Vegas Observations

Wherein I am reminded that I hate Las Vegas

I am onsite at our major conference and exhibition, that is being held in my least favorite place on the planet, Las Vegas. I had a short-ish flight yesterday, catching a 9:30M flight to get me in before lunch time. I grabbed a cab and headed to my hotel, the Luxor. If you are unaware it is the Egyptian themed property on the strip.

Fun fact, the top of the pyramid is a super high output xenon discharge lamp that is so bright it is the most visible single thing from space. Yay.

All my peers told me it is a shithole, the Motel 6 of the strip, and that I should have picked a room elsewhere. But it was cheap, and the rooms are pretty inexpensive (our group rate is $108 plus $30 of various fees per night), and it is fine.

I landed, grabbed a taxi from the cab rank, and got stuck in this insane line to check in. It took 45 minutes to check in. Boo.

Dropped my bag, and I was starved. I sauntered over to the food court and grabbed a burger, fries, and since I am in my least favorite place on the planet, I spoiled myself with a chocolate shake. It was yummy, but it was an eye-popping $35 before the tip.

Remember when Vegas was just the place that you went to gamble? You could get package deals for airfare, 4 nights, for a couple that were less than $500, and on the gaming floor drinks were free, and buffets were dirt cheap. Alas, in the last 15 years or so, they have unleveled their game, and become more than a den of iniquity, separating people from their money in the games, but to charge you $75 to see the Bodies exhibit,

Sure, some of this is inflation, related to increased supply chain and labor costs. I get that. But alas, like a Disney resort, everything here is designed to separate people from their cash. And there are a LOT of people to reach into their wallets to grab cash. Our even is projected to bring more than 21 thousand souls here from Sunday through Thursday. And because it is Vegas, there are plenty of people who bring their significant others and that means more $$$.

So, I got my beaucoup bucks lunch, and waddled my way down to the convention center (for the record, the MGM ecosystem has not just one, but TWO convention centers) to grab my badge and to connect with friends I hadn’t seen face to face in over 4 years.

Of course, to get there I have to walk betwixt the Luxor and Mandelay Bay where the convention center is, and to get there I had to walk through the “gaming” areas of both of these casinos.

And as I am walking through I am assaulted by the odor of cigarette smoke. That’s right, you can still light up on the casino floors.

That was (and is) awesome.

We had the usual pre-event rah-rah session, and a group dinner. Of course, that was at a different casino/hotel, The Venetian, that was about a 15 minute cab ride, and like all trendy spots, it was LOUD. I had one awful glass of red wine (it was very sweet, thus designed go down easy, and get you wasted fast) before switching to club soda¹. Grabbed some admittedly good food (the theme was street tacos, and it was yummy) had some great conversations, but due to the volume of ambience in the venue, I was beginning to destroy my voice.

Bad call, I have 4 days of staffing the booth and talking to literally hundreds of people about our offers.

Ugh.

I get back to my room to unwind, and to knock off for an early evening (by Vegas standards).

The real reason for this post, the one thing from Vegas’ seed past that carries through to this day: No clocks. Since the city never sleeps, the old tactic of not having visible public clocks, so nobody is reminded what time it is if they don’t glance at their watches. Likewise, this is the first room in a long time that i have been in that didn’t have a clock radio.

I have three more nights before I can get home.

1. I used to drink a LOT in my dim past at these events, but as I approach late middle age I just don’t recover so well, thus I am mostly a tea-totaler these days.

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