CONVENTION CENTER SPOTLIGHT
EAT Feel the “Rat Pack” presence and hear the fabulous Sonny Charles (from the Checkmates) sing with Pia Zadora at Piero’s Italian Cuisine, 355 Convention Center Dr, or time-travel back to vintage Vegas at the Italian American Club, 2333 E. Sahara. Jazzin’ Jeanne Brei & the Speakeasy Swingers (yes, yours truly) have the longest running show there (eight years) with the “Swanky Supper Club Soiree” on the first Thursday of each month: free dance lesson at 6:15, band plays 7-9, Vegas showgirls floor show at 8 p.m. It’s Dixieland music on March 1, come and l’aissez les bon temps roulez!
Las Vegas Convention Center
T
he Las Vegas Convention Center has been the number one trade show destination in North America for 23 consecutive years based upon the Trade Show News Network annual ranking of the top 250 trade shows in the industry. Also known as the World Trade Center Las Vegas, a designation in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association and through a license with the World Trade Center Association, it is a 3.2 million square foot facility located within a short distance of nearly 150,000 guest rooms and is one of the busiest facilities in the world. In addition to approximately two million square feet of exhibit space, 145 meeting rooms (more than 241,000 square feet) handle seating capacities ranging from 20 to 2,500. Of TSNN’s top 250 trade shows, 54 are in Las Vegas. In 2016, Las Vegas hosted nearly 22,000 meetings, conventions and trade shows, which directly supported an estimated 54,800 jobs paying $2.3 billion in wages and salaries. Including indirect and induced impacts, the LVCC’s attendees generated $2.7 billion in economic impact throughout the local economy.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, the governing body of the LVCC, has determined it is critical that the convention center be expanded and renovated to continue to lead the industry, to meet the current needs of its tradeshow customers and to attract new shows in the future. In 2015, during Phase One of the LVCC District Project, $182.5 million was spent to buy the Rivieria Hotel and Casino (which was imploded in 2016). Construction of the 1.4 millionsquare-foot expansion in Phase Two will add 600,000 square feet of new exhibit space and the accompanying meeting space and service facilities and is projected to be complete by the end of 2020 at an anticipated project budget of $860 million. The last phase consists of the complete renovation of the existing convention center facility, including the addition of new meeting space to appropriately serve the current exhibit space footprint with a projected completion date of 2023 and an anticipated budget of $540 million. The phased approach will ensure that no business will be displaced during the construction and renovation. For more info, visit www.lvcva.com.
SLEEP With more than 150,000 hotel rooms to choose from in Vegas, I love the themed hotels (like the Luxor, the NY-NY, the Venetian, the Bellagio, Caesars and Paris). But people don’t come to Vegas to sleep, so it’s the gondola rides, painted ceilings and St. Mark’s Square replica complete with Renaissance-themed entertainers that makes the Venetian a must-stop. The Bellagio Conservatory and fountain shows are not to be missed, the halfscale Eiffel Tower at Paris, oh, there’s SO many not-to-be-missed resorts--after all, we have14 of world’s 25 largest hotels!
PLAY Apres gambling, the choices are endless– things you can’t do back home include: drive a bulldozer at Dig This; test out a Lamborghini on the LV Motor Speedway; zipline above the Fremont Street Experience; visit the Neon Boneyard, Mob Museum, Springs Preserves, the Lion Habitat Ranch, Gold & Silver Pawn Shop; tour Wayne Newton’s Casa de Shenandoah; dog-fight at Sky Combat Ace, take a circus trapeze class at Trapeze LV; throw an axe at Axe Monkey; take a jeep or Hummer tour of Red Rocks, play at the Pinball Hall of Fame, check out the Cactus Garden at Ethel M’s Chocolate Factory, destroy a room at the new Wreck Room, etc., etc.
70 March/April 2018 Exhibit City News
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