feet of supporting meeting space, while phase two includes a 100,000-square-foot general session space and another 100,000 square feet of meeting space.
With other elements of the Global Business District including business-centric neighborhoods surrounding the convention center and a bold new transportation plan for the entire city, planners and conventioneers are invited to have a voice in the project.
“Las Vegas was built on customer service and providing the best possible experience is certainly a priority for our business delegates,” says Hugh Sinnock, vice president of customer experience for the LVCVA. “As we move forward with plans for the Las Vegas Global Business District, we value the input and feedback from our customers.”
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The LVCVA expects 2015 to be “a key year” in moving forward with the project as the bureau continues to investigate land acquisition and funding options.
With recent upgrades to the convention center, including the addition of 2,100-plus Wi-Fi access points along with a 10-gigabyte backbone, myriad other investments are enhancing visitor and attendee “connectivity” all over the city.
Strong Upsides
With 150,000 hotel rooms and counting, Las Vegas literally has beds for everyone. There are old-school classics, like the 2,079-room South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in southwest Las Vegas. This perennial association favorite offers 165,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space flexibly accommodating groups from 25 to 3,000 people, a 4,000-seat Equestrian Arena, plus 16-screen movie theater, 64-lane bowling center and Wi-Fi throughout.
Minutes from the convention center, meanwhile, the 826-room Westin Las Vegas Hotel, Casino & Spa completed a multimillion-dollar transformation of its public spaces and meeting space just last month. One block from the Strip, the property offers 15 meeting and event spaces with over 20,000 square feet of refined space.
Then there is the next wave, as upgrades, new products and other changes promise to transform the Vegas offering in a number of innovative and unprecedented ways.
Slated for completion by August 2015, the $66 million expansion and renovation of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center will boost the venue’s total space to more than 2 million total square feet, including 1.1 million square feet of exhibit space. This elevates its ranking in both categories to number five in North America.
Since 2007, the skeleton of the recession-halted Echelon project has stood ingloriously on the site of its famous predecessor, The Stardust. Unlike the Fontainebleau, however, its near-neighbor across the Boulevard, revival is at hand, in the form of Resorts World Las Vegas. Announced last year and targeting completion by 2017, the $4 billion mega-resort from Malaysian conglomerate Genting will reportedly offer 3,000-plus rooms, one of the city’s highest observation decks, live pandas and a Great Wall of China replica.
Debuting last October, the LINQ Hotel & Casino is the stylish update of the former Quad Resort & Casino. Tariq Shaukat, executive vice president and chief commercial officer of Caesars Entertainment, describes the “socially minded resort” as a “Vegas Original…designed for the changing Las Vegas customer, who is seeking authentic and social entertainment experiences that cannot be found elsewhere.” With five artful suite types in its room mix, the center Strip property offers direct access to the LINQ outdoor entertainment district and the High Roller.
Caesars is also pumping up the beat (also see “Night Moves” sidebar, page w28) with the hotly anticipated spring 2015 opening of Omnia at Caesars Palace.
In May 2014, MGM Resorts International and partner AEG broke ground on a striking new multipurpose, 20,000-seat arena. Seeking LEED Gold certification, the $375 million project will feature 50 luxury suites, more than two dozen private loge boxes and a host of pioneering new customer experiences.
Slated to open in April 2016, the arena forms part of The Park, an outdoor dining, retail and entertainment district inspired by the great public plazas of the world. Connecting MGM’s New York-New York and Monte Carlo resorts—both undergoing significant transformations of their Strip-facing areas—the eight-acre Park will be landscaped with trees, water features, seating and other elements for pure relaxation, as well as featuring exciting nighttime programming.
Longtime Meetings Focus contributor Jeff Heilman returns to Vegas for our third annual supplement coming out this June. Odds are he won’t be coming back home—way too much fun to be had.
