FEATURESTORY

by Paul Nolan

It's late afternoon and Gary A. Sanders is pacing across the Raphael Ballroom at Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.

In a few hours, Sanders, the chairman and CEO of Wackenhut Corp., a Florida-based provider of security and safety services, will honor the company's top salespeople and sales managers for 2005. At the moment, however, the room's 10 round dinner tables are bothersomely bare and there are kinks to be worked out with the sound system.

The company's Gold Club celebration, an annual black-tie affair for 70, features a slide presentation, music, and Sanders' financial report for the previous year and a pep talk for what lies ahead.

The event is planned with the meticulousness of the Rolling Stones concert that is happening later that night farther down the Strip at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Next to Sanders is Ilene Greenfield, the company's senior director of operations administration, and the person primarily responsible for putting the four-day Gold Club celebration together.

Greenfield perks up when Bellagio event services workers wheel in tables loaded with centerpieces of petite orchids and dogwood branches. "This is my favorite part of the day - when all of the stuff I ordered arrives," she says.

At Your Service

Sanders and Greenfield are visibly nervous that everything work according to plan - after all, executives from Wackenhut's England-based parent company have flown in for the event. But they also are comforted by the success of past Gold Club celebrations at Bellagio and the relationship they've established with the resort's group services salespeople. This year's event marks Wackenhut's fifth straight in Las Vegas, four of which have been held at Bellagio.

"There is nothing we can ask that they cannot do," says Sanders. "What's phenomenal is they have people coming at things from all different directions. It's very well coordinated and it just happens."

Small Groups, Big Business

Wackenhut has discovered an important but lesser-known fact about staging corporate meetings and incentive events at Las Vegas resorts: The city loves whopper events that can fill a resort in one shot, but their bread and butter are small groups.

In other words, you don't have to be Microsoft to receive red-carpet treatment. Bellagio's average group booking is 88 rooms, says Gail F. Fitzgerald, vice president of hotel sales and marketing. Indeed, being small and flexible can give you a leg up with Las Vegas resorts (see our tips). And all of the city's resort casinos are fully staffed with in-house event planners eager to help executive assistants like Greenfield produce a memorable experience.

Our special report on Las Vegas will help you receive similar first-class service and provides insights for gaining top value while avoiding common mistakes.
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