CONTENTS...

1. Increase Your Staff By Several Hundred

2. Pablum-Free Guest Speakers

3. Be Flexible

4. Explosive Entertainment

5. Ask About Your Neighbors

6. Create Aura On A Budget

7. You Can’t Have It All – Not Even In Vegas

The entire city is dedicated to the concept of bringing large and small groups to visit. Meeting planners arrive with agendas full of fun, incredible entertainment cravings and corporate mandates for trade show and meeting success. The end result will be different for each of them, but the city is ready for whatever you want to accomplish.

- Valerie Moon
Director of Sales
Excalibur Hotel Casino

1 - Increase Your Staff By Several Hundred...

Once you have settled on where to stay, that resort’s meeting planning services staff works for you. You have increased your staff by several hundred people. Take advantage of it. As Excalibur Hotel Casino Director of Sales Valerie Moon states:

“Meeting planning is a bit of an art. It’s also something that the Las Vegas resorts do exceptionally well. They have an exceptionally trained staff geared to recommend the best-case scenarios and proud to disclose glowing letters of recommendation from satisfied customers. Ask for referrals, suggestions, ideas, concepts and advice.

The hotel team becomes your new team, dedicated and committed to the outcome that you require based on your budget and the business end of what needs to be accomplished.”

...Or Add Just One

Using some of your budget on a Las Vegas-based concierge service increases the chances of success and often can save you money.

“With more than 60 resorts to choose from and world-class restaurants opening at an unbelievable rate, where do you begin to plan a successful Las Vegas group event? With local knowledge,” says Michael Gasta, Vice President of America’s Guest, a Las Vegas-based company that helps groups with site selection, contract negotiation, catering, space planning, entertainment and more.

3 - Be Flexible

You can come out ahead by not booking too far in advance, says Gasta. Flexibility in dates and even what resort you’re willing to stay in can warrant better rates, free meeting space, more upgrades, spa and show comps and VIP airport pickups.

Make Las Vegas’ consolidation work for you. If the Meetings by Harrah’s group can’t fit you into Caesars Palace, the company owns five other world-class resorts in the city and will work to keep your business. Also, if your group is staying at the the Flamingo, Harrah’s is happy to help you switch things up by getting everyone over to Caesars for an evening reception and dinner, or over to the Rio for a VIP event at the tony Voodoo Lounge.

4 - Explosive Entertainment

Things blow up real good in Las Vegas. There’s nothing like a casino implosion to entertain a group of salesmen with time on their hands. The Stardust closed last year and is scheduled to be imploded in March. Much bigger bangs occurred regularly near Las Vegas during the Cold War when Nevada served as a nuclear weapons research and testing site. The Atomic Testing Museum, located just minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, portrays that history with first-person narratives, large artifacts, environmental recreations and the Ground Zero Theater where you can experience what an atomic test explosion was like. The U.S. Department of Energy provides free tours of the actual test site 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas on a monthly basis. Group events can be scheduled. Visit www.nv.doe.gov/nts/tours.htm for more information.

5 - Ask About Your Neighbors

Drew Varga was one week into his sales job for Las Vegas Hilton in 1990 when he discovered that Bally’s (a Hilton property) had booked L.A. Guns and Metallica, two heavy-metal rock bands, into the Event Center right next to a banquet room that Chevrolet had reserved for entertaining 300 top car dealers and their spouses for the evening.

“This was a high-end cocktail party with boats and minks on display that these six-figure salespeople could redeem points for,” Varga recalls. “We split the hallway to and from the ballrooms. It was half goth hard rockers, half button-down gentlemen with their wives. We muffled the sound from the concert by using 10 layers of ceiling-to-floor theater curtain that we had on hand, but the floor in the ballroom still shook a couple of times from the 105 decibels cranking in the Event Center. Security carried a drunk out of the concert hall while symphonic music played next door for the dealers.” The morale of the story, says Varga, now a Vice President of Group Sales for Las Vegas Meetings by Harrah’s: “Find out who will be sharing space with you – they may have roadies!”

6 - Create Aura On A Budget

A visually stunning gala is talked about for weeks. Working directly with a décor company instead of going through a DMC or hotel event coordinator will save you money, advises Remi Beckmann of LTeventions, a Las Vegas-based full-service event design, décor and production company (www.lteventions.com). Her tips for setting the mood without setting you back:

• Centerpieces create the largest impact, so spend there first. Non-floral pieces are typically less expensive than their floral counterparts and you can reuse them in other events.

• Specialty linen is a big hit and adds color to the entire room.

• For buffets, check with the hotel to see if they have décor items they will include with the catering.

• Specialty lighting also makes a big impact, such as uplighting the walls or stage.

• Budget for a photographer to take on-demand photos so people have a memory of the event to take home. It’s never too early to drive interest in next year’s incentive trip. Your décor company can create a backdrop for the photographer that matches the theme of the event.

7 - You Can’t Have It All – Not Even In Vegas

Set realistic expectations for what you want to achieve. If your group is coming for business, blend it with a good mix of fun. You want to stir up excitement, especially for incentive trips, but set a tone of professionalism from start to finish. And don’t over-promise.

“The overall experience will be disappointing for everyone if plans aren’t disclosed in an absolute and understandable format,” says Excalibur’s Valerie Moon. “Someone may think they can see every Cirque show in town only to find out when they arrive that tickets have been sold out for weeks. Golf courses can be booked in high season –all 100 of them. Pools at some hotels close in the winter months. And not every restaurant allows you to eat dinner in shorts and flip flops.”

You can’t “do” Vegas in 2 1/2 days. Which is a good thing. After all, you want to have something for your salespeople to shoot for next year.