Vegas Means Business
Author: "Lucky Chuck" Kapelke
July 2009
Columns
Viva Las Vegas meetings!
Just as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority officially returned to its tried-and-true slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” the LVCVA’s convention team kicked off a new program designed to help meeting sales teams be more accountable.“We’re launching a city-wide initiative to train properties to help customers measure the return on investment for their meetings,” explains Chris Meyer, vice president of convention sales for the LVCVA. “Right now, the typical conversation between a sales person and a client is about rates, dates and space. We want to add a discussion about the objective of their meeting, because right now, everybody’s guessing.”
The new ROI program is kicking off this summer with workshops for Las Vegas convention sales teams focused on how to determine a client’s meeting objectives. In parallel, the LVCVA is developing an online tool for measuring ROI that, once completed, will allow planners to enter basic data and generate estimates of their meeting’s success along various metrics.
“People don’t conduct meetings or events just to have them,” Meyer says. “When you establish beforehand what that objective is, you are 90 percent on your way to realizing that return on investment. In times like these, everybody wants to make sure they’re spending their money wisely. We’re here as a partner to help them achieve their goals and be able to answer a CFO who says, ‘you spent this much on this meeting in Las Vegas, what did you get out of it?’”
This initiative is being launched as part of the LVCVA’s website “Vegas Means Business,” which was established in the wake of the controversy about banks using bailout money to go to Vegas. Part of the ROI program is to reduce the perception that business meetings in Las Vegas are inherently wasteful.
Know Your Group
Understanding the objectives of a group’s meeting is always a good thing to keep in mind—but this may be especially true in Las Vegas, where opinions, tastes and goals vary as widely as the groups themselves. This month alone, Vegas is playing host to ping-pong players, salsa dancers, cosmetologists and army veterans. Nearly 2,000 meeting or convention groups come into town each and every month.Just as there is no typical Vegas group, there is no single event plan that will please everyone. Take a group of retired plumbers to a posh dance club, and they may wind up frustrated that they can’t talk septic systems over the loud music.
“You not only have to consider the demographics of the group, but also the purpose of the program,” says Amy Dosa, sales and marketing manager for Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s Entertainment. “The types of things you might plan for a team-building event are different than those for a business conference.”
While no two groups (or meeting agendas) are the same, there are certain types of groups that may be useful to think about when putting together a Las Vegas program.
Vegas, Baby!
There are still plenty of people who drool the moment they hear the words “Las Vegas,” as they imagine themselves lounging around by the pool or sauntering through a casino with a cocktail in hand. While such groups are generally best left to their own (de)vices, a planner can keep such folks in-bounds by holding events such as a poker tournament, or by building in VIP treats like a game of golf or a day-long rental of a Ferrari. Depending on how far a walk on the wild side such a group wants to go, you might consider a more risqué option like a high-budget burlesque-meets-Broadway show at Planet Hollywood.“Vegas? No thanks”
Vegas has its detractors, people who simply do not have a taste for the fabricated, over-the-top fun-and-games aspect of it all. Such groups should be steered clear of the chaos of The Strip and out into the surrounding area. Options could include a trip out to historic sites like Hoover Dam or the Springs Preserve (springspreserve.org), an attractive complex built around the site of the city’s founding. Or you might consider a journey into natural areas like Red Rock Canyon through outfitters like Hike This!, or Pink Jeep Tours, which can set up team-building scavenger hunts and group events in the Valley of Fire, Eldorado Canyon, the Grand Canyon and other areas.
