For those who have been to Las Vegas, most would agree that it’s a trip you do over 2-3 days and no more. Vegas is known for its shows, casinos, party pools and nightlife. It’s a different experience when being there to execute a large five day conference. Arriving a few days earlier for load in makes for a long stay in the sin city.
Do you think you can handle ten days in Las Vegas?
North Events has had the opportunity over multiple summers to produce a large multi-day conference for a global tech company in Vegas. Participants come from as many as 80 countries and some traveling for the first time. I’d imagine those traveling out of country must be a bit overwhelmed stepping onto the Vegas strip.
Many of the hotels were originally built with priority on their casinos so as you enter the hotel that is what you find first. Once business travelers started selecting Vegas for their team meetings and conferences, new hotels began to have a higher focus on where their meeting space was and how attendees would get there. If you’re staying in the older hotels, coming down early mornings to start event setup you’re often forced to walk through the smoky casino to get to the meeting space. Not exactly how you want to start your work day.
Hotels in Vegas are massive and the strip traffic is packed so when moving from one area to another you need to carefully plan commute time. Our conference was in conjunction with another larger conference which required attendees to stay in hotels assigned by region. This meant many of our attendees were not staying at our meeting venue. We built transition time in our agendas and planned for later starts in general sessions.
Vegas meeting spaces are also very large and we once had to split our conference amongst two hotel properties, The Venetian and Mirage. While they are just across the street from one another it’s not a quick walk. I clocked at minimum 30,000 foot steps a day. Good thing we packed those band aids in our event kit.
Vegas has a lot to offer attendees outside of the conference. Delicious restaurant venues. Lots of great shows including musical acts or cirque performances. A quick trip over to Freemont Street offers great people watching and even ziplining. Bring your money because Vegas is not cheap. You can expect to go over that per diem each day at dinner. If you see a show, do not miss out on Absinthe.
